Sony Exec Suggests PS5 Is Far From Finished, And It's Likely The Same For Xbox Series X|S

I certainly hope we do. Do MS though? They certainly are doing everything they can to drive potential new customers away

Both the PS5 and the Series consoles will be sold for pretty much the entirety of the next generation, though for differing reasons. I don't think that the next PS6 will be vastly better than the PS5, and so uptake on the PS6 will be slower than it was for the PS5. With the PCBox, it will likely be significantly better than the Series X, but it will also be significantly more expensive, possibly twice as expensive as the Series X, meaning that far fewer people will buy it with the target at Microsoft likely being something like 10 million lifetime sales*. Upshot for both Sony and Microsoft will be a much slower start for the next generation.

*Unless the PCBox is the last Xbox console, in which case it may hang around for far longer than a typical generation, and so, assuming that it is still shifting units, then Microsoft may continue to make it available...

I was watching a Digital Foundry video on YouTube and they were talking about how they are also expecting the current-gen consoles to keep going long after the new generation consoles come out. Pointing to Switch 2, Handheld PC, and the general PC market, with games needing to be very scalable.

I'm sure that this gen will hang around longer than last gen as the cross-over, diminishing returns of upgrading and costs of Hardware will have an impact on next gen sales.

As we saw from this gen, MANY games can and did get released on last gen hardware and I think that devs will continue to target both current and last gen hardware.

MS may well have a USP in that its next gen hardware is more a 'Win11 PC' and allows other gaming Platforms (like Steam, Epic etc) but their Series hardware could still 'exist' alongside for years to come as the 'budget' option with Native and/or Cloud support for all their releases.

When I was little, it was very common to ask for a Gameboy, a Nintendo, or a Sega for Christmas.

When I was a teenager, I saw children asking for a Wii, a Xbox, a PlayStation...

Now, I see that what they ask for are smartphones, tablets...

My thinking is more pessimistic; I don't think that this generation is halfway through its life, nor do I think that traditional consoles have more than 5-10 years of existence left.

This gen will last longer because realistically we don't need a new gen of console yet!
The is just capitalism Xbox console and to a lesser extent playstation console sales are stagnating so time to develop a new overpriced console!
Money to be made!

The reason Sony is porting all its first-party games to PC is that they aren’t making enough money as PS5 exclusives alone. Ghost of Yotei had a moderate development cost of about 60 million dollars, which is relatively low compared to most AAA games that average between 150–200 million dollars. The game has recouped its costs and made a small profit, but it’s unlikely to surpass 5 million total sales on PS5, so Sony is bringing it to PC to boost sales and revenue. Most PS5 exclusives, except Spider-Man 2, like Death Stranding 2, Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, and Final Fantasy, have failed to sell more than 4 million copies on the console. This is because the audience for exclusives is limited, as most of the 80 million PS5 owners are casual players who stick to popular live-service titles like Fortnite, EA FC, NBA 2K, GTA Online, and Call of Duty.

Sony’s upcoming PC launcher will feature a “Play Anywhere” option similar to the Xbox PC app, aiming to compete with Steam and keep its fanbase within the PlayStation ecosystem.

Recent releases like Spider-Man 2 and Stellar Blade show that Sony is now bringing its first-party and second-party games to PC within a year of their console debut. In the past, titles like God of War Ragnarok took about two years to make the jump from console exclusives to PC. Sony has sped up the process to just one year, recognizing that exclusive games tend to hit a sales plateau at around 3–4 million units on PS5, with little expectation of significant growth beyond that.

If Sony were happy with current PS5 sales, they would likely keep all first-party titles as console exclusives, much like Nintendo. However, console sales are relatively low due to the overall stagnation of the console market, as Phil Spencer mentioned in recent interviews. While the sales numbers for most exclusives have stayed about the same as on the PS4, development costs have more than doubled, leading to lower profit margins and raising concerns about the sustainability of the AAA exclusive games strategy.

From this "active user" perspective, ps4/xb1 is still going strong. This is kind of a nothing burger. It certainly doesn't mean the ps6 is any further away than we thought.

considering this gen took 5 years to finally start …

Unless the current AI/datacenter buildouts suddenly stop, the crazy implication is PS5 & Series X|S are probably approaching appreciating asset status. Current technology has reached diminishing returns, they are good enough. Current gen consoles can be used for many years to come. Same goes with phones, it used to be if you upgraded every 2yrs you could notice a big difference, now there is barely a difference.

