Sony’s Playstation 4 has been a huge hit since its release back in November 2013. They have sold nearly seven million consoles worldwide and are still sold out in many places. Even with this big success Sony may not release a Playstation 5 in the future. Sony believes that the success later on down the road is going to be based on services rather than physical devices that play on optical discs or downloading them.
Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony WorldWide Studios has confirmed that Playstation is shifting to be service oriented and this could mean many things. They want to focus on delivering their products through the cloud and not require a separate device to play them. This means a TV can download an app that could allow you to stream any type of game.
Sony is about to launch Playstation Now, which will be the first attempt at streaming video games without having to use a disc or download them to your hard drive. They plan to use them on their own Playstation-branded devices and possibly on non-Playstation devices. If the service works it could be the next Netflix for video games. Sony will only make a Playstation 5 if there is a high demand for it.
I think this could be great, but the only issue I see is the cost to stream these games. Most people either own the old disc version and play them on the older systems and no one wants to pay twice for something they have. Also how fast of an Internet connection will it requires determines if it becomes a success.