PS5 release date: New PlayStation will not arrive for at least a year, Sony says

There won't be a new version of the PlayStation until at least May 2020, according to Sony.

The company has confirmed that the PS5 won't be available during this financial year, a Wall Street Journal reporter revealed on Twitter.

Takashi Mochizuki also pointed to documents from Sony's presentation to investors, which suggested the company would not be increasing its marketing spend during this financial year, which appears to indicate there will be no big launch.

He also said the company would spend much of the extra money it had made during the last year – around $300 million – on the development of the new console.

Sony's small piece of increased clarity about the release date comes after the company gave its first in-depth details of the consoles earlier this month. As it revealed the console, it said that it would not be coming out this year – so the new announcement pushes back the possible first time the console will arrive by at least three months.

In fact, it's more likely that PlayStation won't opt to release the new console until closer to the end of the year, based on previous release schedules. That would allow the company to market it closer to the holiday season, and would give it the opportunity to show it off at the E3 event held in the summer.

In the same reveal, Sony explained for the first time the features and specs that will be inside the new console. It focused in large part on a new hard drive, which will allow the console to run far more quickly and bring a whole range of new features, alongside other technical upgrades.

Sony's new announcements came as it revealed its annual financial results, which saw the video game business help offset weaker performance in other parts of the company.

Sony reported an 87.9 billion yen ($787 million) January-March profit Friday, a reversal from the 13.3 billion yen loss racked up the previous year. Quarterly sales totaled 2.1 trillion yen ($19 billion), up 9% from 1.9 trillion yen.

For the fiscal year, Sony reported a near doubling in profit to 916.3 billion yen ($8.2 billion), up from 490.8 billion yen. Sales rose 1% to 8.67 trillion yen ($78 billion).