In a report that comes to us via the Wall Street Journal, the PS5 (if Sony follows their established naming convention) will focus on hardcore gamers to differentiate itself from its competition.
With the PS4 being the dominant console on the market, it makes sense for Sony to double down on the core demographic that have put them in their current position. The Ps4 is expected to pass 100 million units sold this year, and market analysts expect the fifth-generation console to ready for market by the holiday season 2020.
The report goes on to say that Sony considers Microsoft its major competitor for the next generation, with Google’s Stadia becoming a potential threat in the mid to long term as internet technology advances. We learned more about Stadia, including its pricing model, earlier this month during the Stadia Connect live stream.
Sony’s strategy to achieve dominance of the hardcore market is to focus on its devoted fans that buy big budget titles, citing the Fallout and Red Dead Redemption series as examples of this.
There will also be a renewed focus on Sony’s heavy-hitting, big-budget exclusives, many of which are already in production.
Interestingly, according to a company official, Sony does not perceive Nintendo to be a major rival. This is because the core Nintendo demographic skews much younger than the audience Sony is aiming for.
This does mean that some executives at smaller game studios are feeling like they have been snubbed by Sony in favor of larger developers. Sony is not planning on showcasing independent developers at Tokyo Game Show later this year, something that used to be a focus for the company.
A Sony official said that the company still welcomes games from indie studios, but its emphasis will be on strengthening relationships with larger publishers as resources are limited. The thought behind this, according to the official, is that people buy consoles to play high-quality games only available on that platform, not those that are available on smartphones.
As is always the case, take the information gleaned from this report with a grain of salt. While it is in line with a lot of similar news we have heard about Sony’s next-gen, its not official until we hear it from Sony themselves. You can read the report in full for yourself, here.
