The PlayStation 4 - Page 43

Over the past month, I’ve spoken to dozens of game developers, across a variety of disciplines and studios, about the next generation of consoles. Of those, two people said they were directly familiar with plans for Sony’s new console. Those two people both told me that the next PlayStation is unlikely to release in 2019, let alone 2018, although they were careful to be clear that these plans are always shifting. “On a multi-year project, a lot can happen to shift schedules both forward and backward,” one person said. “At some point, Sony’s probably looked at every possible date. It’s all about what they think is the best sweet spot in terms of hardware.” A surprise move by Microsoft or another competitor, for example, could trigger a change in plans.

Most of the developers I spoke to, via phone and email and text, said they had not heard anything about plans for a new PlayStation. Even employees at Sony’s first-party studios said they have not yet been briefed on the existence of a PlayStation 5. People across all the disciplines (design, art, engineering, etc.) at major studios working on games scheduled for 2019 and beyond have told me that if there is information about the PS5 at their companies, they haven’t heard about it. (Those people said they haven’t heard about a new Xbox, either.)

In summary: There is information about the PlayStation 5 floating around at both first- and third-party companies, but it’s far more limited than it would be if the console’s release was imminent.

Last week, an article from a website called Semiaccurate alleged that a large number of PlayStation 5 development kits had gone out to game makers. The article also speculated that the console could be out by the end of 2018. This article is behind a paywall—“Pricing is $1,000 for a year’s worth of access”—but ResetEra rounded up some of the details. When I showed those details to one person familiar with Sony’s plans, they laughed. For the PlayStation 5 to be out this fall, they said, it would already be in manufacturing. (And if that was the case, it’d come as a big surprise to a lot of people who are making games for this fall and beyond.)

PlayStation 5 development kits are another question. A development kit is a proprietary piece of hardware that allows game-makers to build and optimize games for a specific console. It usually comes with proprietary software, too, such as a console’s operating system and other “debug” features that allow developers more access to the hardware than they’d have with a retail device. It’s possible to replicate a console’s development environment by using software on a computer, and these days, game engines like Unity and Unreal can facilitate that process, but in order to release games on the PlayStation, developers will ultimately need the tools and licenses provided by devkits. These development kits are especially useful for debugging and preparing for certification, the process that Sony uses to test and approve of new games.

Sega will release remastered versions of Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, and Yakuza 5 for PlayStation 4, the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation reveals.

Here is the Japanese release schedule:

• Yakuza 3 – August 9 for 3,990 yen (includes soundtrack download code)
  
• Yakuza 4 – Fall 2018
  
• Yakuza 5 – Spring 2019

The remasterd releases will have improved resolution and frame rates.

The magazine clarifies that the contents of the remasters will be the same as the original games, but will run in 1080p resolution and at 60 frames per second. Development on the Yakuza 3 remaster is currently 90 percent complete.

A principal programmer at Sony associated with the firm's Advanced Technology Group is working with AMD's Ryzen technology, improving the Zen core's micro-architecture support within the LLVM compiler stack - a key component of a tool used in the PlayStation 4 development environment. Of course, there is no PS4 product using the Ryzen processor, leading to speculation that this is related to a prospective next-gen PlayStation 5 console currently in development.

The evidence - unearthed by Linux-specialist site Phoronix - shows the highly experienced Sony programmer making a number of commits to the LLVM github over the last few weeks, all of them related to the "znver1" architecture, the codename for AMD's first generation Ryzen processors. On top of that, information on LinkedIn confirms the staffer's involvement in compiler development for PlayStation hardware. Game credits in Media Molecule's Tearaway and Evolution Studios' DriveClub confirm that the developer is also a part of Sony's Advanced Technology Group, which serves a number of roles in the Sony organisation.

TOKYO—Don’t hold your breath for the fifth-generation PlayStation.

Sony Corp. SNE -1.81% wants to spend three more years readying its next videogame move, the head of the PlayStation business said Wednesday. That would mark a slight slowdown in the six-to-seven-year update cycle for the console since the first one in 1994. The PlayStation 4 went on sale in 2013 and has sold more than 79 million units.

“We will use the next three years to prepare the next step, to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future,” said Tsuyoshi “John” Kodera, who took over last October.

Mr. Kodera spoke a day after Sony’s new chief executive, Kenichiro Yoshida, released his first three-year business plan. It included a conservative forecast for the videogame business, seeing operating profit in the final fiscal year of the plan, ending March 2021, slightly lower than the $1.6 billion it made in the year ended March 2018.

Sony has been shifting its PlayStation focus from hardware to online subscription services, including a $60 annual package that includes games and multiplayer features. That service, PlayStation Plus, had 34 million users as of March, fitting the new CEO’s goal of adding revenue sources that are more stable than volatile hardware and software sales.

Speaking to a small group of reporters, Mr. Kodera said the network-services side of PlayStation is changing the way Sony thinks about product introductions.

“We need to depart from the traditional way of looking at the console life cycle,” he said. “We’re no longer in a time when you can think just about the console or just about the network like they’re two different things.”

Mr. Kodera said the company is looking at ways to better incorporate mobility into the PlayStation, traditionally a living-room console. Nintendo Co.’s popular Switch machine can be used both in the home and as a portable device.

Sony sells the hand-held PlayStation Vita, but Mr. Kodera said that when it comes to mobility, the company doesn’t want to limit itself to a single dedicated device. “We need a broader perspective than that because so many things are now connected via the internet,” he said.

One challenge for Sony is competing against companies with broader subscription offerings in entertainment, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc.

Mr. Yoshida, the CEO, said in a separate group interview that PlayStation’s subscription services provide valuable consumer-spending data. He said PlayStation Vue, an internet television service in the U.S. that has struggled to match Amazon and Netflix, is bringing in useful user data and Sony had no plans to shut it down.

