A revisit to a recent Q&A interview with Sony President and CEO Hideaki Nishino provides a new perspective regarding what the company’s goals may be with PlayStation 6. The Q&A between The Verge and the Sony exec originally appeared to be a somewhat cut-and-dried piece, but upon re-examining Sony’s answers, it looks as if there was another level to what was being said. It’s said that context is everything, and in this case, the context for the given answers might be different than that of what is being asked, as when considering Sony’s announcement to discontinue disc production in 2028, which was made shortly after this Q&A.
The Verge’s Senior Editor and founding member Sean Hollister has some interesting takes on Hideaki’s answers following Sony’s controversial announcement to stop producing discs, roughly around when some are expecting the PlayStation 6 to launch.
“This Q&A arrived a month before Sony announced the end of PlayStation discs. But when I reread it with the death of discs in mind… it hits differently”
– Sean Hollister, Senior Editor The Verge
Sony makes a point to which most hardware manufacturers normally adhere in that it is attempting to anticipate what consumers’ evolving needs will be and how they plan to play games. However, a seemingly unimportant detail is added that Sony plans to make the “PlayStation ecosystem more accessible to a broader range of players”. While the meaning of that statement could be up to anyone’s guess, Hideaki later goes on to say that the PlayStation is the base for providing the gaming experience, but Sony’s other products, such as its PS Portal, are designed for users who want an experience “beyond the living room”.
Now, Sony is no stranger to the gaming handheld market. Before the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, it had for some years been roughly the only game in town with the PSP and PS Vita, both of which had impressive hardware specs for their time. Sony exited the gaming handheld market just as the two aforementioned arrived, and many others followed, thus creating a revived interest in gaming on the go. Sony points out in the interview that it isn’t really interested in offering the PlayStation experience to smartphones or PC handhelds, but would rather expand its own cloud services.
“Because it is difficult to provide a sufficiently high-quality experience through smartphone touch controls or a PC’s keyboard and mouse, our cloud strategy is not to rapidly expand to smartphones and PCs, but rather to focus on environments where quality can be assured.”
– Hideaki Nishino, Sony President & CEO
Hideaki added that cloud streaming doesn’t need as much hardware memory, hinting that Sony is considering this for its upcoming hardware releases since storage and memory components are not expected to see their prices drop anytime in the next few years. The exec also states that Sony is no longer sticking with the strategy to sell hardware at a loss to recoup costs through game sales. He reiterates that the value of Sony’s hardware is in the experience and not the hardware itself, and the company aims to expand its reach, which includes a shift to a true digital platform business. Clearly, it can be seen throughout the interview, when viewed from a different perspective, that Sony is planning a greater focus on cloud gaming in the future with its upcoming hardware releases. This, combined with statements like “beyond the living room”, the discontinuation of disc media, and repeated references to its own ecosystem, allude to a portable PlayStation 6. Meanwhile, Microsoft has gone largely silent on its plans to launch an Xbox handheld, which could be dead on the table following its latest round of layoffs.
Discussion (4 replies)
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I wouldn't mind them trying again with a handheld. I got a lot of use out of my soft-modded PSP, and I've been trying to get my hands on a PS Vita for years. A friend of mine is gonna sell me one he soft-modded himself.
Yeah I'm wondering if they're gonna do something similar to the Switch 1 and 2 and have a handheld system that can be docked and played like a home console. It's hard to imagine them going that route exclusively cuz that would be a limitation on the hardware power of the PS6. Switch is more powerful than the 7th-gen consoles (PS3, X360, and even though Wii U is 8th-gen it's basically 7th-gen-class, with a better GPU but worse CPU), but it doesn't match base XB1 let alone base PS4. Switch 2 only catches them up to around base PS2 levels of performance. I don't see Sony crippling the PS6 that way. Maybe what they will do is have the PS6 home console, a weaker handheld that is still PS6-based, and then you can play your PS6 games on either console. Similar to XBSX with XBSS, but if XBSS was a handheld console.
The great streaming conspiracy.
When the AI bubble bursts all them data centers will become streaming gaming centers as Sony buys them at fire sale prices.
Yeah, I'd be interested in a hybrid console too. The Switch 2 has been alright for me, but I've been disappointed by the quality of their 3rd party games compared to PS5 and PC.
Recent example would be Trails in the Sky Ch1 - currently on sale for Switch 2 (and Playstation), and it performs solidly enough (60fps), but the game has this weird 'shimmering' anti-aliasing and a softer image that I find really distracting. PS5 and PC both look and perform rock solid in comparison. I'd love to use the portability of the Switch 2 for XP/material grinding or a quick play before bed, however I don't want to deal with that dog ass image on a big screen.
If Sony made a rival hybrid console and next-gen PSSR offered decent upscaling/60fps performance - I'd be all over that.