Sony comments on PS5 – “it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware”

Until now, Sony has not commented on the possibility of next-generation console hardware, but with the confirmation that Microsoft is working on multiple Xbox consoles at E3 2018, the writing was on the wall that the next generation of consoles was on the horizon. 

When speaking to the Financial Times, Sony’s CEO Kenichiro Yoshida stated that “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware,” confirming that a “PS5 console is in development. 

At this time it is unknown whether or not Sony will name their console the PS5, though given the strength of the brand it would be foolish to call the console anything else. 

With next-generation consoles, we believe that it is likely that Sony will wish to maintain backwards compatibility with today’s PS4 and PS4 Pro systems, making the transition to new hardware a cleaner process than the move from PS3/Xbox 360 to PS4/Xbox One. Ensuring backwards compatibility will require Sony to build the PS5 with similar hardware architectures to the PS4, which likely means that PS5 will contain an x86 processor and a Radeon graphics card. 

The financial times also commented that Sony’s next-generation console “might not represent a major departure from the PS4, and that the fundamental architecture was similar.”, further fueling our hypothesis that Sony’s next-generation console will be backwards compatible with their existing hardware. 

Rumour has it that Sony is working closely with AMD on their next-generation Navi graphics architecture, hoping to utilise its features to offer increased performance within their next-generation console platform. At this time Sony is likely to continue working with AMD on console hardware, given their ability to create custom graphics silicon for their partners and strong x86 processors.