Sony: “PlayStation 4 Is Entering The Final Phase Of It’s Life Cycle”

PlayStation CEO John Kodera has been speaking at an investor relations meeting in Japan and has told attendees that the PS4 is “is entering final phase of its life cycle.”  The presentation was live tweeted by the Wall Street Journal’s tech reporter Takashi Mochizuki who also reported that there will be more first party exclusives for the console.

However, these may not be new IPs, “Beefing up first-party titles wouldn’t just mean more new IPs, strategy includes franchising successful IPs and refreshing existing IPs.”

That sounds like more sequels are in the works, but ‘franchising successful IPs’ is new, that does sound like they might farm out successful series to other studios. I’m not sure I want anyone else to make an Uncharted game, but perhaps another studio might pick up Killzone, Resistance, or Jak and Daxter. I’m still hoping for a G-Police reboot.

It was also reported that PSVR sales are performing worse than expected, but that’s true of sales for all VR devices, and Sony are looking for “further growth with a realistic outlook”.

Whilst it is true the PlayStation 4 is getting on a bit it’s still selling, all Sony have done with this announcement is fuel expectations for a reveal of the PlayStation 5 in the near future. At E3 last year Sony’s Shawn Layden stated that the PS5 was being considered but “it will probably be some time.”

Source: Twitter via MCV

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News Editor, very inappropriate, probs fancies your dad.

42 Comments

  1. They are probably starting to look ahead to where 4k and 60fps is the norm. Both sides have learnt how much of a disadvantage it is to be the 2nd one to market so they’ll want to take the initiative for sure.

    • 4k/60 is unlikely to ever be the norm.

      However much graphics rendering you can do in a 60th of a second, you can do twice as much in a 30th of a second, so some developers will choose to make things prettier rather than 60fps smooth.

      • It’s a bold claim to say it will never be the norm?
        FreeSync or G-Sync can go a long way, and the 1080 TI, while it isn’t cheap, shows where (high end) consumer technology is headed. I’m not saying the PS5 will be around any time soon, but it has to be what Sony and MS are aiming for – or at least close too. The PS4 can barely handle 1080p @ 60fps which is why only 4 yrs on people are talking about a new console.

      • In no rush to upgrade to a 4K TV. The games we have now are still impressive to me on my regular HD TV – and I imagine the majority of console owners feel the same way. Look at the sales of the Pro and the XB1X for evidence that people are just fine with 1080p.

        So whenever next gen arrives, I think Sony/MS are going to find it an extremely difficult sell tbh. Especially when current gen consoles are already more than good enough.

        4K, HDR etc. doesn’t even factor into the equation for most people. People still buy DVDs for crying out loud.

      • @gazzagb
        I didn’t say ‘never’, just ‘unlikely’. Obviously that is IMHO ;)

        But I do think that there isn’t a one size fits all approach, unless Sony or Microsoft start to mandate 60fps as a requirement then there will always be plenty of developers/publishers that will decide they would rather do more in a 1/30 second window.

      • I see what you mean Stevie, perhaps the way to go is similar to PC where users can customise their settings, so if people want rock steady 60fps they could tone down the settings, or alternatively have all the bells and whistles at 30?

        @JR. Although I barely have any 4k content for my TV, Planet Earth 2 in 4k was insanely gorgeous! It’s got me super excited for when more content is out there.

    • Resolution is much overhyped, in my view, probably because it’s easier to explain to the consumer and sells better. But a movie on TV 30 years ago with a rubbish resolution still beats every actual game running near 4k in how real movement, lighting, etc. look, so there’s clearly much homework still to be done, and it’s not about resolution.

  2. 4.5 year old console is entering the final final phase of it’s life cycle? Assuming by “life cycle” he means the time from when it launched until the time the next console launches, and not the time until they stop making them, how is that a surprise or news?

    Hopefully we won’t see a PS5 for a while yet though. At least another 2 years. Late 2020 would be best. (Although I’m sure some people want it before then. Have any developers been begging for it yet?)

    • Actually, reading the linked article, what’s all that March 2021 stuff about?

      • Most so called experts reckon on a late 2020 release date for PS4 and the PS Pro will be the only console available by 3rd/4th quarter 2018.

        I’m quite happy to keep my Pro for another couple of years or so.

      • *release date for PS5 (auto-correct strikes again).

    • The life-cycle is the gap between launches not the overlap. Hope that helps, fella. :-)

      • Is that not what I said I was assuming?

        Now we just need to settle on what “final phase” means. The last 1/3 of the life-cycle? Meaning late 2020 is unfortunately a probability.

      • Sony’s console generations have all lasted 6-7 years. Releasing a new console in late 2020 will equal the longest generation they’ve had.

      • What’s wrong with you, MrYd? You said you were assuming so I thought I’d verify it. I was trying to help so your pissy reply is most out of place.

      • It wasn’t meant as a pissy reply. Sorry if it sounded like that.

  3. Not sure why the article has a picture of an X Box 1 with it?

    • Because I am a deviant.

      or maybe pasted the wrong image.

  4. My interpretation of ‘final phase’ is when the focus shifts to developing new games for next gen. So final phase sounds about right – and so many big exclusives still to come. I imagine PS4/PS5 will run side by side for a few years and the PS3 will start to fade away.

    I really don’t think we have anything to worry about – Sony have always supported their consoles to the death. Moreso than any other players in the game.

    I’d be more than happy if they kept the PS4 Pro as the base model and beefed up the specs again for the PS5. When you have games like God of War, Uncharted 4 and HZD running on current gen, I honestly can’t imagine how it could get any better.

    • Agreed about the visual fidelity. More than happy for them to concentrate on resolution and frame-rate for future hardware more this time around. Ultimately, graphics will only “feel” as good as they’re made – in the sense that we can have all the horsepower in the world but if the performance capture is off or the animation looks awry then all those pixels count for nothing if you ask me.

