Former PlayStation executive Sean Layden suggested that the continued push toward more powerful and more expensive console hardware was unsustainable, saying, “Fighting over teraflops has no place…We need to compete on content.” There is a need to do so.”
Leyden, who served as Sony Interactive Entertainment America’s CEO and chairman of Worldwide Studios before retiring from the company in 2019, was asked by VGC whether the console industry’s current business model is sustainable. . Powerful hardware.
“We’ve been doing things this way for 30 years,” Layden replied, adding, “Each generation, costs have gone up and we’ve readjusted accordingly. We’ve now reached the precipice and the center “We cannot maintain this and continue to do so.” Do what we did before. ”
Layden said he believes it’s time for a “real hard reset” on the industry’s current business model, and even “a hard reset on what video games are.” It’s not 80 or 90 hours, but if it is, that’s a completely different category. ”
He added that the push for more powerful hardware has “plateaued” and is unlikely to appeal to the majority of players. “We’re at a stage in hardware development that I call ‘only a dog can hear the difference,'” he continued.
“If you’re playing a game and sunlight is shining through the window onto your TV, you won’t see the ray tracing. It has to be very optimal…to watch it, you can’t see 8K in a dark room. You need monitors. These things…I think it’s maxed out because we’re competing for teraflops. We need to compete on content.”
Layden’s comments come ahead of Sony’s new PlayStation 5 Pro console, which launches on November 7th and promises improved performance and visual fidelity for primarily supported PS4 and PS5 games. It is sold as such. But the machine’s £700 price tag hasn’t been well-received, raising questions about who it’s aimed at.
