Some seemingly offhanded remarks recently, by Shu Yoshida, got people asking if there would be a PS5 at all, in the wake of a PS4 upgrade.
There won't be, and I'll explain why.
Apple... iStore. Google... Google Play.
Sony doesn't have this. They don't have their own ecosystem -- instead they push the reset button each and every time they release a new console architecture. The PS4 changes all that.
Take a good look at the PS4 design -- it's the first in Sony's long console history that effectively correlates with a standard PC-style architecture. This is intentional -- they want it to be upgradable, so they can create a software ecosystem, like Android and iOS have, which can allow for hardware upgrades to play, and purchase, older software, on a per-device basis. Your old PS4 run outta gas? No sweat, PS4k is here now! Buy one, you're happy because you can transfer all your games, and some of the newer games will offer improved performance, features, and resolution on titles you probably already own.
Sony's R&D costs? Chopped considerably. Each console is nothing more than an upgrade over the old. Nothing fancy or new every seven years. And guess what? You got a mobile device with 8 x64 cores (side note: they are NOT using x86 instructions on PS4 games! They need to address 8GB of RAM!), 6-8 GB of memory (less is needed with lower res textures), and a decent GPU (GPU power could be lower, you usually just need to tune display and texture resolution, unless the game is vertex bandwidth constrained or somesuch)? No sweat, download that digital game and go!
Sony wants to be your gaming SERVICE, not merely your potential console maker every seven years. They want you INVESTED in your Sony account. They NEVER want you to switch to XBox, Apple, Google, Steam, GOG, Origin, or any other system.
On top of that, there's an even bigger reason there will never be a PS5. If you're not into hardware tech, you may not realize that current semiconductor technology is reaching its limits, and there are no affordable (i.e. reasonable) solutions which even take us much past about 2020. Hardware fabrication will stop at about 7 nm transistor gate size, and 7 nm chips will be SUPER expensive (i.e. not console-worthy). We'll be lucky to see affordable 10 nm chips (the next fab scale past the current scale of 14 nm most high-end fabrication facilities operate at in 2016) by 2020 -- they already exist, but affordable? Nope. The machines that make them cost about $1 BILLION USD *each*! Make a factory with 8-12 of those? About half the chips they made are failures? Guess how much a company has to charge to make those chips not lose money, given that the current 14 nm upgrade cost about $500M per machine, and the fab companies need to recover that, too!
7 nm will simply be beyond the typical consumer until, probably, about 2025-2030. Now think about the console life cycle -- the first consoles are spendy (remember the PS4 started at 28nm), and then they lower their price by making the consoles cheaper to make. This has traditionally come from an increase in chip production efficiency, via increasing the number of chips that can fit on a wafer (which are produced by those expensive fab machines). Sony has very likely reduced the cost of the PS4 by making the processor 1/4th the scale it was in 2013 -- allowing 4 times as many to be produced in the same amount of time (remember the fab company charges more though, because the machines that make the 14 nm chips cost a lot more than the 28 nm machines did).
Sony is smart -- they realize that, if they make a new console, it has to be considerably more powerful than the PS4, AND it has to be no more expensive than the PS4 was in 2013. If they make the chip about twice as big (see PS4k), and it costs twice as much per unit wafer area as 28 nm did, they can make a $400 console that is an upgrade from the PS4, and yet not lose tons of money in the process. If they make one four times as big, and charge $500-$600 for it, they will get tons of bad press, and lose marketshare (see: PS3 release). If they make an entire console that has that chip, 32 GB of memory, a 1 TB SSD, USB 3.1 ports, etc. etc. then they need to charge a good $1000, and they get laughed out of the market.
But wait! Can't they just do that in 4 years time, when the price of said console drops to $500-$600? Nope. Because to do that, it'd probably have to be at the 10 nm scale (SSDs and memory just won't drop all that much), and then the console is, basically, stuck at that price point for AT LEAST A DECADE, while 7 nm tech becomes affordable. Will that work? No way.
There will not be a PS5 in the foreseeable future. There will certainly be a PS4k. There will likely be a PS4k Turbo mk II, Actual 4K edition (lets face it, a doubled GPU won't do 4K for games. 1440p yeah, but not 4K), but there will probably not be a PS5, ever.
This is the "last console generation" -- that doesn't mean there won't be better consoles. Merely that they will largely resemble the current ones, unlike the past.
TSA asks what is the future for Xbox.
They clearly never did, hence why they spent so many BILLIONS on other publishers as a last resort.
They have a plan. It's to move everything toward streaming and mobile. This is just the next step.
With half of the money they spent, they could have been on the very top and the gaming industry would be way bigger than it is.. encourage developers, indies, make them grow trust them and they will deliver.
Sure, a plan to be a more hated game company than EA. Ubisoft were recently giving them a run for their money but I think Xbox have really knocked it out the park with their latest stunt.
Absolutely not, their whole plan is at odd with what MS wants
Phil wants GP to become big
MS wants to sell games and make billions
GP can’t be sustained with AAA games which take 3-5 years and 7 figure budgets. Only go put those games on GP day one. Why do you think games are coming out on other platforms?
People want a change and want Phil gone without realizing if someone new comes along they may want to change everything again so we just keep going in circles. Phil has to realize that and give clear message on the direction of Xbox
Weather the storm in Diablo Immortal with the Tempest—the eighth class making its way into Sanctuary! Starting May 23, players can make waves through Sanctuary with this dynamic new class.
Hades 2 is near perfect, and the only thing worth criticising is that some of the boons need a little rebalancing.
hmm..makes sense
The market will decide not Sony.
Absolute nonsense!
Lol you know very little about tech. 128 bit cores and below 7nm processes will exist. Costs reduce with smaller fabs as less of the silicon wafer is used. It takes money to build the process, but the chips get cheaper.
PS5 will happen. Consumers will demand it. Even if its just an upgrade. Sony Trinity project could exist though.
Gaming is moving (slowly) towards a subscription type model. The PC architecture in the PS4 was the first step in them adopting a stable, widely used ecosystem for the future.
I'm not surprised by the PS4K. A lot of people complain that the long dev cycle means that tech stays stagnant for too long. It means that a lot of PC games cannot come to consoles in the late stages of the cycle or that the version we get is vastly inferior. I'd rather have the CHOICE of an upgraded console that can play games at a slightly higher resolution or that can play the newer PC ports that the old console cannot. In the end, it means more games on the PLATFORM.
If they attract more and more pc developers to the platform, it takes the steam (pun intended) out of Valve's plans to enter the living room via the steam box.
Making sure that all current games are compatible with all future consoles is a great way to make people stick to your platform, and this is the gen during which Sony needs to make this move as they are currently dominating. No PS5 because all future consoles will be for streaming or a version of the PS4 with x86 architecture. Each time your console breaks, just buy the newest version out. Just hope this does not mean planned obsolescence coming to consoles too.
What would be nice is if consoles take on a modular approach for some things like RAM and processor for example. If it cam happen on phones, it might be possible now.