PlayStation 5: What do Game Developers Think?

Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 is releasing this fall but we’re yet to see games running on the system. However, we do know developers are hard at work making games for the PlayStation 5. Specs-wise, we know the PlayStation 5 represents a massive leap from the PlayStation 4 but as always, the proof will be in the pudding.

To find out what developers are excited about in particular, we reached out to a few of them whom have worked on PlayStation systems before and are perhaps working on games for the PlayStation 5.

[NextGenDale]

Looks like SSD unlocks a lot more than just faster loading times

[blackblades]

Looks like SSD is the key and Sony made sure they had a fast one. Also didnt know smartphones had a SSD and now I know.

[NextGenDale]

I honestly had no idea it’d go further than just faster load times now I can see why Sony have put so much focus and made it state of the art for the PS5

[starchild]

It's definitely a very smart design by Sony. It's something that gives them unique advantages and pushes game design forward in exciting ways. I'm glad they thought outside the box

I really hope pop-in becomes a thing of the past. I can't stand it. It hurts my sense of immersion in a game.

[UnSelf]

It’s releasing this fall? Since when?

[Fil101]

Last fall lol

[AnubisG]

Since they announced that it's coming holiday 2020.

[Profchaos]

Yeah the presentation that mark cerny gave really shows how much of a game changer it is in the fact that you only need to render what's directly Infront of the player everything behind the player can be rendered of they turn around saving a mass amount of resources that can be directed on the immediate viewing portion of the world

[silenthillstrangler]

How will that work with ray traced reflections though.

[sampsonon]

@silenthillstrangler: Ray Tracing will work Just fine. Boy some people are going to regret dissing the ps5 when their first party games come out.

[xenz]

If we were to compare ray tracing only based on GPU difference we would only see an fps drop of 5-7 frames compared to Series X. I am 100% sure Sony can turn down the effect a small bit and still look the same with either same fps or higher.

[rainslacker]

Not rendering off camera has been a thing since the PS2 days. The bigger factor for improvements is that you don't need to hold what's behind the player in resident memory, which frees up more memory to hold assets for what's in front of the player's camera. This means higher texture quality, and more access to free memory to perform game play functions.

It's basically occlusion culling on steroids, turned up to 11, then given a energy drink and a healthy dose of adderall.

[CaptainHenry916]

Looks like the SSD aka the secret sauce will help the PS5 sell millions and dominate worldwide 😁

[DarXyde]

You know, so many people have a hard time wrapping their minds around this.

I keep telling them that the SSD is so fast, that it masters foveated rendering. I keep telling them that they're not going to see a 2TF difference.

Decima supports my point: on PS4, we saw Horizon: Zero Dawn, a game that should otherwise be impossible to maintain such high visual fidelity with good performance in an open world setting on less than 2TF—ANOTHER reason people shouldn't read into that. It accomplishes this by giving grand priority to anything the player can see and giving a lot less in the way of computation resources to what cannot. Cerny seems to suggest you can pretty much get away with spending NO resources on what can't be seen, which I have to say, is seriously impressive. That frees up a ton of resources.

Another point, the Unreal 5 demo running on PS5 showed the character at the end flying around with zero pop in.

This thing is fast, and it goes so far beyond just loading times. I don't think people will really see the point until you get one of the big first party Playstation studios on it.

I'll say this: The way these boxes were designed will make for some very interesting comparisons. We'll likely see better physics and such from Series X due to the wider GPU. Outside of that, I think the 12TF gang will want to reconsider the strength of their argument. Tflops are, and always were, theoretical performance. It's essentially an index with limited meaning. The SSD in the PS5 has consistently been lauded above anything else I've heard coming out of next gen developers.

I wish people listened to them more. I understand their point and I'll even say don't listen to me. Results will speak for themselves, that's all.

[sampsonon]

"Another point, the Unreal 5 demo running on PS5 showed the character at the end flying around with zero pop in.

This thing is fast, and it goes so far beyond just loading times. I don't think people will really see the point until you get one of the big first party Playstation studios on it."

The Demo made the point already lol
But when first party games come out it will be undeniable

[rainslacker]

Considering Cerny has stated that, Sony has stated that, and every developer that talks about it has said that, I think it's safe to assume that the SSD is a bigger deal than some want to admit. Heck, even Epic Games, the maker of the most popular game engine in the world, has said it's a major game changer in their own way.....and showed off practical reasons why yesterday.

For the most part, they've basically made a system which has a substantial memory boost, and memory is a huge factor in how much can be put in a game play scene, and what can be done in it. Even if something only happened once in that scene, it could take up valuable resources. Now, it can just be loaded in on the fly, and more memory committed to other things which improve the overall experience.

[ElementX]

Only one actually mentioned the PS5.

[DiceAndRice]

All of them are talking about the PS5.

[ElementX]

It would be nice to see "PS5 SSD", just to be sure they aren't making a blanket statement. The responses are a paragraph long, yet no console mention except one dev.

Even the article itself says "To find out what developers are excited about in particular". It doesn't even mention PS5 features. We don't know exactly what they asked the developers. The devs have worked on Playstation in the past, that is all we know. There is no context to any of the responses, only "the SSD" and CPU.... Without context they could be taking about both consoles.

