Sony Confirms PlayStation 4 Successor Coming Despite Rise In Game Streaming Services
The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro will not be the last of the PlayStation console. While that may seem like an obvious statement, the push to streaming services and gaming from the cloud have, well, clouded the situation. Even so, Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed that will be a new generation console at some point.
We presume that to mean a PlayStation 5 is on the roadmap, and probably already in development. Yoshido stopped short of referencing a PS5 specifically, but in an interview with the Financial Times, he did acknowledge that "it's necessary to have next-generation hardware" product at this point in the game. What and when are the questions.
We are an interesting point in the evolution of the console. There has been a resurgence in PC gaming over the past few years, particularly with the rise of esports, and today's consoles are more PC-like than ever. Both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, for example, are iteration upgrades rather than true next-gen hardware over the base PS4 and Xbox One models, respectively.
Beyond that, however, is the cloud and what impact it might have on the industry at large. Rival Microsoft recently announced it would begin publicly testing Project xCloud, a global game streaming technology, in 2019.
"Today, the games you play are very much dictated by the device you are using. Project xCloud’s state-of-the-art global game-streaming technology will offer you the freedom to play on the device you want without being locked to a particular device, empowering YOU, the gamers, to be at the center of your gaming experience," Microsoft said in a blog post.
What about Sony, though? FT notes there have been rumors Sony might develop a tablet that would be able to connect with multiple devices as game streaming grows in popularity. Whether that is true or not, it does not appear Sony is eager to move away from traditional game consoles.