If recent memory & SSD price increases continue. PS6/NextBox are going to be crazy expensive for a difference that certainly casual gamers won't really notice a difference.

@Fiendish-Beaver I don't think the PC box will actually be significantly better than the SX either as I could see it needing all the extra overhead to just perform as a hybrid machine. In reality I imagine that once again both devices will end up performing a similar powerlevel with the difference being feature based. (console vs PC)

@Phil-Spencer-Gate I hope Sony also porting first party games for Xbox, maybe not all but they probably will port their biggest games like Gran Turismo 7, Uncharted series, God of war series, Horizon series. Maybe they will port Spiderman when their exclusivity deal with marvel ended, but I don't know how long, probably 10 years?

@rhyno_888 hell will freeze over before Gran Turismo goes to Xbox

@You-come-to-me PS5 will be on 120 million (probably more due to GTA6) by the end of this gen. How is that stagnating. It’s in line with near enough every PlayStation generation since PS1. Only console manufacturer stagnating is Xbox

@GamingGod Console Sales are you down year on year most people who want these consoles already have them there the facts even for playstation!

@GamingGod why not? Forza already on ps. So it would be natural if GT also ported to Xbox. It will sell great like Helldivers 2

@You-come-to-me the only console sales down year on year are Xbox mate. It’s eaten itself.

@rhyno_888 forza came to PS because Xbox needs to recoup the costs of GP somehow. GT7 is still selling tons of copies. It has never gone to PC so don’t expect it to Xbox anytime soon

@GamingGod You have a great day dude hahaha 😂

@You-come-to-me I will mate you too

I can see Sony wanting to hang around for a while, considering how successful the PS5 has been. Microsoft, on the other hand, has much more of an incentive to move on.

The question is whether that will force Sony’s hand, and I don’t know if it will (I could see another Xbox rushing to market a year or two before a PS6).

So you take news from PS5 and just apply them to Xbox ? Where were you in the last couple of months ? I love my X, but I don't think it will be getting the same support from MS.

I think there will be a recognisable increase in performance and power with the PCBox, @ilyn. It simply has too! The reason I say this is that Microsoft could pretty easily take the Series X and add the capability to access different store fronts. I mean, you can stream Steam to the Series X console right now, so adding it on properly wouldn't be particularly challenging, or expensive, at all.

So, if the rumours of a console costing more than a £1000 / $1200 are true, and if Bond is to be believed when she says powerful leap and premium equipment, then there is no way that they can push a Series X Plus out the door and expect us to pay that kind of huge price.

No, with everything we keep hearing, I think we will see an appreciable improvement in the quality at which games can be played, ray-tracing will not be so much an option, but a staple, as will 60fps (or maybe even 120fps). Honestly, if Microsoft cannot pretty much guarantee these settings, then I really cannot see how they can justify the kind of price for the console that we keep hearing of, nor the claims as to its power etc....

@You-come-to-me Yeah I really don't see the need for new consoles right now when the PS5 Pro is still relatively new and AAA games take so many years to release. It's like IMO this gen only relatively recently started getting good, heck PS5 Pro enhanced games are still a thing that only the latest and greatest releases seems to really support. I just can't see where all this desire for newer better more expensive hardware is coming from. Gains have never been harder to spot as well, seems like smooth 60fps became far more of a target than higher resolution/fancier graphics, where we only seem to be making "spot the difference" gains.

For once I simply have no desire for a next gen, especially right now.

@You-come-to-me So you just announced they are 100k up on console sales from the same period last year. The PS5 is currently tracking around 2.1 million behind the fasting sell Sony machine, the PS4.

I do get your point, though i wouldnt say its stagnation (if that makes sense).

@Weebleman Ok stagnating might of been the wrong word slowing down then??
Like it's been reported it's happening I'm not trying to put playstation or anything down if I'm coming across like that just a general comment no underlying context👍🤷

@You-come-to-me didnt come across like that at all man, I hope i didnt come across like I was diving to the sony defense either. Was more just the conversation (if that makes sense).

