When will the PS4 be discontinued?

[Wman1996]

SuntannedDuck2 said:

For production maybe a few years for games of 2024/2025 at a guess. I assume 10-12 years is the cut off for hardware production, software maybe 12-14 and other services over time over 12-15+ depending and whatever online, particular services, bugs, security and firmware reasons.

If not counting eshops then sure or software updates. As the eshop is up hmm. Disk games ending too.

I mean Persona 5 was 2017 PS3/4, Let alone many Just Dance/Sports/Indie limited run releases for physical games. Other titles did happen but it depends. Kickstarter games took their time.

Most major first party move on, consoles stop when they do and third parties big and small differ depending on sales/their resources. I was wondering if we'd see Assassin's Creed Rogue or COD World at War Final Fronts style experiments again but I doubt it that era is likely over just like the Wii/PS2/PSP/DS sort of different releases unique to Wii (Prince of Persia Forgotten Sand is different to PS3/360 but also DS/PSP versions).

Unique to PS2, unique to PSP during the PS3/360 era of top version, unique to PSP/Wii version or PS2/Wii/PSP last gen version (Sonic Unleashed, Star Wars Force Unleashed 1, Avatar the movie game, shovelware, maybe licensed games, Lego licensed movie games had eh DS focus and the PSP ports sucked, same with 3DS/Vita and mobile at times for quality of game design and visuals).

We don't get that with Switch other than whatever mobile games happen and do or don't go to Switch/other consoles as well either so phones are the only unique platform for downgraded games these days (besides remote play/cloud streaming of course I mean when they make a native game on a phone) then older consoles eras of experiments/separate releases to focus on a platform's quirks or just being that level of power.

Vita games stopped happening on the storefront when they did, Wii U had Umbra (the one with balance board news and other stuff) in the US only near eshop closure date. But physical for Wii U/Vita/Wii/3DS happened earlier then that.

Vita remote play ended exclusivity in 2019 to go to Android then and IOS the time the backbone came out. With physical console production 2 years before carts, remote play after that (as well as the transfer of PSP/Vita to PS3 support was cut off in the last firmware update).

Storefronts for PS3/Vita were postponed and are still activate to buy/re-download. Unlike the Nintendo/Xbox stores for re-download or in 360 case will go down in 2024.

Online hmm. Well certain ones have and certain online pass games likely barely ever get played. Other regions around the world still benefit besides private fan servers for PS2/3/Wii/DS games. So while 360/OG Xbox/PS2/Wii/DS have gone down for most official games some Wii games I think may be up still I mean COD Black Ops went down this year a few months ago. Wii U/3DS will go down for Nintendo's games and many Ubisoft did on Wii U cut online support.

Black Ops 2 and Ghosts maybe still be online for Wii U, they are for PS3/360 I assume when you see videos covering it same as Wii U, no idea about others. Indie multiplayer always is hard to tell as not many buys them so you never hear about them.

I think the fact that Switch is weaker than PS4 and Xbox One while Switch 2 will probably be on par or better than them helps software for the foreseeable future for both PS4 and Xbox One. We'll still see some family games and indie titles come to the PS4 and Xbox One even when more mainstream or spec-heavy titles more or less completely dry up from late 2024 onward. 

If PS4 isn't already discontinued it will be discontinued in 2024 or early 2025 I'm thinking. PS4 probably won't get its last game release until around 2028-2030. Even the PS3 with its bizarre architecture got Shakedown Hawaii in August 2020 (its final release) and FIFA 19 in 2018. 

For now, the fact that PS4 games are playable on PS5 means there are still plenty of indies that come out that don't have PS5 versions. That will dry up eventually, but not soon.