| DonFerrari said: The only problem is actually the availability of HW. The reason PS still kept producing and supporting PS4 base for over 2 years after release of PS5 is sales of SW not HW. Due to limited availability of HW to be purchased they limiting the new titles to new HW would severely impact possible SW sales (at a time that cost to make SW is much higher than on previous gen). And if we look for some key 1st party titles it seems like 70% of their sales were already on new HW (because there is people holding on buying the title, even when there is free upgrade available, so they can play on the best hw). For next gen I only see they cutting support short if for some reason they are able to produce a lot more HW since start of gen so they have less need to keep selling on older gen. I won't ever buy the idea of any company being purely pro customer, they are first pro profit, so the duration of support for previous gen (and even BC) will exist depending on what make more profit for them. |
I think moving to a new architecture is also pro-profit, though. The Series S is cheaper to manufacture than the One X (that they had considered potentially keeping around instead), for example.
I don't think the PS4 still being around two years later is just PS5 availability. The PS1 stayed around for years after the PS2 came out. The PS2 stuck around for years after the PS3 came out. The PS3 stuck around for a time after the PS4 came out. So, if there's no alternative budget system at the PS6 launch, why wouldn't Sony keep the PS5 around for a while too? Not only have they not dropped the cost of the PS5 Digital, they've actually raised its price in most countries. That price increase is not going to help them retire the PS4! :)
