According to recent reports, it seems as if Sony is already in the planning stages of creating their newest console, but don’t expect it to launch anytime soon. Thanks to sources close to Sony and the gaming industry (via Kotaku’s Jason Schreier), the general idea seems to be that a “PlayStation 5” won’t see the light of day until at least 2020.
Two unnamed developers that Schreier spoke with claimed that they had knowledge of Sony’s newest system, with both of them claiming the system wouldn’t be out until 2019 at the very earliest. Of course, these plans could always change. “On a multi-year project, a lot can happen to shift schedules both forward and backward,” one source said. “At some point, Sony’s probably looked at every possible date. It’s all about what they think is the best sweet spot in terms of hardware.”
With April already nearly midway through, it seems more and more unlikely that Sony would reveal a new console at this point in the year. However, recent rumors have suggested that Sony has been giving out PlayStation 5 devkits to certain studios, with the report stating that Sony has asked studios to keep the devkits in locked rooms and restrict access to the device. This could be true, but it’s also worth noting that a majority of the developers Kotaku spoke to had no knowledge of such a devkit existing.
Earlier this year, it was also speculated that the future PlayStation console would move to more “procedural content.” For more on that, check out below:
Don’t worry, the next generation of consoles isn’t going to be full of lifeless games that feel like they were created by a computer, but as engines get smarter, they will be able to procedurally generate more content on their own based on predetermined values set by the artists and creators. Instead of hand placing each object or texture, the engine will be able to smartly generate that content on its own. This would free up capital and members of the development team to work on other aspects of the game, potentially driving down both the monetary and time cost of game development.
Only time will tell, but technology is growing and being used in ways we can’t even imagine at this point. The PlayStation 5 and next generation of console hardware will bring a lot of interesting new tools and ideas for developers to play with.
We’ll make sure to keep you updated with any information as it becomes available.
[Source: Kotaku]
