by 
Ken Kutaragi, nicknamed the father of PlayStation, has shared his thoughts on the modern gaming landscape.
Speaking at a recent panel during the opening ceremony of CEREC (Creative Entertainment Research and Education Center), he talks about how far games have come and their potential for the future, stressing that it's important for creators to keep pushing the envelope.
As reported by 4Gamer (translated by Automaton), Kutaragi discusses the game industry's impressive scale; the software market is valued at $186 billion, surpassing other media like film and music.
Despite this, he doesn't view it as a mature industry, because he feels it's yet to reach its limits and predicts there are still breakthroughs to be made in the space.
Kutaragi also feels that, while games have evolved a lot and are much more advanced than they used to be, they have stagnated in terms of the content they provide. He says the way games are made has not fundamentally changed since the arrival of the original PlayStation.
He goes on to say he feels the industry is reaching a turning point, where it can advance to the "next stage."
Kutaragi talks about how the PS1 was created with the intent to "change the world", and that the industry "created the world’s most cutting-edge technology" rather than followed it.
He urges students and industry professionals to adopt a similar mindset in order to keep things moving forward.
Finally, Kutaragi stresses the importance of human "curiosity", saying when you "lose your curiosity and think, this is probably as good as it gets, it's all over.
Having spearheaded the creation of Sony's first game console, he was CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment for around a decade before leaving the company.
He knows what he's talking about, then, and has been around to see the industry's growth from the very start.
What are your thoughts on Kutaragi's words of wisdom? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source 4gamer.net, via automaton-media.com, gamesradar.com]
Comments 70
I agree wholeheartedly. Sadly the industry seems to largely be in a state where curiosity is punished because shareholders want to chase trends and "easy" money, so taking risks is er...riskier if you want a stable job.
How about taking cover in 3rd person games automatically switches to 1st person so we stop cheating the enemy AI with our field of view for once. Limit to amount of loot or weapons you can carry, that slow encumbered walking is getting played out 😆. ND and R* are making headway in that regard, love RDR's satchels and the backpacks containing stuff in TLOU. Personally I'm for more immersion.
I agree in part with his sentiment (though I feel this is often overexaggerated), but it is often held back by more unique, or different, games failing to sell as many copies.
A middle ground needs to be reached between new and familiar (with things like remapping controls a standard).
This is also an industry where a good idea can get copied a hundred times, making it feel 'old' before it actually is.
Edit: just going to add, what doesn't help is where something 'new' is added, but misses a bit (or not), it can often be over criticised. Also, sometimes these things need a bit of tweaking from devs to get right.
The man ain't lying
I strongly disagree. This may be true in the AAA/AA space but the indies are flourishing with new ideas. It's too bad PlayStation doesn't have someone helping bring indies to PlayStation with the same urgency they used to .
I'll share what I read this week in a Doom Engineers/Developers black book, the code/etc was a mystery but the section about the Playstation One port did stand-out as innovative. I read it because I wanted to research the game before trying the IP and it's a good way to appreciate what went into making the game possible. I'm also reading 'Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture', 'Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters' and 'Doom Guy: Life in First Person'. Once they are done I'll try the game itself.
That's what the inside of one looked like. It was mainly hundreds of pages about the creation of the game, it's hard to find manuscripts like that and even harder to understand them.
These were the chips (for anyone technically minded)
I think that's the original Playstation One Devkit.
Curiosity should apply to the consumers as well. The reason many took the safer, effective routes is because only a few appreciate whenever devs make "curious" games. It's a hit-or-miss for them, and a "miss" nowadays is almost a death sentence to devs in a generation where basically nothing is cheap anymore.
For high profile AAA games, especially Sony/Microsoft first party games, sure. But there's so much innovation in the indie space.
Going to give an example for my earlier post.
Insomniac and their 'portal' tech first used in R&C, and then added for a brief section in SM2.
In my opinion, this tech had immense possibilities, particularly if taken further, but was underappreciated to say the very least.
