My question is, if PS5 was to launch in 2019, what particular first-party software would have been ready on justifying a $499 purchase when Pro is still selling quite well at $399 MSRP? I mean what, a bunch of cross-generational titles that are anchored to OG-PS4 tech? For what purpose? A more native 4K PS4 gaming experience? And it really doesn't make any sense when PS4 (even without any official price cuts) hardware sales are still quite high, and many of their first-party teams are still in the process of releasing PS4 software this year and the next.
They could be releasing a PS5 version for those exclusives, like Ghost, DS, TLOU2 and other big 3P titles in which more power is desirable. These are only titles we know of, that doesn't include additional titles that we suspect Sony are keeping hidden as they have skipped E3 for 2019. Having a 12 month lead with a large power arc over the base systems and mid-gen refresh is solid.
We'll always have a cross generational period of transition, waiting until 2020 isn't going to stop that from happening.
This is a hypothetical that they wanted to launch 2019 but delayed to 2020. I'm fairly confident we won't see a 2019 PS5 as a result of a investor discussions.
If anything got delayed would have been Sony's attempt on releasing another streaming system (which are outlined in many patents dealing with a new streaming platform) possibly this year. But their infrastructure on supporting such a new cloud-gaming system entailing such features as cloud assisted AI, ML, physics, and so-on, would have probably swamped PSN services, which already services some 90M users. Hence, their investors meeting outlining their push on better cloud gaming services solutions. And the more likely reasoning for delaying such a system was in-lieu of a possible partnership with Microsoft towards cloud gaming. Just saying...
If we assume they delayed from 2019 to 2020, we still don't know what their plan is. So a delay is a delay. Whether they had a backup build in the works with Navi 20, or decided to keep marching with Navi 10 and customize it to meet their expectations is beyond me.
All i know is that they advertise PS5 as being Navi. No one outside the forums will be able to debate properly why 1 Navi is better than another. I doubt the performance differentials will be so pronounced to see any real difference that layman purchasers will notice.
Lets wrap up the 2019 aim (which I think got delayed to 2020)
* 12 month lead over the competition
* 2-1 head start on consoles
* launch window including most desirable exclusives
* at least 2+ years head start on exclusives from the competition even though they acquired a bunch of stuff in 2018
All of this because
a) Shareholders want to see the stock/dividend go up. The price point of Sony today is already with the 2:1 ratio over Xbox. In order to keep seeing that stock price go up, they need higher than 2:1 for the coming generation.
b) Best way to increase profits is to reduce costs; COA is lower with a key launch window of exclusives and no hardware competition and software competition
c) Establish a critical mass before the competition securing the rest of sales.