Game Informer recently did an interview with Lorne Lanning from Oddworld Inhabitants, and during their interview, Lorne brought up a conversation he had with Sony Worldwide Studios President, Shuhei Yoshida, during a dinner mere days before the DICE 2015 convention. In his conversation with Sony’s president, he asked him “What does the PS5 look like?” Shuhei Yoshida responded simply by saying, “You mean if…” Whoa, what does this mean for the PS5? Should we panic? Let’s discuss. Put Down Your Pitchforks and Torches, There’s More to This Alright, before you gather a mob and attack Sony’s headquarters, let’s take a step back and look at the facts. Yes, this did happen, but no, it does spell the end of PlayStation. Don’t worry, I had my pitchfork and torch ready to go when I first read about this, but I looked into it and the reality is far less daunting than most outlets may tell you. After Shuhei’s comment, Lorne asked him “Are you willing to say that on stage?” and Shuhei nodded, “Yeah, it’s an if.” Lorne went on to elaborate on what Sony’s president meant by his comment: “It was really interesting thing, he really didn’t give me a clear answer. He’s hinting at ‘we need to be more agile, none of us know what the future really looks like, so how do we adapt to it faster?’ To me that’s the way he was sort of thinking about it, which I think is the right way to think about it.” As the interview went on Lorne, made the same comparison we’ve been seeing from other gaming executives in the industry when he pointed to smartphones as an example of how the future is going to progress. As we all know, cell phones are moving forward at a rapidly expanding rate, with new models coming out much, much faster than any console we’ve ever seen. Lorne points out in the interview that the major cell phone companies are putting pressure on game developers to release their games on both mobile and console simultaneously with equal image quality. This has led publishers like Square Enix to publish on mobile first, and then go to consoles. Lorne points out that this isn’t because of better graphics, but simply a choice based on where Square’s audience is playing their games. Lorne explains the difference between consoles and cell phones at another point in the interview: ”The idea that you’re going to release a piece of technology that’s going to last for seven years into the future is becoming, I think, less and less viable even though the generations of platforms are lasting longer. So it seems like it’s in conflict.” That’s what was said in the interview, but I have my own observations I’d like to make. Give me a moment to put out the flame on my torch before I burn my house down. The PS5 is Still Coming: 4 Reasons Why I would recommend checking out the actual interview between … Read More