According to Naomi Matsuoka, senior vice president of Sony, the PS5 is rapidly approaching the "late stage of its life cycle." This comment may indicate the existence of the PS5 Pro or the inevitable arrival of the PS6 sooner than expected.

Sony released its latest financial report covering the third quarter of the current fiscal year, and the company revised its original sales estimates (according to Bloomberg and The Verge).

The Japanese tech giant now expects to sell 21 million consoles through March 31, 2024, down from the 25 million it originally projected during the current fiscal year. This shortfall in unit sales occurred despite the PS5's first significant discounting at retailers worldwide during last year's seasonal sales period.

However, the report is not necessarily gloomy for PlayStation. Game sales increased by about 16% (to over $9 billion) and PS5® sales increased by 8.2 million units (from 6.3 million) year over year; the launch of "Marvel's Spider-Man 2," which was announced to have sold over 10 million units, may have contributed to the sales increase, even if it was less than expected

Matsuoka.

Matsuoka confirmed that PS5 will enter the "late stage of its lifecycle" toward its fourth birthday in November, and added, "We will focus more on the balance between profitability and sales. As such, we expect the annual sales pace of PS5 hardware to begin to decline in the coming year."

Sony's expectation of a decline in PS5 console sales in the future could be a subtle hint that the much-rumored but currently unannounced PS5 Pro is on its way. After all, a refreshed version of the PS5 console would certainly impact sales of the current model. Currently, speculation about a PS5 Pro console is rife, with several credible sources suggesting that a PS5 Pro is in development.

Perhaps the most widely circulated rumor is that the PS5 Pro will launch in 2024, but unverified tipsters also claim to have leaked its specifications and potentially game-changing new features. Despite all these rumors, Sony has remained tight-lipped and has not commented on the PS5 Pro in this series of reports. For now, the PS5 Pro remains a hypothetical gaming console that has not been officially confirmed to exist.

Another way to decipher Matsuoka's comments would be to look at the PS6: a full successor to the PS5 is almost inevitable, and just last week a YouTuber claimed to know "with 100% certainty" that Sony will continue its partnership with AMD on its next flagship He claimed that he knew this and piqued the interest of the PlayStation community.

However, it will be some time before the PS6 arrives, and according to documents released when the FTC filed its lawsuit against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sony does not intend to begin development of next-generation PlayStation hardware until at least 2027 or later. PS5 will not be available for at least another three years. This means that the PS5 will likely remain Sony's main hardware for at least another three years. However, a more powerful sibling may soon step into the spotlight, as the PS5 Pro may be on its way soon.