PlayStation 4 will be a “renaissance of gaming,” says Cerny
Next-gen system heading back to "magical time" of early PlayStation.
PlayStation 4 will be a “renaissance of gaming,” according to lead system architect Mark Cerny.
“Variety of experience is key to PlayStation 4,” Cerny told VG247 at a recent Sony event. “I think we’re going to see an incredible variety on PS4.”
Speaking to Edge, Cerny said PlayStation 4 could kickstart another golden age of gaming similar to the original PlayStation.
“I feel like the magical time was the early years of the PlayStation because there was such a variety of products coming out,” Cerny said. “There wasn’t this sort of consistent overarching pattern that you might have seen in the last few years in the PlayStation 3 generation, and I really think we’re heading back to that time. I think that’s a very good thing.”
During that time, according to Cerny, “there was no rule book, teams were small, projects were cheap,” and “you could make a game for just a couple of hundred thousand dollars,” resulting in projects like Xi and PaRappa the Rapper emerging at retail.
“They finished them, they put them on retail, and they sold,” Cerny said of these games. “It wasn’t this case where people are talking about how the middle of the market is dropping out a bit today, it isn’t the case where these games were made and did not succeed. Some of these games that were made by these tiny teams with these tiny budgets went on to be phenomenally successful.”
PlayStation 4 will help the industry return to this “magical time,” Cerny added. “The barrier to entry that existed on PS3 technologically is gone. If you can make games for PC, you can make games for PS4. So it’s much easier to bring games to the platform, or if you’re going to [develop] on the platform, it’s once again much easier.”
If you’re a smaller, indie developer, it all starts with tweet to Shahid Ahmad. “That’s the way we do business now,” Cerny said.
“We have the opportunity with PlayStation 4 to fundamentally alter the landscape of gaming,” Cerny told VG247. “We can have the highest richness and variety of content.”