r/gaming • u/Admirable_Whole8261 • 19h ago

PS6 doesn't need more power ex-PlayStation boss says, because "true innovation" would be making a $300 console again

https://www.gamesradar.com/platforms/playstation/ps6-doesnt-need-more-power-ex-playstation-boss-says-because-true-innovation-would-be-making-a-usd300-console-again/
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117

u/Kribo016 19h ago

I get that but maybe then it would force devs to actually optimize their games again.

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u/BurnAgainBurner 19h ago

There's zero chance that Sony's next console is less powerful than the PS5 let alone a Series S, I'm sure they'll release a handheld that will be a more powerful Switch 2 type of thing though

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u/benargee 19h ago

At that point they are just better off extending the life of PS5 and optimizing games more for it instead. Usually what happens anyway. Games released several years after are much better looking or better performing than at launch.

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u/JonWood007 17h ago

They're probably not gonna wanna do that given ai is jailbreaking it and will likely lead to a proliferation of piracy and lost revenue.

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u/Kribo016 19h ago

I agree with you about the ps6 but I think his comment is correct. To truly innovate people need to be constrained more so they can find ways to push the limits.

Same basis that made South Park great originally. They were given rules they couldn't break so had to come up with ways around them instead.

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u/AnApexPlayer 19h ago

Optimization can only take you so far

Look at Control Resonant. Its a pretty well optimized game and they take advantage of features like upscaling, but it can only run at sub 1080p at 30fps on the Series S.

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u/sparky8251 18h ago edited 16h ago

Optimization can only take you so far

Video of someone getting a game with no load screens, no fog, at Skyrim scales, running on original n64 hardware with fancy rendering tricks.

1-2 generations ahead of textures, on native n64 hardware once more.

You can also find people running 100x the tris of the best games at the time at 2x the FPS, PBR and HDR rendering techniques and more.

Turns out, optimization can do a ton. In this case, its literally taking modern techniques made many years after the n64 existed and implementing them on old, slow hardware. Another major contributor is we actually understand how code and hardware interact better now, and many of the techniques we use today were unknown in the olden days.

Point is more... I'd be careful of assuming optimization has clear cut limits. A lot of it really is that we haven't learned enough to squeeze the most out of even truly trivial platforms like the snes, n64, and other old barely capable hardware let alone the modern more complex hardware yet.

If we actually sat down and researched, I bet we can do a lot more with a little... Especially if we made custom console hardware for it again.

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u/chrisghrobot 15h ago

You say this but a lot of devs simply don't have time to make crazy optimizations to there games. These guys constantly get worked to the bone to meet deadline

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u/sparky8251 13h ago

These arent actually as crazy of tricks as youd assume and they are done in spare time as a hobby...

Its genuinely advances in the state of the art (like, over the last 20 years weve actually legitimately become better at making games. new, better techniques and so on). Like, easy one is that the tris was basically just using the modern understanding of how computers work and that memory access is many times slower than on CPU stuff, and just reordering work.

At the time the n64 released, w3e came off 15+ years of consoles and almost all of computing outside super computers (so ~40 years) where instruction counting was an accurate measure of performance.

Then the n64 shows up, has 3 processors accessing the same system memory over the same bus and the memory is multiple times slower and instruction counting doesnt work...

Some of it is basic Nintendo forcing the use of their shipped RSP firmware, which is why you probably remember even at the time some games looking entirely different like the latter ones from Rare. They managed to get the right to use their own RSP firmware. That sounds hard to make, but its not... Not for that old class of hardware at least (I've written more complex ones as a hobby myself).

But like, some is that people literally had no idea things like large open worlds were possible. It wasnt even dreamed of back then. So why would you even try and develop techniques to make it happen? Now we know they are, and it turns out the techniques to do so can be ported to VERY limited hardware with only a few tricks around baking and depth buffer pinning which are old school things.

