Since the dawn of gaming, there have been a few constants that we never thought would be broken. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft will always be in competition, games based on movies will usually be crappy, and consoles come out in generations. With the release of the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, that last constant has been forever shattered. Iterative consoles are here, but do they represent the future? Will we never see a quantum leap forward with a next generation machine? Will it always be just one upgrade after another? It’s time we looked at the facts and speculate on the future of console gaming. Shifting The Playing Field: How The Industry Has Changed Until this latest generation, console releases moved at a pretty normal pace. You had the PS1, the PS2, the PS3, and now the PS4. Consoles moved at a relatively predictable pace, but in the background, there was alway this tension between console gamers and PC gamers. As consoles aged, so too did the hardware. While developers always did an incredible job of pushing the consoles to their limits, the gap between console and PC hardware has always represented an elephant in room. As the growth of PC power accelerated, this gap only widened, so it’s only fair that Sony wanted to prevent people from leaping from consoles to PC as the generation goes on. Their solution was to introduce a console that would sit alongside the PS4 within the same generation, but offer additional power that would entice hardcore gamers to stick around instead of jumping to PC. Andrew House, the boss of PlayStation, spoke with Polygon prior to the release of the PS4 Pro, and explained this reasoning behind the iterative upgrade. In the interview Andrew house said: “There’s a dip mid-console lifecycle where the players who want the very best graphical experience will start to migrate to PC, because that’s obviously where it’s to be had. We wanted to keep those people within our ecosystem by giving the very best, and very highest performance quality.” In seeking to hit the PC bar with a console, PS4 Pro doesn’t quite meet the expectation. Thus far, it’s only really focused on 4K, which is something PC gamers enjoy, but the not the sole reason people tend to gravitate to PC for gaming. Other things like frame rates, graphics, and effects are also higher fidelity on a high-powered PC. The PS4 Pro does offer more power, but with almost a year under its belt, I haven’t seen enough from it to convince gamers that it’s the better choice over a PC. This is mostly due to the fact that the console is focused primarily on 4K, which is nice, but PC power offers more than just higher resolutions. Better graphics, higher frame rates, and the option to continuously upgrade are all good reasons to choose it over consoles. Don’t get me wrong, I like the PS4 Pro and I do own one, but I don’t … Read More
PS5 Confirmed – Sony has Confirmed the PS5 is Coming
PS5 Concept Design By Danny Haymond Jr In April of 2019 Mark Cerny officially announced the PS5. The day we all hoped for! Before that Sony’s president and CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida has confirmed that there are plans for a successor to the PS4. Sony Interactive Entertainment America boss, Shawn Layden, officially confirmed that PS4 Pro won’t be the last we see of the PlayStation brand. Sony Interactive Entertainment chief exec John Kodera announced in May 2018 that the “PlayStation 4 is entering ‘final phase’ of its lifecycle.” And of course numerous sources have indicated to us the same. The PS5 is coming, it is going to happen and it will be the best damn gaming console the gaming world as ever seen! For years we predicted a 2020 release date. Let’s find out what Sony’s planning, shall we? PS5 Confirmed, 2019 or 2020? Speaking with the Financial Times, Sony president and CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, confirmed that the company has plans for a successor to the PS4. In response to questions surrounding the growing smartphone gaming market, he said quote: “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware.” While at the time he didn’t confirm the name “PlayStation 5,” this type of confirmation from a high-level executive is really all we needed to remove any remaining doubts about the future of the PlayStation brand. Another update from Sony in regards to the PS5 came from the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, John Kodera. During a 2018 Sony Corporate Strategy meeting, he told reporters that the PS4 was in the “final stage” of its lifecycle. This could have meant a lot of things, but he went on to clarify some of Sony’s intentions when it comes to the future of the PlayStation brand. Wall Street Journalist reporter Takashi Mochizuki offered everyone a hint with a tweet from the event: SIE head Kodera told analysts and investors that the period until March 2021 would be when PlayStation to "crouch down once" to grow further in the future. hmmmmmm. — Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) May 22, 2018 Sony is planning on biding their time so they can really come out with something spectacular. The amount of time seems to be about three years from 2018, leading up to March 2021. It’s impressive that Sony is showing restraint and not rushing the PS5, but 2021 seems like a long time to wait for a new console. Since consoles typically release in the holiday months, we believe the PS5 will come out in November of 2020. This would be slightly before the period described by John Kodera, but it’s less likely that Sony would wait until holiday of 2021 to release a new console. Of course, there’s always the chance that the PS5 comes out in March of 2021. The Nintendo Switch had a similar release date in the beginning of the year and has since enjoyed impressive sales. This would be a major change from prior releases, but it’s … Read More