@Fiendish-Beaver
To the point as ever.
Also I think we will almost have cross generation games for probably the entire next generation era.
Mainly due to your point about diminishing returns from PS5 to PS6 helping that situation.
I think this generation COD and FIFA are still cross generation in 2025.

The what I call true console generations are almost gone apart from Nintendo doing their own thing.

@Fiendish-Beaver The current rumours put the PS6 at about RTX 5080 level, which is the second best current Nvidia GPU. For perspective, it's about 3 times more powerful than the PS5 GPU.

It's a lot more powerful, and would undoubtedly be capable of better looking games or much better performance, however it is less than the jump from PS4 to PS5, which is close to a 6x performance jump. And admittedly, the better hardware/visuals get, the more we see a law of diminishing returns.

I agree with @JayJ I don't think a newer gen is needed right now. The current machines are extremely capable, the PS5 is capable of visuals like GT7 at 4k60, and the SeriesX stuff like FH4 at 4k60 or Microsoft Flight Sim. All incredible looking games.

I just wish more console devs would make 4k60 a target, rather than pushing lighting to levels that are slightly beyond the scope of the current hardware, resulting in hits to framerate/resolution.

@Raffles Yeah I feel like the obsession with lighting and effects can become a real issue when it comes to performance optimization these days. I can go back to older games and with a high resolution and fast frame rate they can look just as good if not better in action compared to some of these latest games. It almost feels like devs are scrambling for a "wow" factor for screen shots and these games just never look that good while playing with the frame rate hit.

@Weebleman Its cool dude you didn't ✌️

He lying. Release of a PS6 means there is a year or two left for prior gen.

Certainly unlikely for them to give up on the Series X? What? They have already given up on it. unclear console strategy, no exclusives. I hate to admit but they have given up already. I haven’t bought a Xbox game since Alan Wake 2 in 2023 and don’t see that changing soon, all my new game purchases are on PS5 and Nintendo, while I only use Xbox from my legacy library and my prepaid gamepass subscription, which is valid until 2028 (which was the right move given recent events). I have zero faith on Microsoft and investing anything on their platform, they don’t seem to prioritize it so why would I?

"We believe in generations" 😂
Considering how long the PS4 & Xbox One are still being supported by most games (overall) and many of the most played games period (Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, and even yearly COD) the PS5 & Xbox Series consoles will be long supported into next gen. If anything it'll be less like a new generation and more like the PS6 and Next Xbox being the new premium offerings from both companies. We'll likely continue to see native optimized PS5 & Xbox Series versions of games for all new games for at least 5 years and most likely longer. Really this just continues to make the PS5 Pro look more and more like a mistake.

@Droopy I mean, they're spending a LOT of money supporting Xbox Series consoles with more games than ever from third parties and making deals and attending and hosting showcase & direct events for a platform they've given up on. Shrug. People are frustrated on the economy being as it is and Microsoft being the company they are doing a lot to control stock & hardware cost productions. It's more expensive than ever to make 5 year old hardware and even more expensive to leave it on shelves and no one likes that (not Microsoft, not brick & mortar stores, and not us gamers). But Xbox is still doing a lot to support their consoles, they're still doing a lot to support even the Xbox One console and its gamers. Xbox is also doing a lot to expand console hardware (the console market) alone, which has become increasingly volatile and expensive without growing much at all in over a decade. In their latest earnings Playstation praised the success of their live service games across platforms and suggested supporting more platforms. They announced "celebrated" 85 million console sales which... if next gen is coming in less than 2 years now that's not a great outlook. They'd need twice as many console sales to finally surpass their PS2 peak. They'd still need like 40 million console sales to surpass PS4 numbers. Microsoft's messaging is clear, they want to succeed as a business and to them fighting over pieces of an increasingly shrinking console market pie isn't how they're going to do that. I don't even think people are angry at Xbox, but rather the wider industry and global economy. And Xbox is just there as the biggest most vulnerable green punching bag. At the end of the day though the gaming industry, and Console market, needs to make changes. This has been an issue for multiple decades now and is just finally really being felt. Exclusives locked up ecosystem and turned off new gamers. Forever games came in and took advantage of a fragmented market. Costs of development and now hardware production keeps skyrocketing. And new gamers would rather go to open ecosystems like PC or play on their phones because why wouldn't they? For gods sake even the big AAA publishers are all bowing out. Activision Blizzard went to Microsoft to get bought, EA got bought by a private equity, and Ubisoft got bailed out by Tencent. Gamers need to stop pretending things are okay and if we just stick to our guns from 20 years ago everything will be okay. The only console left with really good margins and a healthy business is Nintendo and that's only because their fans allow them to sell them overpriced games and hardware despite them not being worth that and their games and hardware costing far less to develop and produce in comparison.

