An industry analyst predicts a PlayStation 5 (PS5) is arriving in the market sooner rather than later. Here is why.

IDC Research Director Lewis Ward recently spoke with Gaming Bolt to give some much-needed insight on the arrival of a much better PlayStation console. In the interview, he predicted that a PS5 will most probably hit the market soon, despite the only very recent release of PS4 Pro.

According to Ward, the PS4 Pro was nothing but a marketing gimmick, with barely a performance boost from the standard PS4. That is opposed to the Xbox One X, which features a much bigger performance lift.

"It's basically a standard console refresh, but Sony tweaked a few internals and got a 10% performance boost for the Pro. Big whoop," he told Gaming Bolt. "Xbox One X is a much more fundamental redesign and it's at least 40% more potent than the PS4 or the initial Xbox One SKUs."

Ward added that Xbox One X was a fundamental re-design, calling it an 8.5-generation console, something that PS4 Pro is not.

He also said that Xbox One X will soon be able to support virtual and augmented reality content, although he believes Microsoft is still waiting for the right software before turning those features on. "And that will largely be about Win10 PC app development," he continued.

Fellow industry analyst Michael Pachter, however, believes that there is still no need for Sony to launch a brand-new gaming console.

"Sony's making so much money with the PS4 that I think they'll continue to milk it as long as they can milk it," he said.

Pachter believes the PS5 will be Sony's "real 4K device," and the company will not find the need to release it until the momentum for PS4 sales slows down.

He added that a PS5 will most likely not be in Sony's cards until 2019 or even 2020.