Sony PlayStation Boss Explains Creation of the PS4 Pro
The Guardian recently spoke to Sony Interactive Entertainment Head Andrew House, who talked about the recently unveiled PlayStation 4 Pro. This is a new version of the PS4 that will provide users with UHD 4K content and streaming video services such as Netflix and YouTube.
According to House,PlayStation isn’t moving to 4K UHD discs for the console. According to him, there’s not enough consumer interest there to support the format for PlayStation 4 Pro. He stated, “Our feeling is that while physical media continues to be a big part of the games business, we see a trend on video towards streaming. Certainly with our user base, it’s the second biggest use case for people’s time on the system so we place more emphasis on that area.”
PlayStation 4 Pro’s reveal comes not long after the announce of the Project Scorpio for Microsofts Xbox. In addition, there’s the new Xbox One S. It seems this is a break from the usual lifecycle for home video game consoles. On that subject, House commented: “I think that since this is our first foray into this kind of mid-cycle innovation, it’s far too early to call that. We think that for a really substantial period of time this is the PlayStation 4 lineup. We’re very comfortable with that.”
House proclaimed that Sony started developing the Pro version of PS4 when there wasn’t a word on the market about the Project Scorpio. He added: “When Playstation 4 Pro was being conceived there wasn’t a word about Project Scorpio in the marketplace. I would suggest that ‘reactive’ isn’t our approach this time around. Lifecycles take on, at a certain point, a sense of momentum. Thanks to the efforts of great developers around the world and consumers that have placed their trust in us, we’re 40m units into this lifecycle. Our declared goal is to be a further 20m units above that by the end of next year. At that point we’ve got a pretty good sense of where the momentum of the lifecycle is, but I think the Pro can be something new, innovative and possibly take us in a slightly different direction.”
It was actually the PC that influenced the creation of the PlayStation 4, House says. He went on, “I saw some data that really influenced me.” He continued: “It suggested that there’s a dip mid-console lifecycle where the players who want the very best graphical experience will start to migrate to PC, because that’s obviously where it’s to be had. We wanted to keep those people within our eco-system by giving them the very best and very highest [performance quality]. So the net result of those thoughts was PlayStation 4 Pro – and, by and large, a graphical approach to game improvement.”
The PlayStation 4 Pro arrives on November 10.