Now it remains underutilised in my opinion.
Stagnation is an inevitable side effect of greed. The industry has functioned on it for the last decade and now it’s paying the price.
@Random_play05 Agreed. One of my favourite games this gen has been Bulwark. It's sold 150,000 copies in two years.
For context that probably actually makes the game a success in this case, but still - Those numbers won't inspire the big publishers to take similar risks.
Gotta agree with the mucker. It's the same old scripted movie garbage because money and playing it safe.
Ray tracing isn't exactly a game changer either compared to the years before.
I get what Ken said about devs should take risk and keeps creative / experimental with their games.
But his statement is only half the picture and that surprise me considering his decades of experiences, he should fully understand consumers taste and how gaming market works. Especially nowadays there's less and less room to get creative cause if the game didn't sold well then it's game over for the devs...
Most of what gets promoted by the larger publishers is definitely homogenised and feels like a lot of the same ideas repeated to varying levels of success. But that's what they see selling in large numbers, because people know what experiences they like and are willing to spend their money on. It's hardly surprising and is the same in any medium, very few people (comparatively} are prepared to take a chance on something different and unknown.
100%. developers are more concerned with maintaining high levels of fidelity (and what should otherwise be a standard framerate and resolution), moreso than creative design scenarios, physics and creativity. what you see on the surface is more important than what the player actually does in the game. that trend began on the ps3 and for a while, it worked, but has since stagnated progress in game design. this is everything that is wrong with the industry today and you must look into the indi space to find anything that goes beyond the typical spreadsheet and focus tested game without a soul.
the solution is simple: slash the average AAA game budget by 75% (for sony that would mean a new budget of $100m which is similar to a flagship nintendo game) by cutting down the superfluous scope (filler, time padding and unecceassary spectacle in the presentation) and maintain smaller teams. this should allow the publisher to be less risk averse and encourage creative thinking where fresh ideas count for more than playing it safe. even a safe game cannot guarantee sales anyways so the advantage there isn't exactly bullet proof.
It would help if developers were allowed to pursue such endeavors but I imagine much of the industry is just in constant worry of being shut down.
Just look at the studios Sony as shut down.
@PuppetMaster
The issue is that he has no experience in today market. He because left SCE in 2007. The tech industry moves fast. Unless you are activity working in the space. What you know from 10 yrs much 5 yrs ago mean nothing. He basically speaking like a boomer in the regard of "Why don't you just go into the business and hand them your resume"
Showa American Story says hold my beer.
I wonder how many people who supposedly agree bought In Falsus instead of Wolverine and will buy Showa American Story instead of GoW.
Removed - trolling/baiting
People who say this need to play more games instead of focusing on the same handful. Control Resonant? Blood of Dawnwalker? Yes Wolverine plays it very safe but name a AAA game like Saros that isn't Returnal.
Also isn't this the guy that pushed for the CELL on PS3 to fund his ego? That thing ruined 95% of PS3 3rd party games and was hated by the industry.
@PneumaPilot Devs have been using AI for many years, hell PSSR is AI based. We just don't want the slop created by suits who prefer AI to artists and are the core reason consoles have sky rocketed in price. The AI you champion can never create GTA VI.
I don't really agree with him. Games are more complicated than they've ever been, and there's a broad spectrum of experiences across a wide array of budgets to please all tastes.
I would certainly agree that the rate we're progressing at has slowed, but I think that's natural, as technology isn't moving forward at the pace it once was.
When games cost £200m+ you can't afford curiosity. Games are simply too expensive to make and need to appeal to the broadest player base possible. It also doesn't help that most gamers don't want curiosity, the vast majority are happy to play the exact same titles every year.
@DennisReynolds I'm pretty sure GTAVI is going to suck. That being said, I'm hoping that when devs are really allowed to go crazy with AI (and the AI gets a touch better), we get something FAR different than GTAVI. We don't want the AI to finish our homework for us, we want it to help us iterate at lightspeed into new things we've never really tried because we hadn't thought them possible before.
