Sony Exec Talks PS5's Advantages Over PC Gaming, Console Release Strategy And More
Pardon us as we feign surprise, but a Sony exec involved with the PlayStation brand thinks that the PlayStation 5 is a better option than PC for gaming. Water is wet and the sky is blue, news at 11, right? While not the least bit surprising, it's interesting to hear Sony's reasoning for proclaiming the PS5 as the superior gaming platform, plus the executive touched on several other subjects.
The not-so-shocking revelation was made by Hideaki Nishino, Senior Vice President, Platform Experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment, during an interview with Nikkei Asia. One of the questions posed was how Sony felt in light of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and with the industry moving towards PC and mobile gaming.
"If you want to play PC games with the same GPU performance and so forth as the PS5, you have to spend money and time to build your own PC. While doing so can be rewarding, a dedicated console allows any player to enjoy games of the same technical level right out of the box," Nishino said.
He's not incorrect in essentially saying that the PS5 is a plug-and-play experience. However, the money angle is an odd one, at least in the way he worded it. As far as we know, the PS5 has never been a free console. It's typically cheaper than a gaming PC with the same level of hardware, but you can also do more with a PC.
Additionally, building your own PC is not a prerequisite for jumping on the PC platform—just last week, we wrote about a discounted prebuilt MSI gaming PC with a Core i5-13400F CPU, GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD that was on sale for $699 (it's no longer on sale, sadly). That's still $200 more than a PS5, but you get more and don't have to spend time building it.
As to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Nishino pointed out that one of Sony's strengths is its IP and ability to adapt games like Gran Turismo into TV shows and movies
"It's important that people who don't play games have access to our content, and we hope to use movies and dramas as an opportunity to make people want to try PlayStation games. The Last of Us series' sales increased when the live-action-drama version was airing," Nishino said.
He also discussed Sony's console release strategy, with the company having recently launched a slimmer PS5 with more storage and the PlayStation Portal. Nishino commented that the life cycle of a game console is typically seven to eight years, and pointed out that the PS5 is now in its third year, which puts it in the middle of that cycle.
"Because it generally takes three to five years to develop a game title, we're starting to see an increase in the number of games that take full advantage of the PS5's features.
We will attack in the year-end sales season with both content and hardware, including peripherals," Nishino said.
In case it needs said, he also confirmed that "the supply shortage has been resolved," with this winter being the first year-end season in which the PS5 is readily available to whoever wants to buy one. No small feat considering "there are approximately 2,000 parts in a PlayStation, and if even one semiconductor is missing, it cannot be manufactured."
Not only are PS5s routinely in stock from first-party sellers, the latest refresh is available in a couple of bundle deals at the same $499 price as non-bundled PS5 consoles.
- PlayStation 5 + Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Bundle: $499 at Amazon and $499.99 at Best Buy
- PlayStation 5 + Call of Duty Modern Warfare II Bundle: $499 at Amazon and $499.99 at Best Buy
Each of those bundles come with a download code for the accompanying game title, which is effectively a $59 savings.
You can read the full interview for what else Nishino had to say about the PS5.
