At their E3 2016 press conference, Microsoft confirmed Project Scorpio for release in fall 2017. Speaking with VG247, PlayStation Europe President Jim Ryan addressed the announcement, saying Sony has their own strategy:
Good luck to them with their strategy and we’ve got our strategy and we’ll pursue that. We’re very happy with the way things are going. Fall 2017 is quite a long way off.
Asked if he wished Sony had a PS4 slim console to go alongside the Xbox One slim this holiday, Ryan replied, “For this E3 all we wanted to do was talk about software and that’s what we did. We’re happy with the shape of the PS4 and what it does.”
As for that software, Ryan admitted everyone took slightly longer than anticipated to get caught up with this generation, but having so many big games at E3 validated their approach to first-party development:
I think it was very nice for us to have such a strong and comprehensive showing of work for our own studios. It’s taken everybody slightly longer than anticipated to get up to speed with this generation – all formats, all developers. Questions have been legitimately asked about this and I think it was a really positive validation of our approach to first party development.
Discussing the gradual progression games have taken since launch, Ryan said, “We’re now getting to the stage where you can look at PS4 software and go ‘wow.'”
Looking at their 2016 lineup (which includes No Man’s Sky, The Last Guardian, and Gran Turismo Sport), he said they’re really happy with what’s coming:
2016 is really strong in what is not only great gaming content but also games that differentiate us from anybody else. We’re really happy with that. We’ve got a partnership with Activision on Call of Duty, we’ve got the partnership with Ubisoft on Watch Dogs 2. So we’re very happy with what we have this year. And in 2017 we’ll just build on that.
As for Sony’s European press conference this year, they haven’t decided if it will be at gamescom in August, Paris Games Week in October, or somewhere else. “It’s a balancing act between timing, availability of software, announcements to be made,” Ryan said.
[Source: VG247]
