There's little doubt many are excited about the upcoming PS5 reveal, where fans will be seeing a slew of PS5 games and hopefully the console itself. Microsoft has sort of led the way so far this coming generation in terms of reveals, but now the ball seems to be in Sony's court. There's a good chance that the PS5 reveal sets the tone for the coming console, an evident fact given reports that Sony wants to go big.
Of course, there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff as well, and while no one has officially commented on the PS5's price yet (and likely won't for a few more weeks), Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan has commented on the cost of making PS5 games. In a recent interview, Ryan makes it clear that the PS5 global launch is set to all happen at once and was also asked about making games.
One conduit for this talk of prices is how expensive the Unreal Engine 5 PS5 Tech Demo made game development look, with Ryan's answer being vague about limitations but forward with price: “I think, to the extent that the technology enables the graphics side of it to become more interesting and life-like, [the games] will become slightly more human intensive and capital intensive to produce. So, yes, we think there probably will be an increase in development budgets.”
However, Ryan says it won't likely be a massive increase, with one focus also being to do it faster than ever before to provide a "fertile install base" to make games and monetize them. Ryan continues on to say, "if we can keep pace with a likely increase in development costs, then the industry can continue to prosper.” This echoes sentiments that the PS5 is incredibly easy to develop for, with many praising its background function while also stating the PS5's architecture is the best ever.
Of course, how this ultimately plays out remains to be seen, but there are 38 games currently in development for PS5. Even if the cost is slightly higher to make, devs really shouldn't have much trouble making and profiting given how popular the console already is, and the box hasn't even been seen yet. Next-gen is currently on its way, and whether that's the PS5 or Xbox Series X, everything seems to be going along as fluidly as possible amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PS5 releases Holiday 2020.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz