The head of PlayStation believes in the future of consoles, and the PS5 will remain on the market after the release of PS6

The CEO of the Sony Interactive Entertaniment Platform Business Group, Hideaki Nishino, answered several questions about the future of the brand in an interview with the Japanese publication Famitsu. In his opinion, game consoles remain popular devices, and the life cycle of the current PS5 will be long: it will exist in parallel with the PS6.

Image Source: Playstation.com

«Today, many PS4 games continue to be played, and the number of PS5 titles is growing rapidly. It’s unlikely that this will suddenly change tomorrow, so there is no doubt that home gaming consoles will remain at the core of our business for some time to come. However, we are also seeing growth in PC and various other areas, so we are looking at how we can increase the overall number of PlayStation users, including PSN [users]. I may be misunderstood, but if PS Portal is running cloud games and PS5 games, then we have already entered the era of cloud gaming. But you still need a controller and a screen in your hands, and we believe that these devices will not disappear for now,” said Mr. Nishino.

When the conversation turned to the next-generation PlayStation console, Hideaki Nishino was asked how the life cycle of consoles is increasing compared to models of previous generations – a clear example is the PS4. PS5, in his opinion, will indeed have a long life cycle, but this will not affect the release date of the next-generation console, which is expected to be called PlayStation 6.

«We believe that the PS5 will have a long life cycle, just like the PS4. However, I don’t think it would be right to delay the release of a new product based on new technologies just because of its duration. The timing of the release of a new product is related to the time it takes to develop technologies and the time to implement these technologies. So I think it’s important to offer new products while people are still playing the ones they’re currently using, and to expand the overall number of games available. PS4 is in automated production and the device is of high quality. That’s why it can be used for a long time. Of course, the PS5 launches automatically from the start. From now on, we want to expand our business by combining the durability of current products with new technologies,” said Hideaki Nishino.

When he was reminded that the development of the PS4 Pro had been going on for four years and it was suggested that a new generation PlayStation console was already in development, Mr. Nishino replied: “We believe that products should maintain a balance of technology, price and timing. We always think about when we will be able to achieve the goal we hope to hit.”