It is no secret that the generational leap that we have seen with the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S hasn’t been as noticeable to some people. The emphasis that has been given to teraflops as a selling point for consoles does not mean much to many gamers, and this is something that the former SIE CEO is aware of, pointing out that companies should compete with content and not numbers.
In a recent interview with VGC, Shawn Layden, who served as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America and president of Worldwide Studios before leaving the company, was asked about how sustainable the video game industry is today. Here, the executive pointed out that Sony and Microsoft should compete with the content offered by their consolesand not the graphic power of each one, something that seems to have reached its limit. This is what he commented:
“We’ve done these things this way for 30 years, every generation those costs went up and we readjusted with that. We have reached the precipice now, where the center cannot hold, we cannot continue doing things we have done before.
We’re at what I call the ‘only dogs can hear the difference’ stage of hardware development.
If you’re playing your game and sunlight shines through your window onto your TV, you’re not seeing any ray tracing. It has to be super optimal… you have to have an 8K monitor in a dark room to see this stuff… We are fighting for teraflops and that is no place to be. We need to compete on content. By increasing the specifications of the case, I think we have reached the ceiling.”
This is something we have seen recently with the PlayStation 5 Pro, console that had a reception below expectations after it was announced that its price. Along with this, many do not believe that the visual jump is so noticeable for players in general. On related topics, the developer defends the price of the PS5 Pro. Likewise, some games will continue to have multiple visual options on the PS5 Pro.
Author’s Note:
Selling a console with games is complicated. From a marketing standpoint, saying that the Xbox Series If at the end of the day everything can run Fortnite and Call of Duty, it must be made clear where the best experience is. It’s not optimal, but it is what it is.
Via: VGC
