According to a gaming industry analyst, Sony has told its first-party studios to shift their focus to PlayStation 5 titles, with many of them already tinkering with the company’s brand new dev kits.
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Daniel Ahmad, who is known for his fairly accurate inside information, shared the goss in a ResetEra thread (spotted by IGN), saying that “in general, most of the focus for Sony [first party studios] is on PS5 right now. It is still early to talk about next gen but I imagine we’ll hear some whispers come out of GDC.”
On top of that, he says “PS5 dev kits are out there and I’ve heard positive things about it.” In other words, an early, but decent representation of what the PS5 is gonna be is already in the hands of those who make its games.
It’s important to note, however, that this doesn’t necessarily mean the PS5 is coming anytime soon. Remember that games, particularly AAA titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, are often in development for upwards of five years, so just because studios are working on games for the PS5, there’s a good chance they’re a long way off completion. But nevertheless, it’s good to know they can begin testing them on Sony’s new hardware.
Ahmad also says the company has “a couple of unannounced games (already existing IP) with PS4 in mind,” so there’s still plenty to come for the current console, even though it’s certainly towards the end of its life cycle.
According to a recent report which surveyed around 4,000 game studios, 18 per cent of them said they’re currently working on games for next-gen hardware, so it makes sense that a form of that hardware – or at least an idea of the punch it’ll pack – is known to developers.
I’d wager the earliest we’ll see a new console release is in 2020, but who knows, Xbox boss, Phil Spencer, says it will go big at this year’s E3, given Sony has already announced it won’t be there. Maybe it’ll give us a peek at its new hardware, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
