Mark Cerny has been a part of PlayStation for years, and led development on the PlayStation 4 and 5. And in his eyes, the two consoles have been key in helping games evolve technologically.
Talking to GamesIndustry, he expressed surprise in how developers honed in on the PS5’s capabilities. Before studios prioritized 60 frames per second, he’d figured games would stick with 30 frames since it offered more detail to a game’s art style.
Likewise, he didn’t think raytracing would get much use, but it was a key tech feature for several PS5 launch games. Adding it was a “rather late” decision, and one he was unsure about given his work on “difficult” consoles like the PlayStation 3.
While that took him off guard, he was fine with being “totally wrong” about the tech. “I’m so happy to have seen the early adoption of the technology.”
Consoles and “hardware freedom”
Having worked on consoles for so long, Cerny believes their hardware freedom has given Sony a chance to lead by example, particularly for multiplatform games. Whatever goes into a PS5 can reflect current technology or what could get “100 percent adoption” in the future.
To his point, he claimed PC ports of PlayStation games were “simpler [conversions] than many thought.” Other than rising minimum specs (like more CPU or RAM), porting over Ghost of Tsushima or Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart hasn’t been that difficult.
That said, he stressed this wasn’t some move to get in on the PC market a la Microsoft. Sony’s just embracing not being “bound by any particular standards. I think that occasionally we’re even showing the way for the larger industry, and that our efforts end up benefiting PC players as well.”
Consoles still have a place in Cerny’s vision of games. So long as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo “continue making that very nice package, the future of consoles is pretty bright.”
GamesIndustry’s full interview with Cerny, which also covers his time at Atari and becoming a support developer, can be read here.