What should Sony do for the next Playstation?

[curl-6]

EricHiggin said:

curl-6 said:

The problem with having gens that short is that nowadays AAA devs are taking longer than that just to make a single game, so if a game started development now, it might not even come out until the PS7 arrives in this timeline you suggest.

Gens have been getting longer and longer, reverting to a 5 year gen like this sounds like it would cause more problems than it solves, you'd have less time to recoup the costs of R&D and it would complicate game development.

This isn't PS1 customized to PS2 customized to PS3 heavily customized super advanced hardware anymore. It's PS4 semi-custom to PS5 semi-custom to PS6 semi-custom hardware, all x86 based, with 99% BC, and from the same company, AMD.

Going from one gen to another now is a piece of cake in comparison to the past, which was part of the reason as to why Cerny went this route.

As to software, devs simply have to know an approximate launch date so they can create for the hardware. So PS5 and PS6, or PS6 and PS7, for example.

Cross gen now lasts about 5 years anyway, and mid gen hardware has gone from 3 years to 4 years, so why not just have a new gen every 5 years? How is that so much different than making a game for both PS5 and PS5 Pro right now?

If PS6 as per rumors has multiple versions, and therefore likely also PS7, you'd end up having to develop more and more versions (Say PS5, PS5 Pro, PS6, PS6 portable, PS6 Lite, PS7, PS7 Lite, PS7 Portable) which is extra work for devs. Not insurmountable, but still extra work. Having two generations supported at the same time is one thing, but three at the same time might be troublesome.

More importantly, generations have been getting longer for a while now, if a 5 year cycle was really easier, surely they'd have done it already.