Sonic Team producer Takashi Iizuka has chatted with IGN about the recently announced PlayStation 5 Pro console and whether they will be supporting the system. Naturally the upcoming Sonic game Sonic x Shadow Generations isn’t really pushing any visual boundaries, so there’s little they could add from a power perspective over the base PlayStation 5. One interesting thing that came out the interview is that the Sonic Team will continue developing Sonic games on lower spec consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4, both of which still have a large audience, plus with Switch 2 being comparable to a portable PlayStation 4 console, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
“As a market, we have the high-end machines, high-end consoles. Coming out with those consoles, we feel that we can make newer Sonic games that can express the speed of Sonic and with much better gaming UI as well. However, we want to support the lower spec constants as well. So even though the PS5 Pro is coming out, or new innovations or technology are coming out, we feel that it is important to support with the lower spec consoles and let many of the users keep playing Sonic.”
That includes continuing to support the Nintendo Switch, which is expected to have a next-generation update soon, but in the meantime continues to chug along in its seventh year. Iizuka says that Sonic will continue to pursue a middle path between high-end platforms like the PS5 and lower-end consoles like the Switch, with the series adding enhancements or making compromises where necessary.
“I feel that with the quality that they are providing it’s not that expensive… And yeah, it would be really good for the high-end game users,” Iizuka says.
Tsujimoto is likewise sanguine about the price. “The price isn’t something we feel it’s appropriate for us to comment on, but in terms of the capabilities, we think that it’s definitely worthy of the Pro name. So we’re excited to see what it can do.”
Well of course, lower costs and smaller development times are key for most successful video games these days.
Development cost and times are always a key to success to increase the franchise sales of games like Sonic Frontiers for example.
Duh, with the limited budgets they get, they can’t make much quality.
So many games coming out on PS4 and Xbone still, and very few games that actually need the extra horsepower that Series X and PS5 offer. Makes one question why Microsoft and Sony are even developing new consoles right now.
But for how long though….. Say switch 2 comes out how long before games stop going their and move on… Let alone AAA 3rd party skipping switch 2 the way they did with the switch.
That’s awfully kind of them: now I won’t feel as bad for still playing on my OG Switch😎
Less buying new hardware, more online crossplay games, the future of videogames could look bright, unfortunately the biggest problem is greed. WE NEED CHANGE GAMERS!!!!!!