What should Sony do for the next Playstation?

[EricHiggin]

curl-6 said:

EricHiggin said:

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.

You'd have to change business models. So in this case, you'd end with the PS6 handheld, and then a PS6 console with either the exact same internal hardware as the handheld making it super easy for devs, or the console could be beefed up hardware, whether that internal hardware was a beefier chip, or the same handheld chip just boosted as much as reasonably possible.

Either way you only have 2 pieces of hardware each gen, and you launch new hardware every 5 years, while supporting the previous gen hardware throughout the next gen, so all hardware is good for a decade. Which means there's only 2 to 4 different pieces of hardware to dev for at any time.

Companies don't want to constantly change business models. That tends to be inefficient. That logic also doesn't work because who would've guessed that SNY would've planned what they did with PS3? Much of the thinking behind that gen what nonsense. Also some of what they've done with PS5 this gen has been a bit of a headscratcher, unless you only take profits into account, then it makes sense.