Shawn Layden: PS6 shouldn't be much more powerful

Former PlayStation president Shawn Layden explained his views on PS6 in an interview. According to Layden, the new console does not need to be much more powerful for its success. Moreover, according to him, the real innovation lies elsewhere.

Sony is currently continuing its investments in PS5. It is also stated that preparations for PS6 are continuing. There is a memory and storage crisis around the world. However, finance director Lin Tao said that everything was going as planned.

Rumors about PS6 are about more advanced ray tracing and more Teraflops. A teraflop is a measure of the amount of operations a processor can perform per second. These values ​​are important for technology enthusiasts. However, it may not carry the same weight for a casual player. Therefore, Layden emphasizes price, not power, in the discussion.

Layden said previous generations have brought innovation to the industry every time. For example, the transition from the first PlayStation to the PS2 was incredible in his opinion. So was the transition from CD to DVD. On the other hand, although PS4 is not completely network-based, it has achieved great success with its price tag of $ 399.

According to Layden, current consoles are already powerful enough. Therefore, the innovation would not be to produce a $1,200 PS6, but to produce a $300 PS5. Moreover, he interpreted the PlayStation and Xbox Series price hikes as seeing for the first time a platform whose price increased over time.

The basis of these increases is the memory and storage crisis caused by artificial intelligence. Layden thinks current prices are keeping the majority of potential buyers from entering the market. That's why he argues that a company should try something that hasn't been done before. So price, in his eyes, is the biggest obstacle to the console world.

As a matter of fact, Shawn Layden made the following suggestions for PS6: "Make the console smaller, make it cheaper, do everything you can about it. This is more than enough power to develop the kinds of games we all want to play."

Additionally, Shawn Layden says that the biggest innovation for PS6 should not be better graphics or higher performance. The main goal is to bring the consoles back to affordable prices for the masses. On the other hand, it is said that the new generation consoles may approach the $ 1,000 level. That's why he says affordability could be an important competitive advantage for Sony. So the discussion shifts from specifications to the price tag.