Personally, I think this is where AI really helps the small team or independent developer. For better or worse, large teams with lots of competing opinions tends to smooth everything out to serve the common denominator. Wild indie stuff exists currently, but it exists in lackluster forms. Imagine AAA presentation from the wild mind of a single unhinged developer. That's what I'm talking about. And once enough of that gets out there, the larger teams will figure out how to move beyond even those new bordermarches.
@Dalamar Adding In Falsus to the wishlist....
He's not wrong. Before Sony got scared of their users, they used to have Net Yaroze and Linux (etc) and allow the player base to experiment and cultivate developing indie games. Helping grow innovation.
Now, Sony is more likely to take features away from their users because of the big 'scareweey' piracy might damage their already obscene profits.
Trouble is most gamers are scared of unique and originality in gaming these days as most are happy to either play a FPS free2play game or just a call of duty game etc... and devs know of this situation as we'd have loads of different games with new sorts of genres to them too mostly. The envelope of gaming has not been pushed for decades now. I think PS1 and PS2 had the most varied selection of unique and quirky games back in the day. We need to get that envelope pushed again if gaming is to ever be as great as it was back on those two consoles.
I think indies get overrated a bit sometimes in these conversations. Most of the stuff they do if translated to AAA would be called average. It's like E33 grabbing all the attention and love with that "only 30 people made it" narrative.
I felt his comments in my soul. The quirky and innovative PlayStation I loved is long dead.
It’s why I’m so much more attracted to the Nintendo ecosystem now. They reuse the same IPs but are constantly seeking to do it differently. The focus is on fun instead of messaging.
@TheArt you’re not wrong. Some indies are wonderfully innovative. I always go back to Yoku’s Island Express as an example. A pinball Metroidvania? Who knew?
But other than examples like that, you’ll have a lot of indies that are just farts in the wind.
@AgentMantis My thoughts exactly. Sony and game devs on a whole don't take risks like they used to back in the early Playstation days of PS1 and PS2. Most gamers are happy with just either remakes or sequels to games and that's why gaming has not pushed that envelope over these last two gens or so. PS6 really needs to think outside of the box where gaming is concerned as gaming needs to find what made it great on Playstation in the first place.
I’m not gonna say that this is the biggest problem but I think it’s a key contributor to the state of the industry. Stop forcing fridge narratives into games and then attacking the people that point out the inclusion of those fridge narratives and saying they’re the problem. If you want to make a game that speaks to specific audiences, cool but to make a game where you’re playing a character that’s effectively saving the world, to have a character to be like “btw, I’m a part of the LGBTQIA+ community…” it’s out of place.
Let me be clear, I think any sexuality or gender identification is out of place. Part of the magic of the game is when the creators allow the player to create their own narrative rather than it being put in front of you by force. I feel like the sense of wonder is largely gone in western made games, they just tell you out right.
Can’t say I agree on the surface. The risk-averse AAA space is not the entire gaming landscape, and even within that space, there are some really beautiful stories being shared. Beyond that, there’s never been a greater berth of gaming experiences to choose from, and from a developer angle, technology has progressed to where it’s never been more accessible to make a game. There are brilliantly innovative games out there made by small teams or even solitary developers. But the public needs to show up for these.
All that said, I don’t think he’s speaking to consumers here. What I think he’s really getting at is trying to inspire developers and would-be developers to think outside the box, get out there, take risks and just make your game. Instead of putting up walls or let the industry get you down, create paths and find new ways to do things. That I agree with wholeheartedly.
I think western gaming has stagnated for sure.
While we continue to see some great games released he's not wrong, particularly where the AAA industry in the West is concerned.
I was saying to someone else on PX that the PS1 remains the best PlayStation in my opinion. Why? Developers were far more open to taking risks on new IP.
