A PS5 release date, though still unannounced and some way off, might have got a little bit sooner this week, at least that’s what some tech websites and analysts have predicted following some sizeable Sony PlayStation announcements.

Assuming you take the departure of Kaz Hirai – who this week stepped down as president and CEO of Sony Corporation after six years at the head of the company – as nothing more than that, a departure, and not as some sort of changing of the guard there was also the latest PS4 sales figures.

As gamesindustry.biz reports, Sony’s hardware sales were down:

“Shipments of the PlayStation 4 were down, from 9.7 million units a year ago to 9 million, resulting in a slight downward trend in hardware revenue.”

In response, leading tech website ArsTechnica.com has suggested that the PS4 “may have peaked”. The report said:

“It seems likely that Sony’s annual shipments for the PS4 will never climb higher than that number based on historical analysis … With the end of 2017, the PS4 has reached the end of its fourth full year on the market, and the console seems set to begin its long decline in annual sales.”

Going one step further, the site then suggested that this ‘PS4 shipment peak’ could now start “the long countdown to the PlayStation 5” in years to come.