PlayStation Future
Image: Push Square

Sony's just held a corporate strategy meeting in a bid to outline its plans for the company's future — but it's a separate interview with PlayStation Productions boss Asad Qizilbash that's really caught our eye. You may remember Qizilbash from a couple of PlayStation events that took place a few years back — a clearly charismatic speaker who's since gone on to lead the business' push into film and TV.

In the interview, Qizilbash is asked about what he thinks the future looks like for PlayStation and gaming in general — and his thoughts are actually quite eye-opening. Right off the bat, he says: "In terms of gaming's future, I envision games becoming more personalized due to advances in technology and AI, enabling customized experiences for each player."

Essentially, Qizilbash reckons that video games are going to become more and more about grabbing people emotionally, through enhancements to storytelling and design that tries to speak directly to the player.

"Technological advancements will enhance emotional depth in games by allowing characters to be much more emotive and expressive, fostering more evocative storytelling. That's going to help a whole generation of creators be able to just create so much more emotion in the stories," he predicts.

He continues: "The focus is going to shift from graphics or visuals to immersive narratives that resonate long after the controller is set down." Interesting.

Qizilbash also believes that we've turned a bit of a corner when it comes to adapting games into his line of work, across films and TV: "I truly believe some of the most imaginative worlds and creative stories are coming from video games. A sea change is coming where all the great creators are really leaning into video games, since many of them grew up playing games themselves."

We suppose it's hard to argue with that perspective when shows like The Last of Us have been such a huge success. But how does all of this eventually tie back into the gaming side of things?

It sounds like Qizilbash thinks that the two mediums are already intertwined, and it's only going to become harder to separate them: "I believe technology will democratize storytelling, making it more accessible and inexpensive for creators, and Sony is uniquely positioned to facilitate that. With the level of fidelity in video games now, there's an opportunity to repurpose assets from games for animation and live-action films, leveraging Sony's volumetric and virtual production capabilities."

He explains: "Gaming engines like Unreal are expanding beyond games and being used for virtual production, enabling creators to focus on storytelling rather than logistical constraints."

And then, as alluded, we get into the topic of artificial intelligence, or AI. Obviously this is part of a much bigger, ongoing conversation, but Qizilbash seems fairly positive about how AI can be used: "Advancements in AI will create more personalized experiences and meaningful stories for consumers. For instance, NPCs (Non Player Characters) in games could interact with players based on their actions, making it feel more personal."

He goes on: "This is important for the younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, who are the first generations that grew up digitally and are looking for personalization across everything, as well as looking for experiences to have more meaning." Sony's clearly thinking about the needs of its future audience.

Okay, so some of the quotes are a little corporate and filled with a bunch of buzzwords, but it's still the kind of outlook that makes you stop and think. Again, Qizilbash is high up the chain of command at PlayStation these days, and so he'll be partly responsible for the company's direction over the coming years. And according to him, it's all about engaging stories that can be told across various media, potentially with AI doing some heavy lifting.

What do you make of these quotes? Feel free to raise an eyebrow or two in the comments section below.

[source sony.com]