[NextGenDale]

I think it’s implied they’re talking about the PS5 SSD

[NewMonday]

@ElementX

all of them are talking about SSDs and the PS5 has a an SSD twice as fast as the XboxSX. so the PS5 will be over twice as capable in rendering features that depend on the SSD speed. the SX won't be able to handle the same 8K detailed assets used on the PS5 demo.

[ElementX]

I'm sure it's legit, but this isn't good journalism. I want to know what they asked devs and I want to see devs mention specific consoles.

[sampsonon]

@ElementX: "I'm sure it's legit, but this isn't good journalism. I want to know what they asked devs and I want to see devs mention specific consoles."

It's obvious why they won't do that. But when they said they would have to scale down to run the demo on other platforms, pc, xbox, smartphones, it tells you all you need to know.

They can't be like "yeah, ps5 is way better than the SX" and then try an do business with MS in the future without friction.
Get it?

I'm surprised this has to be explained.

[ElementX]

@Sampson

They could've said "the PS5 SSD is really nice" or "The faster IO speed of the PS5 makes our next game possible". The writer could've asked (and shown) "Tell me what you like about the PS5 specifically", just to let us know how they phrased their question. I thought people were going to develop games with the PS5 drive in mind? NewMonday told me there were devs releasing games only on PS5 because of the SSD speed! Why would devs care what MS with their slower drive thinks when they'll need the 5GB+ IO? According to the fanboys, their games wouldn't even be possible on Series X so they aren't losing anything....

[_dangerclose_]

Well if it helps you they're all talking about the SSD and everyone knows the SSD in the PS5 is orders of magnitude faster than series X, sounds like Sony/Cerny listened to developers better and included an SSD capable of making incredible games. Enough context for you? But lets be honest you know this was all about PS5 you just most likely didn't like the fact developers were praising it.

[Edito]

Poor soul... I feel for you and your teraflops.

[ElementX]

Don't feel for me, I game on PC mainly. I've had high fps and resolutions for a while now

[sampsonon]

@ElementX: And there is no pc that could play that demo in real time unless they scaled back on assets and graphics. This tells you what kind of power the PS5 is going to deliver.

Just incredible.

[ElementX]

@Sampson
Above you just told me that devs don't want friction with MS by talking about the PS5 SSD, why would devs care if their games are going to need the PS5? My computer or the Series X won't run them anyway......(buy my PS5 will)

Just incredible.

[Realms]

@ElementX

Sony's proprietary SSD will affect the PC market since there is nothing currently that can handle what it does, and sure something will come along that is better but it won't be standard making optimizing for the PS5 and it's games something that hasn't been seen before. We have already seen new techniques used in the UE5 tech demo and that is only the beginning. So unless SSD become the standard for PC expect these new consoles specially the PS5 to push above it's weight.

[S2Killinit]

Here CEO of Epic speaking specifically about PS5:

”PS5 storage solution is far ahead of the current highest-end PC.The ability of the hardware and engine to stream massive amounts of content has a much greater impact on gaming than people are expecting right now. Sony’s storage system is ’absolutely world-class’ and ’not only the best in class in consoles but the best in any platform.’”

this is straight from their unreal engine reveal.

[sampsonon]

They were bored of words. They talked over the part when they actually explained it all after the demo was over.

[rainslacker]

That's basically what I've been saying for a while now when I've talked about how I've seen things being done with the SSD that will blow people's minds when something is actually shown to use it. I just don't have the street cred to be taken at my word, because that would mean people having to assume I know a thing or two, and some people can't stand to do that because then they'd have to think of some real counter argument.

I don't even have to specifically say it's a PS5 feature either, because XSX will have this available as well. Sony's solution is better designed in this aspect though.

Things will come next gen on consoles that are going to show real new gen things, and not just prettier visuals. People should stop just looking at things as prettier games, because it means that you don't expect anything from devs until new gens actually make it easy for them to improve.

[sampsonon]

During the interview segment of the show yesterday they said to run the demo on another platform they would have to scale down in order to do it. Then they talked about smart phones to mask that they were talking about all platforms. PS5 SSD is the fastest on the market and custom made by sony to deliver unbelievable rendering speeds.

It's on another level.

[leoms]

It's a salty pill to swallow huh? It's okay Xbox has some advantages.

[pornflakes]

Its easy.. with the PS5s secret sauce (SSD) even the next gen cards from Nvidia with 15+++ TFLOPS wont match the graphics results of the PS5.
Although the UE5 tech demo ran with 1440p, no ray tracing and 30 FPS DEVS will be able to make this demo run with 4k and 60 FPS once they learn how to use the SSD /s

[Cupid_Viper_3]

You gotta quickly find a way to stop hitting bud.. A piece of plastic shouldn't hurt this much.

[russo121]

The hate is directly proportional to long years without quality games, not even talking about exclusives. The fridge is designed to be just like that again.

[pornflakes]

Check my profile with my PSN ID and gamertag and i am sure you will find your answers.

Maybe you will give me an insight in th egames you played the last years?

