"It's launching in 2019!"
^ So say you believe this. Let's look at the timeline.
October 2018 - They post the position, mentioning specifically that the role would chart the "roadmap" for next gen marketing
November 2018 - Likely when the position would start after, I imagine, a lengthy interview process
November, December 2018 - Senior Product Manager integrates with the team and initializes marketing roadmap.
Now, since Late 2019 is the speculated window by some, let's base the following timeline off of the PS4 road to release. Both because it was incredibly successful so we don't need to assume they'd stray super far from that release strategy, but also because, like, launching one year from now doesn't leave much time for anything else.
January 2019 - The team prepares to kick off the marketing initiative, which means they need to have completed the entire roadmap and set everything up without a hitch in three months, during the holiday season.
February 2019 - The PS5 is announced in a spectacular and meticulously planned event. The marketing team started planning this while they were still finishing the concept roadmap.
March, April, May 2019 - The PS5 marketing trickles and grows in the leadup to E3 2019. All of this based on the carefully planned roadmap finalized just a month before after just a couple months of work.
June 2019 - E3 2019. The blowout. Marketing matures for not just the console itself, but the dozens of games announced/showcased with it.
July, August, September 2019 - Marketing is full throttle, proactive, as expected, and reactive to consumer response and sentiment.
October 2019 - Final pre-launch marketing blitz. Details as fine as the packaging have been finalized and everything has been going through production for some time in anticipation of a massive launch.
November 2019 - Launch. There are unboxings, massive ad campaigns, complex strategies that have taken several months to organize and must be executed with precision and flexibility.
December 2019 and beyond - Post-launch/Launch Window. This will also have been planned well in advance of launch.
Now, does anything remotely resembling the above timeline sound reasonable for an international multi-billion dollar company launching the follow-up to one of their most successful products of all time? Not to me, purposely.
I work in a marketing company but I'm not a "marketer" so I own up to my ignorance. But a new generation of consoles is likely a bigger deal logistically for a company than This Year's New Model of TV.
I think this posting lends credence to Spring 2020
at the earliest, personally. (My personal expectation is Fall 2020 but I don't feel strongly about anything other than it
not being ready for 2019.)