Now, due to a number of reasons, mostly cost of development, there's a reluctance to taking risks with original ideas within the industry. The irony being is every developer trying to cash in on the last big hitter has seen more flops than perhaps not.
I want stereoscopic 3D(Glassless or glasses) to make a comback with modern 4K Glossy QD-OLED TV's. That would actually get me excited for flatscreen gaming again.
PSVR3 especially. But if neither happen, I'll most likely be skipping PS6 and getting a PC PS6 powered adjacent and just use Steam Frame and hopefully Quest 4 which should 1UP for the former in Q4 2027 or 2028.
My ideal modern gaming set up as of now would be NS2(on Glossy 65" QD-OLED TV) and PCVR(5070 Ti, using Steam Frame, until Quest 4 drops.) Still, it's always exciting seeing the next big console unveil and new innovations that trickle inside the controllers.
12-Axis Gyro, if possible that completely eliminates drifting with a 500hz polling rate would be awesome, including Haptics 2, Adaptive Triggers 2, no tacky Touch pad & Speaker lights, Smooth gliding Analog sticks, the ability to switch between digital & Analog triggers with a switch, and a couple of new note worthy innovations that we've never seen before. Plus, bring back PlayStations iconic multi-colored button shaped Accents.
I never liked the DS4 Or DuelSense's touch pad either. It worked great for Astro Bot Rescue Mission in VR, but for everything else it just feels a bit tacky, unless I'm finger-swiping Shurikens. Console power wise, 40 teraflops translates to 20 apparantly in PS6's case, PSSR3, AI Upscaling, greater CPU & Rasterization I'm guessing will make it 2.5-3x as powerful as a base PS5. But i don't know, native 4K, more 120fps support and greater graphics won't be enough to get me back on board. I need VR & S3D in order for that to happen.
@PneumaPilot I'm sure GTA VI like Dune 3 will suck right?
@get2sammyb I have to disagree and let me offer a different perspective:
1.) Hardware -> how much controls have changed since PS3 on PS5 or Xbox? Sure, there was a lot of evolution regarding quality, nice features like haptic feedback but no true successful revolution, so games are stuck to the same formula. It is shame that VR did not get properly mainstream. Majority of us are still stuck to TV/monitor with same controls, not much changed...
2.) Software -> sure there are lot of indies. But where is something amazing like when GTA3 came out or World of Warcraft? I remember how amazing it was to meet my friends from school in Stormwind or leveling together and pvp-ing in a world that we read about in books or played in W3.
I know there are a lot of unique and great experiences like on PSVR2 but now I am a dad and so busy at work I can play around 1-2 evenings/month if at all. And honestly then I just play something big and mainstream, where my friends are - and even those gsmes are pretty much same as 10 years ago if we look st the core mechanics.
My point is this - for a true revolution, rather than evolution, I expect something much bigger, greater, something that has not been done before and can pull masses and can become an example for other new games.
@DennisReynolds Probably. Our family hasn’t liked any of the Dune movies yet.
I wholeheartedly agree with him. You see, I like the artsy games. I know a lot of people do not, but I do, and I think them being on the backburner is actually hurting things from a different perspective. The artsy games are performance demos for what a console can do that is unique and innovative. Games like Flower showed an incredible array of new features for the PS3 era, for instance. Bound was a tech demo for innovative movement in visuals. Heck, games like Wii Sports and Astro’s Playroom are less art-y, but they do the same thing art games do. They express the possibilities of a console. The PS5 launched to a wave of excitement because the PS4 was excelled and because Astro ushered in the vision of what the DualSense could do. Of course, none of the incredible things that Astro’s Playroom did have yet been matched, which is certainly disappointing to me, though I’ll admit, I started Control Resonant yesterday and just the fact that the game used the controller beyond basic rumble felt exciting! 😂
But beyond the artsy games, its diversity in what is produced that creates a good gaming ecosystem. I’ve been saying it for a long while, but the casual pool is NOT being catered to. We are coasting as an industry on the success of live service games and that isn’t building new markets. You aren’t grabbing the grandmas like the Wii did, providing a cheap DVD player like the PS2 did, and the child demographic isn’t being marketed to. I mean, seriously, this resignation to “oh kids just play Nintendo games, Minecraft, or Roblox, or Fortnite” is absolute madness and it MUST STOP if the industry wants to continue successfully. When any of us were kids, did we invest into gaming culture because we played one game? No! We had multiple worlds to experience and explore and today’s children deserve that opportunity too.
