Platinum Games Boss shares thoughts on PS5/Xbox Scarlett: "More of the same"

The next generation is dawning upon us: Microsoft and Sony are hard at work to bring both PS5 and Xbox Scarlett to market in 2020. However, it would appear that Platinum Games studio head Atsushi Inaba is far from impressed.

Speaking to Video Games Chronicle, Inaba shared his lack of enthusiasm for the next generation consoles. According to the article, the disregard for custom hardware like the generations of old has lowered his excitement.

“It’s OK,” Inaba said. “And by that I mean, I’m sure that things will move faster, graphics will be better and maybe it’ll be easier with less wait times… that’s good for the consumer.”

“But it’s more of the same, quite frankly, compared to previous generations. It’s nothing that’s disruptive or super innovative, if you ask me.”

“Game hardware used to be about custom chips that you couldn’t do on PC. Now you look at it and they’re just grabbing stuff that already exists. The Switch, for example, is a Tegra which already existed and the other consoles are using very similar chips and graphics cards to what you see on PCs. None of it seems unique to that hardware anymore.”

Last generation was a fantastic time for hardware innovation, although it wasn’t always for the best. PlayStation 3’s CELL processor was a powerhouse for the time that nobody knew how to develop for. The Xbox 360’s inclusion of super-fast ESRAM was also a great inclusion that allowed developers to push their games harder than before.

Instead of being excited for next-gen’s offline hardware, Inaba is looking forward to the online streaming capabilities of Google Stadia. With ray-tracing support planned for both next-gen consoles, their power is very intriguing, but it’s far from unique.