"PS4 Pro is not the start of a new generation"

Perhaps most tellingly, Cerny is very careful to describe the Pro as anything other than the harbinger of a new generation of consoles.

“PS4 Pro is not the start of a new generation,” he said. “And that is a very good thing.”

It’s a good thing because, he argues, a new generation of consoles is defined by chaos and novelty -- new hardware with new CPU architectures, new controllers, new GPUs, and all-new ways of designing (or selling) games. Such shake-ups often have significant benefits for the game industry at large, as well as significant costs. 

Cerny recalled how the PlayStation 1’s launch drove many devs to transition from 2D to 3D and from cartridge to CD-ROM games, noting that a significant number of developers foundered or exit the industry entirely because they couldn’t find success in a 32-bit world.

“It was certainly rewarding for players, but it was a true learning experience for the development community,” said Cerny. “At the time I estimated that, just by looking around, something like a quarter of the people involved in making games had to transition out of the business because they couldn't get familiar enough with the new tools and technologies.”

He went on to point out the different, novel demands that every generation of console hardware has placed on devs, before coming around to the PlayStation 4 -- which, as he told Gamasutra three years ago ahead of its launch, was explicitly designed to make devs’ lives easier by doing away with the PlayStation 3’s idiosyncratic Cell technology in favor of a much more approachable x86 architecture.

The PlayStation 4 Pro uses the same architecture as its older sibling, and thus, by Cerny’s definition, it’s not the start of a new generation -- just an attempt to breathe new life into the current one. It’s also, he was careful to state repeatedly, not the death knell for console generations as we know it.

“We don't believe that generations are going away. They are truly healthy for the industry, and for the gaming community,” he said. “It's just that the objectives for PS4 Pro are quite different.”

Put simply, those objectives are better performance and graphical quality, for both games and other media.

“PS4 Pro's targets are support of high-res displays, 4K displays, higher framerates,” said Cerny, “And 4K streaming, for those people who use PS4 for video, which is actually very big for us. It's the number two use for the console - streaming video.”

read full article here 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/283611/Inside_the_PlayStation_4_Pro_with_Mark_Cerny.php#tophead

Next gen needs to be even closer to PCs.

why?

Helped the PS4 didn't it?

Well, you won that debate.

I feel if consoles are gonna stick to current architecture, just keep upgrading. It sounds like new gen is an excuse not support the old hardware.

It is going to be very interesting to see how things play out going forward. If PS5 comes out in say 2019, then it will only be around 8 to 10TF, with maybe 16GB of HBM RAM. IMO that is just a PS4 Pro 2. It would be able to run solid 1080p PS4 titles at solid 4K. I don't see SSD prices coming down fast enough, so devs would still be feeding the system at HDD speeds, which again does not seem next gen to me at all. All in all, a PS5 in 2019/2020, would not be a significant leap over PS4/XBO/Pro/Scorpio.

On the other hand. If Sony wanted to launch the PS5 in that time frame, and bring out PSVR2 along side it, then I could see the justification, as it could be less confusing for consumers. They are still going to have a very hard time with the transition to PS5 and PSVR2 though, because in todays electronics market people expect things to work. So I see no future where they don't have a lot of people getting PSVR2 and hooking it up to PS4 and not being able to play PS5/PSVR2 titles, or People buying PS5 and hooking up their OG PSVR just to find it doesn't play PS5/PSVR2 titles.

As I see it, the switch to the next generation is going to be one of the hardest the industry has ever had. I do think Sony is correct, that generations have to stay. Basically, the generation has become the OS. So currently we are in the PS4 OS generation. This gen will expand acrosss PS4, PS4 Pro, PSVR, and possibly, PSVR Pro, PS4 Pro 2, PS4 Tablet, and PS4 Phone before it is all said and done. PS5 will indicate the switch to a new OS, and put a break in compaitbility. There will be crosss gen games that run on both PS4 and PS5 OS, but after the PS5 Pro comes out, I would expect most support for PS4 OS to be dropped.

Who knows how it will really go though. All I know is that they have a very tough transition, and very tough decisions ahead. If Sony fudges, then any number of companies could knock it down. The market is getting bigger and bigger. So, Nvidia, Valve, Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo, or even a new comer could potentially sweep in a take over the console market if the right moves are not made. Definitly the most exciting time in the history of consoles, and imo, the entire consumer electronics industry. I do feel for all involved, because it is going to be a very tough fight to stay on top for at least the next decade.

PSNow is certainly a "new way of selling games."

Great! Shouldn't have expected something different from Sony!

that doesnt stop PC software from not supporting older hardware, at some point you have to make the cut. I even doubt you gonna see Xbox One and Xbox Scorpio support at the same time for long, the performance difference is way too much 

No. And no.