I bought my kids Woodo yesterday and they’re absolutely thrilled about it, but seriously… I hate to be negative in praising the game… but… seriously, if I wasn’t REALLY invested into gaming, my kids wouldn’t know it existed as a game. All of their friends say that my family has “the good games” and that’s because I actually care and know games, but it requires daily dedication to be aware of the release slate. Most casuals don’t care enough for that. And most gamers that are perhaps not obsessives are getting a stream of news from places like the platforms directly or from Geoff Keighley, where the same stale live service games continue to be pushed.
The reality is that interest in live service games may be past its peak now too and the industry pushed it too hard and waited too long for new things because of the financial success established in the COVID years as well. And truthfully any pivot in gaming basically takes a decade now because development times are so long. I mean, 3 decades ago, in under 10 years, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64 occurred. Not only are all three games at the vanguard of gameplay for their time, but they all seemed like meteoric jumps in the possibility of what gaming could do. They opened the door for imagination. Now, it takes 13 years to go from GTA5 to GTA6. Truthfully, how many games this generation actually wowed people? I’m not talking about us, but culture at large.
@Ludacritz We’ve been hearing how great indies are for about a decade man, a lot of people aren’t interested in small games that can run on a PS3 on their $700 consoles
Are game developers the problem or is it the executives demanding high sales and quick turn around?
@DadJKP Yes, the golden child Nintendo. They piss gold ❤️
@get2sammyb maybe that’s why a lot of them are so mid these days. over inflated budgets and needlessly complicated. how much did concord cost again? a game that looked a fraction of what it costed 💀
@nomither6 no but their ecosystem is fulfilling my needs and Sony’s no longer is. So as a consumer, I can either choose a perfect option (which doesn’t exist) or go with the one that, despite any flaws, fulfills my needs as a consumer.
These is no place for risk and curiosity anymore.
Safe games and sequels only.
I agree and I've said the same thing! But you guys where like blah blah blah !
He’s absolutely right, the entire western industry feels stuck on being too safe and Sony is no outlier as Wolverine is the perfect recent example, while not a bad game it feels so formulaic and safe to the point that it feels the devs were terrified that the player got lost for 3 seconds.
Time has proven that moving SIE’s headquarters from Japan to California was a MASSIVE mistake, not only did it hinder the creativity but it ballooned the costs of making any game.
I disagree. The industry merely reflects the tastes of consumers. I’ve been gaming 48 years and innovation has always been the exception rather than the rule. The hard truth is demand for change is very limited. Most casual gamers can satisfy themselves with what is on offer and most of the vocally disaffected internet are calling for the return of old franchises that died as a result of mixes of consumer indifference and creative exhaustion (developers wanting to try something new).
Practically speaking developers that want to innovate and experience commercial success should do crazy stuff with low barriers to entry/prices rather than catering to the preferences of the jaded middle aged gamers who make up most of game journalism and the vocal internet.
The Nex Playground (a cheap, subscription driven console with no physical games and simple motion controlled family friendly games) is making a profit because sales of a couple million are enough for their model.
@nomither6 Sticking to a tiny handful of franchises and charging inflated prices for them has proved profitable for Nintendo. Doesn’t make for much innovation though.
@Carnage i know, i was being sarcastic.
@nomither6 Fair enough. My sarcasm detector malfunctioned.
