Sony boss confirms that the PlayStation 5 will happen, talks game development and PS4 Pro

The console wars have always been about a philosophical outlook than actual hardware and games. Microsoft wants to combine the Windows and Xbox gaming experiences into one and put a PC in your living room, Sony is working on VR and, frankly, incredible exclusives and Nintendo, well, it needs no introduction. Shawn Layden, the chairman of Sony Interactive Worldwide Studios spoke to German site Golem.de and revealed some more details about Sony’s philosophy going forward. In the interview, Layden spoke about the future of the PlayStation platform and addressed concerns about the platform adopting a smartphone-like upgrade cycle. Gamers were concerned that since the PlayStation 4 Pro was a mid-cycle refresh, Sony would start pushing out updated consoles on the same architecture every few years rather than a new console. Layden told Golem.de that the PS4 Pro was meant to address issues of 4K gaming, HDR and VR. He clarified that there would never be a PS4 Pro exclusive game, but also didn’t actually confirm or deny that more mid-cycle refreshes will happen. When asked, Layden did, however, confirm that a PlayStation 5 “will indeed happen”, but that it will take some time before we see one. When asked about games, Layden had some interesting insights. Being a Japanese company, Sony does have a large user base and pool of developers in Japan. Speaking of his early days in the company – he’s been there since 1987, Layden says that initially, western developers could simply not compete with Japanese developers in the market. Today, that gap has come down significantly. He adds that publishing high quality titles is much easier now. There’s no fixed season for publishing them. Overall, the interview revealed some rather interesting things about Sony and the PlayStation. However, there are still a lot more questions that need to be answered, and only time will tell how things will pan out.