PlayStation CEO Talks Cross-Generational Play, More PS5 Details

The PlayStation 5, or whatever Sony finally calls it, is still a little way off. However, that hasn’t stopped PlayStation President and CEO Jim Ryan from sharing details about the upcoming next-gen console. 

Speaking with CNET, Ryan said that it’s important to maintain the overall PlayStation ecosystem, and that cross-generational play is a key factor in achieving that goal. Because the PlayStation 5 will be backwards compatible, users will be able to play games on their PlayStation 4s as well as their PS5s.

More importantly, though, PS5 players will be able to play games with PS4 owners. Players won’t be forced to immediately upgrade their hardware to play with their friends. Ryan told CNET: 

Whether it’s backwards compatibility or the possibility of cross generational play, we’ll be able to transition that community to next-gen.

It won’t be a binary choice about whether you have to be ether on PlayStation 4 or next-gen to continue your friendship.

Since its release in late 2013, the PlayStation 4 has sold some 91 million units, making it the third best-selling PlayStation console behind the PS2 and the PSX. 

Additionally, Ryan provided a few small tech tidbits about the upcoming console. While he previously shared some info on the system in an interview with Wired, Ryan told CNET that the system “will offer ultra-high definition 4K visuals at 120Hz” and that the system would come stock with a solid state hard drive, the latter of which will drastically decrease load times over the PlayStation 4. 

Ryan also spoke briefly about PSVR, although he provided no new details on the virtual reality hardware. However, we do know that the next PSVR will release after the PlayStation 5. That information also comes from a recent CNET interview with Sony’s Global Head of R&D Dominic Mallinson. 

While you can read the whole interview with Ryan over on CNET, where he talks about various topics including how games are marketed, as well as the possibility of an all-streaming future and Google Stadia, it’s worth mentioning that Ryan admits more concrete information on the PS5 will be coming. 

He said that the company will be as open as it can in an effort to combat leaks:

We wanted to make sure that the PlayStation fans had clear and unambiguous information from us instead of garbled nonsense third and fourth hand — some of it true, some of it perhaps certain times less true. This is just the start of the unveil process.