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
Sony President Casts Doubt on PS5’s Future in a Newly Revealed Interview
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