Ofc ps5 isn’t done yet. It’s just getting into its stride lol. Roll on Intergalactic and GTA6

@Fiendish-Beaver See I think they get around the price increase with the fact that the device will be closer to a PC than a traditional console (if the rumours pan out). That becomes the major selling point as the premium device gives you access to multiple stores and doubles as a windows PC.

I think they could easily make it more powerful, but by the time you factor everything in I think it will be scaled back to keep it at a somewhat realistic price point. When that happens I think it will be like the SX / PS5 again where better on paper never really plays out in any meaningful way.

I get your point that a £1000 console surely can't just be SX+ but when looking at the current prices unless they drastically subsidise the machine then I fear thats exactly what it will be. I do also think that could be fine providing everything plays at 4k60

I don't know, @ilyn, Bond said the largest technological leap, and premium product. Both those statements says to me that it will be a device filled with parts that live up to those statements, and I honestly do think we are looking at a device that will cost at least £1000. I think Microsoft are going for broke here as they cannot put out a device that is similar in performance and power to the PS6 because the Series has done terribly in comparison to the PS5, and with all that has happened with Xbox over the past couple of years people will be unwilling to stick with Xbox if they bring out a console that is comparable to the PS6. Many gamers simply do not trust Microsoft right now, and so if they do not live up to their statements on the PCBox, then I think people will be more inclined to get a PS6 instead.

As much as a £1000 device sounds unattractive in many ways, I think Microsoft are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. If Microsoft bring out a £600 console that is not better than the PS6, but gives us access to Steam, then maybe they will sell 20-30 million consoles next generation, but gamers will be unhappy because it will not live up to all the promises on power, etc. If they bring out a £1000 device, then they will probably sell around 10 million of them, which will probably be in line with their sales expectations. However, that device will likely give us that largest technical leap, etc. I think in either example, Microsoft will lose gamers. Not so many if it is a £600 device, but the issue of trust will remain, and of course that device will see many gamers buying games on Steam, etc., which will hurt Microsoft's bottom line. I think many gamers will be happy with a Series X+ that gives us Steam, but I don't think that is all that Microsoft is aiming for. I think they are looking to differentiate themselves from the PS6, so I believe a £1000+ device is the more likely scenario...

@Fiendish-Beaver I have always felt that the "largest technological leap" was just marketting hyperbole that they can spin to mean whatever they like.

4k60 console with RT / Frame gen and AI then they could make the arguement that they have done it from one generation to the next as a "Leap". Compare that to Sony where the Pro is still part of the PS5 generation so the step up to the PS6 will be smaller as its just the second or third iteration of PSSR.

PC box and again its an easy claim to make if they sell the hybrid angle, whilst it could mean nothing at all for traditional technology leaps of resolution / fps.

I agree that its certainly going to be over £1000 as they can't compete in the £500 market and the more i think about it the more I think it will creep up. I can still see it landing around £1200 if current prices remain as they are and its not subsidised.

I agree, @ilyn, and I've not said that I think the PCBox could easily cost £1200 because I don't want people to think that I'm aggroing Xbox all the time, but truthfully, I can see it hitting that sort of price, albeit I don't really see them going above that as you then enter the realms of building yourself your own PC instead, and making it a truly decent piece of kit.

Honestly though, when I see people saying that it will not cost more than £600, I cannot help but wonder what they expect such a device to be capable of. You only have to look at the current prices for an Xbox, and then read how the PCBox is supposed to be feature rich, and the largest ever technical leap, and you just know it will not be cheap...

The way I see it since the ps5 is at the top of the console sales Sony wants to keep the ps5 generation going as long as possible. For MS since the Series Xbox is in last place MS is heavily motivated to launch the next generation Xbox sooner than later. The next generation Xbox is already in development and MS is likely to shadow drop the next generation console with little warning. Sony is just starting development and likely will delay the launch of the ps6 as long as possible.