Former PlayStation government Shawn Layden has advised the persevering with push towards extra highly effective – and extra expensive – console {hardware} is unsustainable, arguing that “preventing over teraflops [is] no place to be… We have to compete on content material”.
Layden – who served as CEO of Sony Interactive Leisure America and chairman of Worldwide Studios earlier than leaving the corporate in 2019 – was requested by VGC if the console trade’s present enterprise mannequin was sustainable, given the rising improvement prices related to the continued pursuit of incrementally extra highly effective {hardware}.
“We have executed this stuff this fashion for 30 years,” Layden replied, “each technology these prices went up and we realigned with it. We have reached the precipice now, the place the centre cannot maintain, we can’t proceed to do issues that we’ve got executed earlier than.”
Layden stated he believed it was time for a “actual exhausting reset” on the trade’s present enterprise mannequin, even a “exhausting reset on what it’s to be a online game. It is not 80 hours, it isn’t 90 hours, however whether it is that is a complete totally different class.”
He added the effectiveness of chasing extra highly effective {hardware} had “plateaued”, and was unlikely to enchantment to nearly all of gamers. “We’re on the stage of {hardware} improvement that I name ‘solely canines can hear the distinction’,” he continued.
“When you’re taking part in your sport and daylight is coming by way of your window onto your TV, you are not seeing any ray tracing. It needs to be tremendous optimum… it’s a must to have an 8K monitor in a darkish room to see this stuff… We’re preventing over teraflops and that is no place to be. We have to compete on content material. Jacking up the specs of the field, I believe we have reached the ceiling.”
Layden’s feedback come forward of Sony’s new PlayStation 5 Professional console, which launches on seventh November and is primarily being marketed on the promise of improved efficiency and visible constancy for supported PS4 and PS5 video games. The machine’s £700 price ticket hasn’t been notably well-received, nonetheless, elevating the query of who precisely it is for.
