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Sony Details Next-Generation PlayStation Console

Sony Interactive Entertainment's Mark Cerny, PlayStation 4 lead system architect and game designer, spoke with Wired magazine about the "next-gen console" that will be the successor to the PS4. The unnamed console has been in development for four years, and Cerny is again serving as the lead system architect. Cerny stated that the console will not launch in 2019.

Cerny hinted that the new console will allow "for fundamental changes in what a game can be." Multiple studios have been working with the console, and Sony recently accelerated its release of development kits for the console.

The console will feature an AMD chip with a custom unit for 3D audio. The graphics processing unit (GPU) will be custom variant of Radeon's Navi family and support ray tracing. The next-generation console will also have a solid-state drive (SSD) to drastically decrease loading times.

Cerny declined to comment if there will be a next-generation PlayStation VR unit for the new console. However, he said that the current PS VR headset is compatible with the new console.

The console will be backward-compatible with PS4 games, as it is partly based on the PS4's architecture. When the new console launches, Cerny confirmed that many new games will get releases for both the PS4 and new system.

Sony revealed in October that the PS4 has sold more than 86.1 million units worldwide as of September. Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida told Financial Times in October that "it's necessary to have a next-generation hardware." Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO John (Tsuyoshi) Kodera revealed in May 2018 that the PS4 console was entering the "final phase of its life cycle."

The PlayStation 4 console first launched in the U.S. and Canada in November 2013 and in Japan in February 2014. Sony shipped 7.5 million units during fiscal year 2013, 14.8 million in fiscal year 2014, 17.7 million in fiscal year 2015, 20.0 million in fiscal year 2016, and 19 million in fiscal year 2017.

Sony released the PlayStation Classic, a console pre-loaded with 20 games from the original PlayStation console's catalog, on December 3 (commemorating the December 3, 1994 release date of the original PlayStation).

Sony Interactive Entertainment will not attend the Entertainment Software Association's 2019 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) event in June. Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden explained that E3, held in June, is too late in the year for a trade show where the company has Christmas holiday discussions with retailers.

Sources: Wired (Peter Rubin) via Gematsu, Siliconera