Wonder if X018 has anything to do with it? If PS doesn't feel like they can compete with MS on these late events held by themselves, they don't want more comparisons about how their platform is worse than XB. They have made sure recently to address negative feedback and give the gaming community what it wants. Retro hardware and games, cross accounts, cross play, and apparently gamer tag changes soon enough. The last thing they want is people pointing out how much better the X018 event was compared to PSX, if PS feels that's very well a possibility. Just look at the E3 'who won' controversy.
With all the pro consumer goodness PS is pumping out in the second half of this year, especially recently, it's sure suspect of whether or not PS is letting games pile up for a big showing of new hardware. If that new hardware is next gen, then you want to make sure you have plenty of games in general to show, but a tonne of first party exclusives to set the tone from the get go, that PS is the ecosystem where you will get the most, highest quality, first party titles. Everyday the gap is slowly closing between PS4 and XB1 in terms of what differentiates them from each other, so making exclusives the focal point makes all the sense in the world for a PS next gen event.
My guess, new PS hardware for late 2019, maybe early 2020. Whatever games are available for that hardware (PS5?) will also be available for PS4 (Pro?), so announcing and launching it 'early' won't be a problem. Just because a bunch of those titles have been labelled as PS4 exclusives, doesn't mean anything if the new hardware is called PS4 'something'. The Last of Us was also a PS3 exclusive, and yet it made it to PS4 so...
PS1 - ! - We must build a console that can alert our enemies.
PS2 - @- We must build a console that offers online living room gaming.
PS3 - #- We must build a console that’s powerful, social, costs and does everything.
PS4 - $- We must build a console that’s affordable, charges for services, and pumps out exclusives.
PRO -%-We must build a console that's VR ready, checkerboard upscales, and sells but a fraction of the money printer.
PS5 - ^ -We must build a console that’s a generational cross product, with RT lighting, and price hiking.
PRO -&- We must build a console that Super Res upscales and continues the cost increases.