      • There’s been this weird thing about frame rate this generation. Some people getting rather obsessed with 60fps being some magical number that somehow makes everything better.

        Possibly by the time the PS5 appears, 4K TVs will be a bit more common and a 4K option should at least be normal.

        But there’s still a lot more that could be done at 1080p30.

      • I agree. However, I’m very happy with the current visual fidelity and was passing an opinion on whether I’d be happy with the way things look now (as a benchmark going forward) with improved performance from a technical perspective as oppose to the graphics being ramped up from a polygon/effects/texture perspective.

        Then again, it’s only the community that gets its knickers in a knot over all of this and I’ve not avoided a game because it’s 30 fps, that’s for sure. The devs usually know what they’re doing.

  5. Been so disappointed with this generation. Struggle to name even 5 essential games.

    • There have been some superb games out there but the only thing I can assume is that you’re going off the boil a smidge with the current gen for a different reason. From a critical perspective, we’ve had some absolute belters. To be fair, I remember feeling a touch “meh” to video games a couple of generations ago and just took a break from it/playing for a year or so. Was so much happier after that.

    • Fortnite. Horizon Zero Dawn. Metal Gear V. Bubble Bobble.

    • It’s been an adequate (occasionally great) gen for Playstation on the whole and Nintendo seem to be bouncing back after the Wii U debacle. But it’s been absolutely abysmal for XBOX. Couldn’t have been any worse for them tbh.

    • Alien: Isolation
      Assassins Creed IV
      Assassins Creed: Origins
      Batman: Arkham Knight
      Bloodborne
      Crash Bandiccot: N Sane Trilogy
      Days Gone
      Destiny
      Detroit: Become Human
      Dishonored 2
      DOOM
      Dragon Age: Inquisition
      Driveclub
      Dying Light
      Evil Within 2
      Fallout 4
      Far Cry 5
      Far Cry: Primal
      Ghosts of Tsushima
      God of War
      Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
      Homefront: Revolution
      Horizon Zero Dawn
      InFamous: First Light
      InFamous: Second Son
      Jurassic World: Evolution
      Just Cause 3
      Knack
      Knack II
      Last of Us Part II
      Little Big Planet 3
      Mad Max
      Metro Exodus
      MGS V
      Mirrors Edge: Catalyst
      No Man’s Sky
      Prey
      Ratchet & Clank
      Red Dead Redemption 2
      Resident Evil 7
      RIME
      Rise of the Tomb Raider
      Shadow of Mordor
      Shadow of the Colossus
      Spider-man
      Spyro Trilogy Reignited
      Star Wars: Battlefront
      Sunshine Overwatch
      The Last Guardian
      The Order: 1886
      The Witcher III
      Uncharted 4
      Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
      Until Dawn
      Vampyr
      Watch Dogs 2
      Wolfenstein II

      To name just a few (released & upcoming). Surely there are five in there? I’ve missed loads off too – Mostly Nintendo because I’m not familiar.

      It’s not been a bad gen really on the whole, depending on which console you own I guess. Not very experimental or daring but some great games in there.

      • *Sunset

      • Definitely some games in that list I’ve enjoyed, but they’re pretty much all sequels. Nothing that massively stands out as essential. I think Rockstar’s lack of releases this generation has been particularly disappointing.

      • You’ve definitely got your priorities right, as you name the best game of this gen first. ;o)

      • Even if it wasn’t alphabetical, this game would be at the top of the list :D

  6. Yeah, you could be right. I just look back at the huge variety there was on PS1/2/3. I had literally hundreds of games. PS4, I reckon I’ve only played about 50 and can’t really think of even one that stands out. Red Dead Redemption 2 will probably be all I remember from the generation in years to come.

  7. Wouldn’t TLoU, Beyond Two Souls and Puppeteer be considered final phase PS3 games? GTA V and TR reboot were around the same timeframe too.

    • They would, yes.

    • And Shadow of the Colossus was PS2, was it a new game or a polished remaster?

  8. Nothing particularly new as most life cycles aim for an average 6 years or so and we’re 4 and half years in now.

    They’ll no doubt be looking into PS5, but a significant jump in technology (and it being commercially accessible) wouldn’t arrive until around 2020.

    It will be interesting to see how GCN limitations will be handled, including whether they clock chips higher and take advantage of better thermal efficiency, or rely on checkerboarding and dynamic res. I can see form factor playing a massive role in how far the raw specs are pushed too.

    In some ways Sony have their work cut out to R&D some strategies in console design and look at some software engineering.

  9. A very odd life cycle model they seem to have, as the final stage is usually phase-out, and they’ve not even reached that with the PS3.
    Given they still sell an awful lot of PS4s, currently seem to beat all other consoles on the market by a wide margin, it would seem quite stupid to bring the new console too early on.
    But, of course, MS completely messed up this gen, so they’ve a strong interest to kick off next gen, in the hope to get back into the game.

    • Rumours circling around the industry that Microsoft are at the end of the road, and they won’t be participating in consoles next gen. It’s not part of their core technology, doesn’t fit with their direction and doesn’t make them money either (unlikely to even break even after development costs are factored)

      For a console release in 3 years, you need to be already working with component suppliers, and Microsoft aren’t…

      • Well, MS has always been a software and not a hardware company, so that would make some sense. However, I would definitely regret that, as Sony needs a strong competition, otherwise we consumers suffer for it.

  10. I wish they’d done a PS4 Resistance game, I’d be happy with a remaster.

    I think I need to crank up the PS3 now :)

    • I discovered the Resistance games really late on (after R3 had been released) and thought they were brilliant. The third one was my favourite. I agree, I’d love them to make another.

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