Abstract:
Former PlayStation head Sean Lydon is skeptical about the market prospects of next-generation consoles. He said that if PS6 and Xbox Project Helix can only bring minor technical upgrades, consumers may not be willing to pay for this high-priced new product.
As the prices of the current generation of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles continue to rise, many analysts predict that the price of the next generation of consoles may reach around US$1,000. But Leyden believes that it is difficult to drive sales at this price.
He said in an interview with "The Expansion Pass" podcast: "I do think that if we just upgrade the light tracing effect and improve the floating point computing performance, I don't know if such a selling point can impress consumers and make them willing to spend $1,000. Has the technology entered some kind of bottleneck period? Simply 'faster and more beautiful' is no longer the core goal, nor is it enough to form product differentiation?"
The former Sony executive also likened the generational leap from PS1 to PS2 to the iteration of VHS tapes to DVD. "Once you have seen the picture quality of DVD, you will never be able to go back to watch VHS." He said that today's generational replacement of consoles no longer brings the same strong improvement in experience as it did in the past.
He added: "Then technological development begins to peak and the improvement curve is no longer steep. If consumers are required to pay more for this experience upgrade, and the improvement is very subtle... everyone may reconsider whether to buy it."
Leyden also talked about subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass. He believed that adding games to the subscription library at launch would greatly increase the difficulty for developers to make profits.
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