Unnerved by Sony’s talk of delaying the PlayStation 6, and the price rise for the Nintendo Switch 2, a reader worries about the fate of the next generation.
In the last few months, we’ve had a lot of people saying that they wish Sony had never made the PlayStation 5 and that they don’t see a point in the PlayStation 6, given the cost of things nowadays and the very small improvement in graphics. I totally get this and in theory I agree but I think this would be a classic monkey paw situation where having that wish granted would result in complete disaster.
There have been a number of stories that have disturbed me this week and while the Nintendo Switch 2 price hike was not unexpected, I think the possibility of a PlayStation 6 delay is very worrying. Sony said it’s because of the memory shortage (which is because of AI, so that problem’s not going away) and they didn’t know when the PlayStation 6 is coming out or how much it would cost.
That does not sound like it’s likely to come out next year, but it does sound like it’s going to be very expensive. So we’re looking at a new console that could end up being even more than the already super expensive PS5 Pro, and that won’t be out till maybe 2028 or 2029. That is not a healthy situation and I have to ask at what point does Sony just write it off as a niche product or flat out cancel it?
Before you think I’m being silly, bear in mind that Microsoft has already all but admitted that Project Helix is going to be niche. They said it’s going to be expensive, and I don’t see how they can justify it having exclusives, so who is going to buy it? Only hardcore fans, I think, and it sounds like Microsoft agrees.
My worry is that the best case scenario is that the PlayStation 6 will be the same. A hyper expensive console with PC-like performance that will only be bought by a tiny percentage of people (PS5 Pro ownership is 13%, apparently). The worst case scenario is that Sony just cancel the PlayStation 6, since there’s no way they can make a decent profit off it, given the cost of memory and the tiny audience they’d be selling to.
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It doesn’t make any sense to make exclusive games for such a niche console so all you’re going to get is cross-gen PlayStation 5 games, which also defeats the purpose of releasing the console in the first place.
While some would probably celebrate that it’s not healthy for Sony or the games industry, especially when Microsoft is in the exact same position, and even Nintendo is having to rise prices. The memory crisis isn’t any of their fault (well, maybe Microsoft and their stupid AI push) but none of them have done anything to try and reduce the cost of making games and now that another problem is piled on top of them I worry it’s going to break at them.
People have been saying it for years, but I really worry that the games industry is in a death cycle at the moment. Things just keep getting worse and worse, and the number of healthy companies shrinks, the number of healthy franchises shrinks, and everything is ground down until there’s less and less of everything and the games industry is really just three company selling the same half a dozen games.
Indie developers and Japanese companies might be doing well at them moment, in terms of the quality of their games, but they’re not usually responsible for the most popular games around. The games industry can’t be just them without the whole thing becoming a niche hobby, where suddenly the budgets drop to next to nothing.
Maybe I’m wrong but please don’t dismiss what I’m saying as nonsense. Remember how thing were back in the glory days of the PlayStation 4, when Sony could do no wrong, the Switch 1 was a cheap second console, and the next Xbox was a chance for Microsoft to redeem themselves. Now look at how much worse everything has got since then, and how much worse it could get from now in the next generation.
By reader Jonesy
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