On May 24 2018 12:26 GTR wrote:
it looks way too fucking bright to be a ww2 game ugh

It’s been a good year for Sony, from its hardware and software sales to the number of people subscribed to its premium services. In its recent Corporate Strategy Meeting and IR Day events in Japan, the company talked about current sales figures, user numbers and numerous other milestones.

First off, the PlayStation 4 has sold 79 million units worldwide as of March 31st 2018. Though the company indicated that it sold that much, this is a confirmation of actual sales numbers. PlayStation Network has over 80 million monthly active users as of the same date, which is noteworthy given the number of PS4 owners. Overall, as of the final week in December 2017, PS4 players averaged over 800 million hours of gameplay per week.

Fiscal year 2017 software sales for PS4 were at 246 million units while PlayStation Plus subscribers are at 34.2 million for the same period. Keep in mind that since many of these figures are as of the fiscal year ending, the actual numbers will likely be higher.

PlayStation doesn't have a mascot as such, even if there are plenty of contenders - Nathan Drake, Sackboy or maybe even just Toro the cat - but none of them can really hold a candle to Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony's Worldwide Studios who's become the friendly face of PlayStation in recent years. This week at Develop in Brighton, he took to the stage with the dashingly handsome Edge editor Nathan Brown to talk through his 25 years at the company, and some of the difficulties faced in the various hardware transitions PlayStation has seen over the years.

Yoshida started his tenure at PlayStation in February 1993, working as part of the small team led by Ken Kutaragi that was behind the original hardware. "[At the time there was a] Silicon Graphics workstation, which was around $100k - and Ken said he's making a machine of that power that'll be available for less than $500," Yoshida recounted onstage. At first Yoshida didn't believe that was possible, but when someone told him Kutaragi wasn't full of hot air he decided to sign up to the project.

Those early years saw Yoshida and those around him sign some deals that would be pivotal in the success of the PlayStation - and in sowing the seeds for future generations - as Square was convinced to move away from Nintendo and bring Final Fantasy 7 to Sony, with Enix soon following suit with the Dragon Quest series. Yoshida himself also found himself working in a producer role on games such as Crash Bandicoot and the first two Motor Toon Grand Prix games from a certain Polyphony Digital - which would then go on to make Gran Turismo, another game that proved instrumental in the PlayStation's early success.

And amidst that rabble of games there was a new adventure game from Fumito Ueda and Team Ico, which found itself suffering from technical difficulties on the original PlayStation. "I moved development from PS1 to PS2," Yoshida recalled of the project that would become Ico. "Sounds familiar, right?"

The transition from PlayStation 1 to PlayStation 2 was an eye-opening process for Sony. "We had no idea how the industry went about it," said Yoshida, whose teams were busy finishing up the original Ape Escape for PlayStation 1 before they were split up to work on smaller projects - one of them being Fantavision, a slim if enjoyable puzzle game that was one of the few first-party games to accompany the PS2's launch, a move that came in for some criticism at the time. ""It's not my fault!" joked Yoshida. "At least I had one game - it was all the other producers that didn't!"

That didn't stop the PlayStation 2 going on to become a success, even if it wasn't necessarily games that propelled it in those early month. "In Japan, the best-selling software [at launch] was actually The Matrix DVD!" said Yoshida. "DVD was just catching on, but it was still an expensive system."

By the time of the PlayStation 2's western release the line-up was bolstered, and throughout its lifespan Yoshida oversaw a shift in emphasis towards western games from US teams such as God of War and Naughty Dog's Jak & Daxter series. It was a fruitful time for PlayStation, though it all threatened to unravel with the arrival of the PlayStation 3, a machine that was notoriously difficult to create games for.

That small crisis led to the formation of a new team within Sony to help create a new team dubbed ICE - which stood for Initiative for a Common Engine - in order to help smooth development, and it led to a shift in philosophy at the company as Ken Kutaragi moved aside to make way for Kaz Hirai. "That was a huge cultural change," said Yoshida. "I met very big resistance when shifting people to this one common engine.

"Ken [Kutaragi] was such a brilliant engineer - the team that worked for Ken was so motivated, he was a great motivator. Maybe he was using video games as a stepping stone to realise his vision and dreams - he wanted to become the next Intel or something. He always approached developing game systems, up to PS3 - they work on a system just by themselves. And we weren't given access until it was done. He had trust with the developers - whatever he made, the top developers would be able to work on them and understand them. He didn't see the need to involve game developers in the design of the system - that's how the PS3 was made. And you know how successful it was."

Yoshida headed back to Japan, helping the studios work more closely together as Mark Cerny worked on the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 projects - and in the latter example, the shift towards working with developers and soothing development has helped make it a success, its sales ontrack to eclipse the PlayStation 3 this year. It marks the continuation of a cycle that's familiar from other hardware manufacturers, with Nintendo stumbling after the success of the Wii with the Wii U, and Microsoft also fumbling the follow-up to the Xbox 360 with the troubled launch of the Xbox One. So what can Sony take onboard as it prepares for another hardware transition in the not-too-distant future?

"It's human nature," said Yoshida. "People make mistakes. I don't know why. We're all human - we're not perfect. PS4 is doing so well, but we don't forget why we're here now."

Sony has come under fire recently for standing in the way of cross-platform play, something that will surely become a hot-button topic once the new generation of hardware is unveiled, with Microsoft and Nintendo happily playing alongside one another while PlayStation players are fenced off. Recent statements from PlayStation's own Shawn Layden have offered hope that Sony is taking feedback onboard. "We're hearing it," Layden said at Barcelona's Gamelab late last month. "We're looking at a lot of the possibilities. You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect a lot more than just one game. I'm confident we'll get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business."