A recent document seems to hint that the new next-gen of consoles from Xbox and PlayStation will arrive no sooner than 2028.

On page 9 of the document in question, Sony talked about the duration of the deal that Microsoft offered them regarding Call of Duty. They mentioned that Microsoft “offered to continue making Activision's games available on PlayStation only until 2027.” They also mentioned Microsoft's comment about offering Call of Duty on PlayStation “as long as that makes sense”. Sony called this offer “badly inadequate”, a word they have previously used to describe Microsoft's offers. The document continues, mentioning that by the time Sony releases the next-gen PlayStation console at a redacted year, they “would have lost access to Call of Duty and other Activision Titles.”

It's that statement that points towards the possible year for the new next-gen consoles from both sides. Although redacted, Sony gave enough information to give a good estimate. For starters, they mentioned Microsoft's offer to keep Activision games on PlayStation “until 2027”. They then followed this up by mentioning the loss of access once the new PlayStation comes out. That means the release date for the console would be after 2027, putting the earliest year at 2028.

Microsoft actually says something similar, as they said “the next new generation of consoles are not expected to be released before the fall of 2028 at the very earliest.” This includes not just PlayStation, but also Xbox's next-gen console. This statement was in response to Sony's statement above. Microsoft said that the next generation was still years away. They also claimed that the impact Sony is talking about was “highly speculative”. Microsoft said that it does not dispute that some gamers might re-assess which consoles to buy once the next-gen consoles drop. However, “they also note that this is an event that only occurs approximately every eight years.”

Of course, this is not an actual confirmation of the next-gen console's release date. As mentioned above, these are just educated estimates based on what the documents say, as well as Microsoft's comments. We're most likely not going to get a confirmed date until a year or two before its actual release. In the meantime, let's just hope that Microsoft and Sony both have a good ending in this Activision Blizzard deal.

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