A lot of PS3 gamers who have already owned the console for a considerable amount of time or recently purchased it, are probably worried about how much support they'll be receiving from Sony and other publishers with the release of the PS4 on the horizon? Well, there will be support for AAA titles for the next few years.
IGN picked up the quotes from Sony's president of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida, where he told GamesIndustry.biz that...
"There's always a group of consumers who come late in the cycle, people who wait for the price to come down. We're expanding geographically as well. The demand from Latin America, for example, is really really strong for PS3.“So we'll have a parallel strategy with PS3 and PS4, like we had between PS2 and PS3. PS3 was launched in 2006, in the sixth year of PS2, but PS2 lasted for another five years. I don't know if PS3 will last another five years - but definitely for the next couple of years, because of the price difference, the great library of games and the publisher side being able to support both.”
It is true that the PS2 was still receiving moderate first and third-party support well into the launch of the PS3, and the system was even beating the pants off the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the monthly NPD reports due to the PS3 having compatibility issues and an incomprehensibly high price.
However, support for the PS3 for bigger budget titles may not last as long as support for the PS2 due to the fact that the PS4 is easier to develop for and the PS3's technical ceiling strongly limits the possibilities of newer generation games that can run on the system.
Shuhei dispels worries by saying that even while AAA titles will come to a cessation on the PS3, indie games will always have a place on Sony's old and broke down console...
“We were talking about indie games - many indie announcements at GamesCom were for games coming to PS4, PS Vita and PS3. These guys also support multi-generation platforms, so there'll continue to be a great supply of games.“We'll continue to support PS3 in a way that makes sense, especially the digital games that we work on - but our large teams, our AAA release teams, are transitioning from PS3 to PS4."
This makes complete sense.
I refuse to play Grand Theft Auto V on the Xbox 360 or PS3 where dips below the 30fps mark or the texture blurring and piss poor resolution makes it unplayable. That game begs for a next-gen port and deserves to be played on hardware that allows Rockstar's definitive vision of the game to shine through, just like with Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV. I imagine a lot of gamers will swiftly move from current-gen to next-gen to fulfill all their AAA title needs, as well as games that really push the hardware boundaries with physics or grand open-world concepts.
But as Yoshida points out, the PS3 isn't completely useless. You can still use it to play ugly indie games and low-end titles, just don't expect indie games like Warframe with the amazing 1080p and 60fps features arriving on the PS3 from here on out.
(Main image courtesy of Jriquelme Mods)
