Former PlayStation Boss thinks Sony has hit a hardware roadblock

[WYP]

PlayStation 6 can't just be a more powerful PlayStation 5, Shuhei Yoshida claims.​

Read more about PlayStation's hardware challenges.

 

[Dicehunter]

Their new hardware implementation should be interesting, Software optimization is also key, Something I wish devs for PC would start doing again.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I think this was obvious even with PS5/Xbox Series. They had Zen 2 at launch but just a week prior (iirc it was sometime before in 2020) Zen 3 launched. Cheaper hardware setup by an oddly sized SSD. They still lost money.

If they do it again like usual they will lose money at launch. PlayStation's problem is there subscription offerings are not as strong or common as Xbox game pass. It's a riskier gamble for them. They have a couple years before ps6 to change things around but hardware efficiency alone (ie better graphics or bigger games) isn't enough. Sony isn't known for quick changes so to me it does instill confidence in any sort of large hardware leap.

I guess TLDR is I agree with Mr. Yoshida lol

 

[Dicehunter]

I think this was obvious even with PS5/Xbox Series. They had Zen 2 at launch but just a week prior (iirc it was sometime before in 2020) Zen 3 launched. Cheaper hardware setup by an oddly sized SSD. They still lost money.

If they do it again like usual they will lose money at launch. PlayStation's problem is there subscription offerings are not as strong or common as Xbox game pass. It's a riskier gamble for them. They have a couple years before ps6 to change things around but hardware efficiency alone (ie better graphics or bigger games) isn't enough. Sony isn't known for quick changes so to me it does instill confidence in any sort of large hardware leap.

I guess TLDR is I agree with Mr. Yoshida lol

It seems from a laymans point of view that Sony bring out new hardware but 6-12 months before release some vastly more powerful component for the same price or cheaper is available. Zen 2 was a big step up from Jaguar but Zen 3 was another big step up from Zen 2 and Zen 2 still saw devs running into various limitations.

 

[WYP]

Zen 3 was a big leap over Zen 2. Specifically, the unified L3 caches across the 8 cores were a big upgrade for gaming. Current-gen consoles missed out on that.

Sony is in for a hard time TBH. They spent years trying to get a lot of their studio to do live service multiplayer stuff. All that failed with Concord. Now they have lots of studios that have wasted time working on unreleased products. That is leaving Sony with very few 1st party game releases, which is a problem. The good thing for Sony is that Microsoft has been repeatedly slapping itself in the face with its Xbox messaging.

Better hardware will help next-gen, but Sony needs software as much as hardware. TBH, this is likely a reason behind their AMD partnership. AMD will likely launch these features before Sony can put them into a console, and devs will be able to work on these features a lot earlier.

The key to next-gen will be getting developers to adopt the feature set. That didn't happen this gen. How many games use Mesh Shaders. Even now ray tracing is not used extensively. What about other DirectX 12 Ultimate features like Sampler Feedback and Variable Rate Shading?

 

[NeverBackDown]

I think people have slightly moved beyond the traditional viewpoint of buy a console and the game. Now with all the subscriptions going around and steam games being cheaper while having a vastly superior library, makes the traditional model hard on Sony.

Even if they get new features adopted and supported (with the help of AMD) I still think it's not enough. Sony needs to be more open and supportive of day 1 IP launching on PS and Steam. That alone would help but it also may hurt them too. They have put themselves in a bad position.

 

[WYP]

I think people have slightly moved beyond the traditional viewpoint of buy a console and the game. Now with all the subscriptions going around and steam games being cheaper while having a vastly superior library, makes the traditional model hard on Sony.

Even if they get new features adopted and supported (with the help of AMD) I still think it's not enough. Sony needs to be more open and supportive of day 1 IP launching on PS and Steam. That alone would help but it also may hurt them too. They have put themselves in a bad position.

Yeah, there is no shortage of gamers who just play one game like Fortnite and almost nothing else. Some games are platforms in and of themselves. We are no longer in the old days where all games moved from game to game and all games could be "finished". Some people never move on from their favourite game.

TBH, this is the reason why subsidised consoles are dead. Sony cannot guarantee that you will buy several games to offset any losses on the console. They need to make money with console sales now, or at a minimum, not make a loss.

TBH, Sony makes a ton of money just being a platform holder. Sony gets a cut from all the spending in these live service games. Sony needs to get people to buy into their platforms. To achieve this, they need good hardware and a solid games lineup that only they can provide. This is the reason why PC games aren't launching at the same time as their PS5 versions. On PC Sony makes money selling you a game. By selling a PS5, Sony makes money selling you all of your games.

There's a lot of gamers still on the PS4 generation of hardware. You don't need anything better to play Fortnite. The gaming world has changed since the PS3 era. The traditional console model doesn't really work anymore, at least not in the same way.