Looking ahead to this fall, enthusiasts and gaming fans are gearing up for the next console generation. Dedicated PlayStation and Xbox fans will be getting their new consoles this fall regardless of the circumstances, but more frugal consumers have to make an important decision this holiday season. Like Microsoft, Sony will be making its bid to convince players to opt in to the PlayStation ecosystem with the PS5. Even more importantly, fans will need to decide if they should purchase Sony’s console right away or remain patient until more games are released.
Even if info drops have been sparse and unconventional from Sony, the console is not delayed and is still on track to release this fall. Nobody knows a whole lot about the PS5 thus far, but from what we do know it’s possible the investment may be much greater this year compared to last generation. The question is whether it’ll be worth it for early adopters to get a PS5, or would it be better for everyone to wait until later on in the console’s life cycle.
High Demand, Low Supply
At the moment there’s only a select few games confirmed for the PS5, but that shouldn’t be the main detractor for consumers’ decisions this fall. PlayStation fans know the platform has adopted a games-first mentality since 2013, and with their already confirmed first and third-party titles, lack of amazing games won’t be the problem. The problem comes with justifying the high initial investment on the system itself, and how the price pairs with the cost of buying launch games as well. With reports stating the PS5’s increased price will lead to lower initial demand, Sony’s latest console may require a greater investment compared to any previous PlayStation before it.
Unfortunately, like many other industries around the world, the games industry is not immune to the effects of Covid-19. Manufacturing costs for the PS5 have risen for several reasons as a result: internal components like flash memory are high in demand and therefore cost more per system, as well as manufacturing in key countries has slowed to a halt due to many shelter-in-place orders across the world. Thus not only is supply going to be limited, but the parts and technology used to build the PS5 cost more to manufacture now. That’s not to say it means PS5’s will be few and far between, but the initial run of consoles will be smaller in comparison to console launches in the past.
Even when putting aside issues stemming from the state of the world’s economy right now, Sony’s next console is a tough commitment to sell. Sony has seen this issue in the past, with the PS3’s initially high selling price turning away long time PlayStation fans for the more affordable and more broadly supported Xbox 360. Mark Cerny’s The Road to PS5 presentation did outline some of the unique technological capabilities, like utilizing a proprietary SSD in the console to speed up load times. At the same time proprietary hardware may be perfect for first party titles, but third party developers won’t necessarily utilize that hardware to its utmost capability.
Justifying Proprietary Hardware
A similar situation could occur with the PS5, but it’s less likely now that both new consoles this generation have solid state drive storage hardware inherently. While the PS5’s SSD has special supplementary hardware to optimize load speeds even more, the only games to benefit from this technology will be first party. Third party developers design games to be applicable and shippable to as many formats at once (ideally), so dedicating additional development time for one platform in particular for a loading speed boost isn’t feasible.
PS3’s hardware had a similar but far more exacerbated version of this same problem. Developing games for the PS3’s software architecture was vastly more complicated because of its niche hardware construction and software structure, which is why many PS3 versions of games took longer to ship. PS5 likely won’t have this serious of a problem, considering texture streaming and loading optimization isn’t such a polarizing difference compared to developing a game for use with a standard SSD format. That being said, to some extent it does cheapen Sony’s efforts to push their console’s loading speed optimizations when many multi-platform games may not even use it.
To PlayStation’s benefit, they have announced the PS5 will have built-in backwards compatibility for the “overwhelming majority” of PS4 games at launch. Obviously the ability to play PS4 games on a PS5 is not the core desire of the console, but it is convenient for those who still have games in their backlog to play. Assuming enthusiasts or fans don’t have enough launch games to play, they at least have options to go back and play PS4 games without digging an old console out of the closet. In some cases, PS4 games could benefit from the increased graphical fidelity and processing power to play enhanced versions of their favorite titles. PS5’s backward compatibility is also software-based, so it won’t be taken out of future hardware like the PS3’s backwards compatibility was.
Benefits of Buying On Release
What does this all mean for the future of the PS5? It does paint a bigger picture that, depending on the lineup of launch games, there’s still plenty of reasons to opt in for the PS5 at launch. Even if players aren’t interested in the launch games specifically, but are interested in future projects, they still have some justifications to purchase a PS5 at launch. Players can still play many games from their PS4 library without having to keep their old console set up, and in some cases run the games at much better quality/performance thanks to the PS5.
At the same time, if the PS5’s price is a bit more on the expensive side like many reports claim, backwards compatibility and its launch lineup aren’t going to convince consumers outright. The console alone isn’t the biggest hurtle, but fans will also need to factor in the cost of $60 games, purchasing an online subscription, extra controllers for couch coop, and other exterior factors like a new 4K TV. A more expensive console means limiting consumer’s options at launch, which in turn might prompt fans to wait until they can afford what they want outright.
Overall there’s certainly pros and cons to adopting a new console upon release. Assuming fans can afford the PS5 but still have PS4 games to play, there’s still the opportunity to play them without making space for two consoles. If backwards compatibility isn’t a concern for fans, but the launch lineup is interesting, then there’s no real fault there either. But for those who can afford to wait, whether it’s for the price or the games, then opting in for the new console may not be worth the investment at first. Once the console is officially revealed, and consumers get a better idea what to expect this fall, enthusiasts and players should be able to formulate a final opinion on buying the PS5.
Sony’s PS5 is set to release holiday 2020.
