Former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida believes Sony “cannot do the same thing they have been doing” with PS6, as even he cannot tell the difference between improved graphics these days.
Five years into the PS5’s lifecycle, there’s been discussion on its improvements over the last generation, as well as what the next generation of consoles could bring.
Speaking to Skill Up, Yoshida discussed the differing strategies between Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony with their current consoles, and wants to see Sony bring something different in future.
“Playstation is the most interesting thing because Moore’s Law has matured so you don’t get as much benefit,” he said, referencing the diminishing returns of increased computing power. “Graphics have almost hit to the level that even I cannot tell the difference between some of the graphics capabilities, like ray-traced or not ray-traced, unless it’s side-by-side.”
While he admitted he has “zero information about their plans”, Yoshida said PlayStation “clearly…cannot do the same thing they have been doing, increasing the graphics bar and providing high end experiences. They might just do that, but that feels like a niche audience right now.”
Acknowledging a rumour Sony may be working on a portable handheld, Yoshida admitted that “may be very attractive to all these people who have libraries of games on PS4 and PS5”.
What’s more, he noted there’s now a new generation of execs leading the company, who could find a new direction.
“Up until Jim Ryan it’s always been our generation, the first generation of PlayStation leading the company,” said Yoshida. “Now [Hideaki] Nishino and Hermen [Hulst] are a much younger generation, so they can do something disruptive, they don’t have to follow what [the company has] been doing. It’s super interesting their next step.”
So what might that next step be? Yoshida didn’t give any firm ideas, but said the “PS5 is an amazing system in terms of quality of experience” and the “adoption of the SSD was almost a miracle” due to the reduced loading times it provides.
“Sony and Mark Cerny, they are so brilliant in designing and devising, creating systems that people can really enjoy,” said Yoshida. “Hopefully they have been cooking something that we don’t know about.”
Yoshida announced his retirement from Sony in November last year, and has been very vocal about the company and the state of the industry ever since.
Jim Ryan was replaced as Sony CEO last year by both Hulst and Nishino. Afterwards, Nishino stated consoles will remain at the “core” of the company.
More recently, PS5 system architect Mark Cerny and AMD senior vice president Jack Huynh presented a video (above) on new technology, all but confirming what we can expect from the PlayStation 6.
