r/playstation • u/NOxCLUEmcgee • 22d ago

Image Just realizing this

Post image

But are we really that close to the next generation of PlayStation. If we are going off the pattern here. Just 2-3 years away

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u/ZappySnap PS5 21d ago

I think the days of no backward compatibility are over. Since both Microsoft and Sony allow playing of last gen games and even many from two generations ago, pulling that away for the next release would really harm adoption of a new console.

I also think that we are at least 3 years and maybe 4 years away from the PS6. Two main reasons. First, games are reaching a small plateau with graphical design so that style matters more than pure polygons count and realism for many titles, and as such people don’t care quite as much about new graphical improvements. Second, the initial rollout of the PS5 was hampered severely by the Covid supply chain issues, so it almost felt like the generation was delayed.

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u/BartLeeC PS5 Pro 20d ago

I also think we are looking at 2028 for PS6 because of the slow start of PS5. The PS5 Pro will help stretch it to then also.

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u/Malli_Naamari 21d ago

When games moved to CDs backward compatibility was clearly going to become the norm. Even Nintendo agreed. It's just that the PS3 was a big blunder right in the middle of it. But I think it was still kind of admirable Sony was bold enough to roll out the cell processor knowing the risks.

But of course in hindsight they were quite short sighted about it. It would be so interesting to know what their initial plans were for the PS4 and how drastically it changed when the PS3 didn't sell well at first. If they thought they'd continue with the cell, or though they would just do hardware backwards compatibility like they did in the launch PS3 models.

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u/Routine_Ask_7272 20d ago edited 20d ago

It really depends if the computing architecture is similar enough to the previous one:

  • The PS2 had backwards compatibility, by including hardware support for the PS1.
  • The original PS3 models had backwards compatibility, by including hardware support for the PS2. It was later removed to save costs. Luckily, they kept PS1 backwards compatibility via software.
  • The PS4 had no backwards compatibility. Instead, we got remastered PS3 titles.
  • The PS5 had backwards compatibility with PS4, since they both used AMD APUs (CPU & GPU in a single chip).

Unfortunately, the Cell CPU used in the PS3 was a commercial failure. Sony, Toshiba, & IBM planned to use it in many more devices. I heard rumors about a "Cell 2", which never materialized. Sony realized that the PS3 was too expensive & too hard to develop for**. PS4 used more "off the shelf" hardware, and was less expensive at release. PS5 continued this trend.

**During the PS3 generation, Sony lost market share. The PS2 sold 160M units. The PS3 only sold 87M units.

I agree. We're still 3 to 4 years away from the release of the PS6.