NPD Analyst Mat Piscatella is well known among gamers not only for delivering the statistics firm's monthly analysis on the United States' gaming market but also for providing relevant insight on the business workings of the industry.Following today's Sony Corporate Strategy Meeting, in which PlayStation President John Kodera mentioned that the PS4 is entering the final phase of its life cycle Piscatella shared his prediction for the launch date of the next console by Sony. According to the analyst, it isn't coming before the fall of 2020.Interestingly, Piscatella also expects the pace of incremental upgrades like PS4 Pro and Xbox One X to accelerate within the next generation.

Earlier today Piscatella also commented on the fact that some appeared surprised by Kodera's statement.

At the moment there have been no relevant rumors or leaks about the PlayStation 5, which appears to support Piscatella's prediction. In the meanwhile, PS4 shipped 79 million units as of March 31st.

Personally, I tend to agree with Piscatella's forecast, at least on the year. At the moment Sony Interactive Entertainment is in a position of absolute leadership on the console market. It's difficult to envision them being too eager to abandon that position of strength by resetting the competition with a brand new generation, restarting from zero installed base.

In the meanwhile, we're still in the PS4 generation and if don’t have one you can grab your unit on Amazon since there are still plenty of great games left to enjoy.