According to Asad Qizilbash, director of PlayStation Productions, the future for next generations of hardware like the PS6 would not be found in graphics.
In any case, this is what he indicated in an interview shared on the official Sony website. As a reminder, the man supervises adaptations of PlayStation titles into films and series. He thus participated in those of Uncharted and The Last of Us. Regarding the video game industry, he predicts, for the next 10 years (and therefore potentially among others on PS6) a technological evolution which will not will not necessarily go in the direction of the graphics, but of the narrative experience.
The end of the graphics race from the PS6/Xbox Series 2?
Until now, each new generation of hardware was, among other things, an opportunity to push graphics prowess further, especially in AAA games. Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, the publisher of GTA 6, predicted when the PS5 and Xbox Series arrived that graphics could reach a photorealistic level in around ten years. A vision which does not seem to be shared by Asad Qizilbash in the interview which interests us here.
According to him, the next ten years will instead see technological advances in the narrative experience. “ The focus will move away from graphics and towards immersive stories that will impact players long after they have put down the controller “. Who says prediction over ten years therefore necessarily means that the PS6 could be a first stone towards this building that the director of PlayStation Productions envisages. According to him, with the current state of technology, a narrative slap in the future would be more judicious than a graphic slap. Games like Hellblade 2 could therefore no longer be the norm, according to him. That said, Ninja Theory’s title also carries a huge emphasis on its storytelling, in addition to high-end graphics.
It’s a fact, games (especially AAA) are becoming more and more expensive and require ever longer development times, in particular by wanting to push the graphics envelope ever further. Reducing its ambitions in this area to focus on other issues would, on paper, make it possible to optimize such production cycles.
The rise of AI for better… or for worse?
Asad Qizilbash continues his reasoning by predicting that such an evolution will be motivated in particular by the rise of artificial intelligence, which the PS6 could, for example, support depending on the hardware it carries. “ Developments in AI will create more personalized experiences and more impactful stories for consumers. In-game NPCs will, for example, be able to interact with players based on their actions, to make everything more personal. This is important for young Generations Z and Alpha, the first who grew up digitally and seek personalization at every level “. Such ambitions were also shared by Neil Druckmann, co-president of Naughty Dog and director of The Last of Us franchise.
He even goes so far as to say that AI could help creators deliver this kind of narrative experience in an even more compelling way than with current means. While many big names in the industry are starting to take a close interest in AI, it could well end up taking a prominent place in video game creation. But if such a future were to become reality, we can legitimately wonder what the place of humans would be. If giants such as PlayStation, Square Enix or others wish to go all out on AI in the future to optimize their costs, what about flesh-and-blood employees? See you in ten years to find out?