But i think you wont - like most PS5 fanboys you are for sure strong in talking about games and exclusives but uou dont buy them.

[russo121]

Well, I sincerely didn't kow you need a PSN ID to play in your beloved xbox. Like it or not, Sony is demonstrating next-gen when MS failed to do so, and, they hadn't the need to say a single word. Apart from that all, I advise you to buy a PS4 because 2 masterpieces are arriving to the great Sony's exclusives library and you are welcomed to participate. You can even update your PSN ID and earn more trophies.

[snoopgg]

Dude , your a xbox trollbot face it. You haven't said one positive thing about the ps4, and now your always taking shots at the ps5. Why in the hell would you even own anything Sony? Your comments are all anti Sony!!! Go play your xbox.

[Sunny_D]

Lol, ok Xbox fanboy. Besides your terrible English,I love how bots think having a psn account means anything. You’re still an Xbox fanboy and you can make an account online anyways.

[S2Killinit]

Dont really care what technic was or wasnt used if the games are gonna look like this. PS5 looks to blow the competition away. Especially after what Epic CEO said about it.

[rainslacker]

That's cool.

And you know what....most people won'ot care about 4K, or 60fps.

They look at things like the UE5 demo, and they're impressed. Do they have low expectations? Well, yeah. people don't really know what to expect with this new technology. Are your higher expectations relevant to them? not really. They see what they see, and if they like it, then they like it.

You know what I really think? I think a lot of the Xbox fan boys, and even some of the Sony one's, really don't have their expectations high enough. Even now, they don't seem to understand what kind of changes can come graphically with next gen hardware. More so, they don't understand the advances that will come with other aspects of game play. It'd be funny, if people weren't just exhibiting the most shallow of understandings of what they're actually excited for.

For all the bluster about Sony not showing anything these past couple months, as of right now, Sony has the only real time game play scenario, or even actual game play for one game, shown for next gen. beating out even MS, who so far, hasn't been bothered to show anything that isn't a pre-rendered trailer. MS has some cross gen stuff being shown on next gen hardware. Sony hasn't showed their stuff yet, but Epic just associated a big advancement to graphics, and even some tech stuff, in a real practical and tangible application that people can finally wrap their heads around and move away from the abstract construct of "Most powerful console with -insert techy sounding next gen marketing jargon for a feature here-".

Now, I don't know about you, but the average customer....the people randomly wandering around YouTube, will see this from Sony, even though they didn't release it. In the mean time, you have Phil over here saying, "Oh yeah, we're excited that we'll be using this game engine sometime next year when it releases....be excited because I said we're going to have it."

You tell me....what's really more important in the grand scheme of things?

[Rachel_Alucard]

Call me skeptical but I don't trust what they say, since they said the same thing right before this gen started.

https://imgur.com/a/Lp25T79

[sampsonon]

1+1= 2
That's all you need to know.

[Father__Merrin]

they have built an unsusual beast and are confident in its gaming performance i think you will be suprised. cant wait for the console reveal this month

[The-Matrix-has-you]

I can’t wait either! Very exciting times indeed. I have been wondering if there is potential for more major publishers to create 2nd and 3rd party exclusives for the PS5 because of the significant benefits of the SSD and I/O abilities. Giving developers the means to actually create experiences that simply can’t be achieved on other platforms.

[Donnie81]

This is what devs know and say when the media is not involved
https://www.ibtimes.com/xbo...

[StormSnooper]

This gets me excited most:
“We’re very much looking forward to being able to concentrate on the game itself instead of having to work around restrictions of current gen consoles. At least that’s what we’re hoping ssd and what not will do for us.”

Better stories, better gameplay, more thought out games on PS5 because dev could focus on it instead of how to make the game run correctly.

Very interesting article. Got me more and more excited for PS5 and next gen.

[NextGenDale]

100% agree with this

[rainslacker]

I see that kind of statement every gen. In some ways, it's always going to be true with new tech. Sadly though, I think the industry has stagnated a lot. There are some that push into new areas and do explore new things to realize their vision, but most don't. While I like the idea that these devs can concentrate on the game itself, history kind of shows that most don't really do that. Those that do, do that already, and design their game around the tech, and don't use the tech as an excuse why they can't do something.

[antikbaka]

All that ssd this is just "power of da cloud" v2.0

Developers are too lazy they will quickly reach another bottleneck by not optimizing textures and etc even more.
And you guys will get used to it just after another week of realease. Althought I wouldn't buy it first year, they definetly have nothing worth for the release

[rainslacker]

Except SSD will have tangible benefits which will be used through the generation.

Cloud was just marketing, that took forever to release, had a failed experience, and ultimately was pointless to the generation.

I do agree that devs will just find a new bottleneck, but that's likely if they actually try to push beyond current game design principals. Very few devs do this in a break out way that redefines everything, and advances tend to be on a smaller scale, encapsulated within larger scope projects.

[S2Killinit]

Power of the cloud was a marketing lie. Remember how “the power of the clouds” was going to make the xbox one “3 - 4 times more powerful” ? That was a lie. This is real hardware based benefits that the developers are talking about, not Sony itself.