What should Sony do for the next Playstation?

[EricHiggin]

twintail said:

curl-6 said:

Moore's Law is Dead is not a reliable source, he's wrong all the time.

Not saying a Premium/S/Portable PS6 can't happen, but I'd take his word with a huge grain of salt until a better source backs in up.

There being a regular PS6 and a handheld versions seems pretty likely at this point. An S version seems pretty questionable unless they really need an entry level device, but I feel the handheld with dock capability pretty much solves that. 

Something like a $499 (dockable) handheld and a $599 or higher PS6, will only partially solve the entry point problem.

I can tell you without doubt, just one of my gaming friends would likely want to get the handheld, since they work on the road often enough that they miss out on gaming more than they would like. A handheld solves that problem for them and they won't care about having just ok graphics.

The rest of us won't buy the handheld or the console in that case. We don't care for mobility whatsoever. We don't require the very best next gen has to offer, but would like reasonable next gen performance, and won't pay over $499 max. Now even though the handheld would fit that bill in this hypothetical case, we won't accept that because for $499, a dedicated home console could offer considerably more for that same price. We aren't wasting money on mobile tech that does nothing for us.

All of us are still on PS4, and only one other friend might cave and get a used PS5 for GTAVI, maybe. That means the majority of us won't be upgrading to PS5 or PS6 in that case. It would also no doubt mean some of us, including myself, will build mid tier PC's and will start buying our games from other brands like Steam. PS will only get first party sales from us in the future if this was the direction they took with PS6.

For that reason, SNY would be smart, to at the very least, make a base home console SKU that used the guts of the handheld for $100 less. If the performance was identical to the handheld, you'd likely get about half of the rest of us to upgrade to that base PS6. If the performance was boosted as much as reasonably possible, for $50 less, or the same price as the handheld, then you'd likely get all of us to upgrade to it.

PSP and Vita both overlapped PS3, and PS3 had multiple SKU's (in terms of storage), so SNY can totally get away with 2 home console SKU's and 1 handheld SKU for PS6. It won't be too confusing for consumers, especially in today's world. Sell both home console SKU's as digital for a reasonably low price, and those who want the disc drive can buy it separate. That would keep it simple.