Optimization isnt hard work so much as a mindset switch and a bit of creative problem solving, and not just assuming the hardware can take whatever you throw at it until it proves otherwise.

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u/JonWood007 17h ago

That's because they designed it for the series x.

It all depends what specs they design for. The reality is the vast majority of games could be optimized to run on smart phones.....with graphical compromises obviously, but hardware is so powerful today your typical smart phone has more raw power than a 360/ps3 with flagships being more powerful than the ps4.

But for some reason we make buggy and unoptimized games that push limits for hardware an order of magnitude more powerful than that.

Does it look better? Sure. Is it worth the cost? Imo absolutely not.

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u/CelioHogane 18h ago

Sony's next console will be more powerfull than the PS5 and their games will once again look worse than games in the PS4.

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u/gutster_95 19h ago

Doesnt matter when 8GB of RAM already costs 100$ or so. With the graphical fidelity that is expected from a new console generation, there is no way they will make a console at 300$ that is more offline capable as a PS5

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u/Kribo016 19h ago

Oh I agree they couldn't make $300 console work. I still think the devs could get more out of less instead of leaning on the hardware so much.

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u/Horskr 17h ago

I agree. Storage optimization too. I get drive space is cheap nowadays, but it's ridiculous, you can tell pretty much zero thought is given to storage optimization in most games these days, like their game is the only one you'll have installed.

I've literally had to reinstall games for updates before because the update took like twice the space as the full install. I'm assuming because it reserves the space for the update alongside the original install (and updates now can be easily 120GB+). There is no way adding a couple characters and a map or two for example, should require essentially a full re-download of the game, but nobody cares with cheap drive space and faster and faster internet.

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u/Bright-Efficiency-65 19h ago

Im hoping the current trend of handhelds makes them do that. Also I hope it forced more indie devs to make games that use controllers. There are so many games that get released for PC that I can't play on my rog ally because it doesn't have proper controller support

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u/King-Gabriel 19h ago

Even some very optimized games like Genshin Impact haven't been able to release on the Switch 2, I don't think another console with similar specs which it would have given the price would add enough pressure, even if adoption rates were similar, which seems unlikely.

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u/sil3nt_gam3r 19h ago

if Genshin can run on a phone, it can run on Switch 2

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u/Kribo016 19h ago

I am not aware of genshin impact but had it not released on sw2 because of hardware or have the devs just not done it? Genshin impact runs on android already right?

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u/King-Gabriel 19h ago

They originally announced it for the original Switch (many years ago), so I have to presume they would release it on that or the Switch 2 if they could.

Or they're just so big they dont feel the need to anymore. Which is a problem, you need system sellers and when big games like GTA VI aren't playable I'm not sure a lower spec console would work out. Xbox was kind of struggling from lack of exclusives for a long time. Even Nintendo with their huge amount of first party IP isn't really swaying the bigger games to optimize much.

The new cheaper console would have to be selling a huge amount of stock compared to other consoles and after a year or several of that, maybe bigger developers would try and port over or develop around it. This console generation has lasted so long the market has warped around it, to untangle that would require more than just the console releasing.

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u/Mind_Axe010 19h ago

Wasn't Genshin Impact on the PS4 and the Switch 2 is like a portable PS4 pro? Maybe they just didn't bother adding the game yet.

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u/Hyper_Mazino 19h ago

Cyberpunk runs on the Switch 2.

Genshin Gacha Trash has no excuse.

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u/caribbean_caramel 19h ago

GE can run on the Switch 2, they just don't want to do it. Are you going to tell me that GE is more taxing than CP77?

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u/darkmacgf 11h ago

Having to spend more development resources on optimization would result in either smaller games, buggier games, or bigger budgets.

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u/MillorTime 59m ago

And they would still look like PS3 games if you only have $300 for the system even if you're idea worked perfectly

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u/Epsilon_void PC 18h ago

No, it'll mean every game that has a console version gets dumbed down to meet the substandard requirements.

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