@Sunraku
I know he left Sony back in 2007. Despite that, he surely got enough years of experiences at Sony where he sees with his own eyes back then even creative, unique, experimental games like Vib-Ribbon, ICO, or Mr Mosquito doesn't always sell. So his statement feels like he never get the full picture of gamers taste and how gaming market works. But yeah, maybe he's just an outdated boomer or there's some mistranslated statement...
lets face it , games cost just as much as movies these days , so taking a risk isn't easy at all , because you can't spend hundreds of millions and have it fail right?
@twitchtvpat These days even small games / indies can't afford to fail. Like Katamari Damacy creator is pretty much retired after To a T flop. Or Heart Machine studio with almost every employees got layoff and just waiting to shutdown.
And in this economy, a lot of people also can't afford spending more than 5-6 games /year. So asking them to spend $30-60 for an experimental game is like gambling they don't want to take. Better spend the money towards game that fits with their comfort zone or save it for daily necessities.
@nomither6 the statement here is about creative ideas. If this is your mindset then it's no wonder Kutaragi is saying this. If you're not already into creative indies that you think aren't up to your standard than what is putting more money behind those projects supposed to do?
@Broosh Thankfully thats where gen AI comes in.
Small groups of devs (just like the old days) can put out work that still has current gen quality graphics.
People come up with the ideas, and instead of having teams of 1000's of people because 4K games take so long to make, old school dev sizes can go back to making top quality games as they let Gen AI handle the grunt work.
@PuppetMaster Again, gen AI fixes this issue.
Single devs can make their experimental games with far, far, far less money
Capcom is going all in on AI though in fairness most of the Japanese game industry is also onboard. They aren’t shouting the move from the rooftops in order to avoid controversy but honestly the move away from labor towards automation has been a continual thing that long predates AI. Sucks for workers but great for owners and consumers.
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/dueling-industry-surveys-show-japanese-game-devs-are-embracing-ai-while-north-american-ones-are-still-skeptical/
As reported by Automaton, the 2026 CESA Videogame Industry Report, a survey-based assessment of the Japanese games business, shows a sharp uptick in AI adoption by Japanese developers: 85.8% in 2026, up from 51% just last year. In July, a separate survey covering just online game devs showed a 100% rate of AI adoption.
https://www.ign.com/articles/capcom-announces-plans-to-transform-the-re-engine-into-an-ai-generation-game-engine-our-goal-is-a-future-where-we-create-games-together-with-ai
Capcom revealed some big changes coming to its RE Engine, which they plan to incrementally improve and transform into an "AI-generation game engine."
On October 2, Capcom held its own tech conference, called ‘Capcom Open Conference RE: 2026.’ One of the most notable takeaways from this event was a presentation given by programmer Satoshi Ishida, titled ‘The Outlook and Future of the REX Project, Further Evolving the RE Engine for the Next Generation.’ The purpose of this presentation was to outline several major changes coming to the RE Engine, which will come in the form of a multi-step improvement project called ‘REX.’
Curiosity might be there in smaller games, they're still coming out and people can still buy them if they want.
Some of these companies are spending up to hundreds of millions of dollars on some games that they think will sell and the market wants. I myself have got seven games that I want to buy in the next six months, Gears of War E-Day, Call Of Duty MW4, GTA 6, Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis, God of War Laufey, Fable and Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. They're all my kind of blockbuster game, so I'm happy with the way things are.
@Carnage ..."Sucks for workers but great for owners and consumers"
how will AI be good for consumers exactly? it's not like the game publishers will cut the price of their games (to benefit the consumer market at large) once they become more profitable — that is the entire reason for them using AI in the first place... slash the human workers to save on costs and increase their profit margins. it is out of greed, not fairness.
now, as for the human workers who will lose their jobs... all that talent will band together to form new studios and focus on games built with human hands (some AI use will be inevitable, but it should not be over emphasized or a focal point). studios like capcom will fall by the wayside as they lose their soul and identity in the long run. should be interesting to revisit the state of the world in 10 or 20 years time.
