The CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, has indicated the desire of Sony for gamers to quickly switch to the PS5.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan indicated that the price of the console may be more affordable than previous Sony releases, as the company wants gamers to adopt this new platform sooner rather than later.

2020 release

Sony has already confirmed that the PS5 will be released next year, with a date between October and December pencilled in for the next-generation console. And Ryan suggested that upgrading during the holiday season will be a formality for most PlayStation users, with Sony looking to convert as many as possible in a short timeframe.

According to the PlayStation CEO, everything at Sony is currently being geared up for a massive launch of the PS5. Ryan promised that transitioning from the PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5 will happen “at a scale and pace that we’ve never delivered on before.”

Clearly Sony is looking to shift as many PS5units as possible when launch day rolls around next year. This means that much of 2020 will be focused on manufacturing as many consoles as possible at Sony, with the company currently concentrating on stocking up on AMD 7nm chips.

Backwards compatibility

While backwards compatibility wasn’t specifically addressed by Ryan in the interview, it would be extremely hard to achieve a large volume of transition to the PS5 without the possibility of backwards compatiblity, as existing PlayStation players will undoubtedly want to take their existing titles over to the new machine. So we can perhaps expect this feature to be built in from day one.

It’s interesting to know that the idea of a disk-less console has died down considerably over the last few years. This is despite the fact that streaming games has become ever more popular. It also flies in the face of predictions that subscription models will eventually dominate the gaming industry. Nonetheless, there is no indication that Sony will be releasing a PS5 console without a disk drive, which will be welcomed by many gamers.

Exciting titles

Speaking of games, Ryan confirmed that he is particularly optimistic about the launch titles that are being developed for the PlayStation 5. The CEO on the PlayStation project noted that Sony has heard that developers and publishers are “are able to get code running on PlayStation 5…with ease”, and that the experience has exceeded any previous PlayStation platform.

Sony has enjoyed massive success with the PlayStation 4, shooting past Microsoft in the ongoing console war between the two companies. Indeed, Sony has recently broken through the 100 million barrier for the PlayStation 4, while worldwide sales of the Xbox One are estimated to be around 50 million. In fact, the success of the Switch for Nintendo has virtually relegated Microsoft into third place, with around 42 million Switch consoles having been sold in a much shorter period of time than the Xbox One has been on sale.

Clearly, Sony will be looking to maintain this market dominance when of the PS5 is released next year.