Globalization, rapid console generation transition, and ease of coding should help the PlayStation 5 match its predecessor's success
SIE boss Jim Ryan has revealed a lot about the business and planning behind the PS5 in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. The PlayStation executive talked about the firm’s reorganization and the importance of globalization. Ryan sees the need for globalization to help create a “massively more streamlined” process in regard to the PS5’s development. Hermen Hulst, who was managing director of SIE subsidiary Guerrilla Games, has recently been made the head of PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios and this is just one example of how the company has been reinventing itself in time for the launch of the PS5 in Holiday 2020.
Along with adopting globalization as an appropriate philosophy for a console series that appeals to gamers around the world, Ryan also discussed the need for SIE to get those same gamers to move from the massively successful PS4 to the PS5. Although it could be argued that the PlayStation boss has little to worry about as it’s more than likely PS5 sales will go through the roof, with consumers already excited about the hardware the next-generation console is bringing with it, being a savvy business leader means he can’t just assume a product will be successful.
With that in mind, Ryan wants SIE to motivate the PlayStation’s large and active community to transition between console generations “at a scale and pace that we've never delivered on before”. Whether there’s any hidden meaning behind that statement is difficult to say, but there have been rumors that the price of the PS5 will be set at a level that can be considered “affordable” to most concerned gamers. Whether there will be other carrots dangled in the near future to help wean dedicated gamers off their trusty PS4 consoles and on to the successor remains to be seen.
Lastly but not unsurprisingly, the SIE CEO also spoke about the “make or break” status of the games that will make people want to buy a PS5. He mentioned that game-makers have told him how “the ease in which they are able to get code running on PlayStation 5 is way beyond any experience they've had on any other PlayStation platform”, which is understandably promising from a business perspective when forecasting how well the PS5 could perform. Will it eventually make 100 million sales like the PlayStation, PS2, and PS4 before it? Possibly. Will it be a smash hit upon release and manage to convince gamers to part with their PS4 machines? Probably.
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