@Porco If products are roughly equal and one is cheaper people generally opt for cheaper even if a company is pocketing a big part of its cost savings as profit. That is why in the US (which is pretty liberal about such things) big box retailers wiped out a lot of small businesses and Amazon (bigger, cheaper, even harder on workers) later had a similar effect on big box retailers.
Money is the big motivator for small/family businesses, big box retailers and Amazon. People don’t care about that, they want the best value for their money.
Of course if AI content is bad looking (there is no shortage of that) than it will cost companies who use it but if it’s functionally indistinguishable and cheaper…
While I would like to agree with Kutaragi, I fear this is a wishful thinking. The industry is lead by business people, who are looking to exploit the consumers and make as much money as they can. Not by creative minds who care about gaming.
This is not really rhe root problem. The problem is mostly Western and it's that tbey let large firms like BlackRock dictate their parameters as oppososed to continue doing what made Sony or Microsoft successful.
Stale doesnt have to be bad but its also type of people the industry decided to invest in to shoehorn into game develeopment 20 years ago. Well now they're all done with their schooling and getting walked into the industry to spread their half-baked ideologies into products they have no respect for, for an audience they have no respect for.
It's not that they were catering to the wrong, nonexistent audience wirh their modernity, it was that they planned to curate, contrive, con, and transition their biggest demographics into that "modern audience". Microsofts first party is trash now, so is Sony's so maybe if they can't recognize the patterns in their failures with their only solution being to gas-light after trying to engineer the trends in consumers, then maybe they'd be better off picking their executives and consultants from a lottery within their PSN or Live pool than whoever they pay to fail now.
The PS1 was my favorite a diverse library with tons of different flavors in games. The current shift into the samey kind of games is really dissapointing. I'm calling it the more populair gaming became the more standard and boring everything became with to much money on the line for originality.
PS1 was a true innovation but 'PS1 was created with the intent to "change the world", Ken? No it was to kick traitorous Nintendo in the knackers.
PS2 was PS1 on steroids and there was still innovation.
PS3 got off to a very rocky start but eventually had some iconic games, such as Uncharted, LBP 1 & 2, ModNation Racers, etc.
PS4 was a shift that suddenly allowed us some more PC style games along with the wacky innovations.
Then we get to the PS5 which has been a dull corporate squib. Given the current management, I can't see the PS6 any better unless they put someone who 'gets gaming' in charge.
I know it's anathema to mention AI, but I truly think someone needs to experiment with LLM's and RPGs and visual novels. Imagine a game with the scope of Baldur's Gate, but every NPC has a potentially unlimited amount of dialogue, views on different things that depend on their experience, allegiances, etc. Or a Phoenix Wright type of game where you could speak into the mic and actually interrogate a witness in your own words, ask the question in a slightly different way, you know, the actual skills lawyers use.
It would take an insane amount of thinking and writing to fully flesh out each NPC so that they didn't just default to repeating themselves after delivering the key information - each NPC would need to be able to respond if asked about a quest item, for instance, and also adapt their knowledge in response to the player choosing to give them new (from the NPC's perspective) information. And you'd need people who understand guardrails and safety really well, because you can bet your backside the first thing some gamers are going to try to do is get the NPCs to say the N-word or something to clip for social media.
Still, I'd be amazed if someone isn't already thinking in this space.
I guess its still the better option... games stagnated.
Look at the music and movies... there is definitely huge decline and downgrade over last decade.
We have 5 movies a year that you can say something like "damn, this was good from start to the end"
so games are probably still in better shape
last movie I remember was really good was Nosferatu... since then I cant recall anything.
But I can recall great games more
and music I am not going to even try. Since I listen to metal, mainstream was alway a joke to me, but last 5+ years its not even funny
@Shinymoon I'm looking forward to nearly all of those games you mentioned and more. I wish the releases would slow down some. It's also a good problem to have as well. So many great games. Just not enough time to play them ☺️
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