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Surprise Development Timeline
In just one week, Sony will begin selling the PlayStation 5 Pro, an upgraded version of the four-year-old base model of its current console. Since the announcement, the more powerful PS5 has stirred passions, particularly around the price tag and the actual impact on game quality, which will be discussed in more detail in the coming days. It may surprise you, however, to learn that while the PS5 Pro may seem like an expected but swift response to technology developments and gamer demands, Sony actually started work on the PS5 Pro before the base model was even released. In an interview with Variety magazine, Hideaki Nishino, one of the two general managers of Sony’s gaming division, confirmed this, adding that an intergenerational model was envisioned from the start.
Learning From Previous Generation
Nishino was first responding to a query about whether Sony was, for example, waiting to see what its competitors would do in the game console field, though only Nintendo and the impending announcement of a successor to the Switch were mentioned in the Variety editor’s question. To this, the director of Sony Interactive Entertainment replied that, given the upgraded version of the PlayStation 4, they already knew in advance what they were getting into and what they wanted to do, so they probably wouldn’t let the plans of others influence them too much. “So we have done Pro in the last generation. We learned a lot from there,” Nishino said. He also mentioned, “When we were selling PS4 Pro, in addition to the PS4, 20% of customers actually got the PS4 Pro. It was high-end, and it was a premium tier. So there are potential users acquiring those kind of units.”
Five-Year Vision and Technology Advancement
As for the revamped console preparations, he said, “So we started working on PS5 Pro even before PS5 launched — it was another five-year project for us.” Although Nishino admitted that at the very beginning, there were naturally debates about whether or not to create a Pro model, the vision of where gaming could be in terms of performance and the technologies above in 3-5 years’ time prevailed. “So the innovation and technological advancement is quicker in the modern world. Phones are updating every year, and PCs are updating every year. I don’t think we’d go with yearly updates, but there are things we can package together to bring the greatest things into the game console segment range. So that’s the vision,” Nishino explained.
Future Games and Hardware Integration
Regarding upcoming games, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst emphasized the importance of high-quality titles and careful portfolio planning. While “Ghost of Yōtei” has been announced for next year, Hulst highlighted how their teams actively participate in hardware development. “Teams like Team Asobi on ‘Astro Bot,’ that team is a prime example of early on, helping design, in addition to some schemes, the hardware features of the controller, creating demos for it,” Hulst explained. He also noted that sometimes these demos evolve into full products, showing how closely PlayStation’s software and hardware development are intertwined.
