PS5 and Xbox Scarlett Are "More of the Same," Says Developer

The leap from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to Xbox One and PS4 wasn't very innovative or revolutionary, and it doesn't look like the jump from PS4 and Xbox One to PS5 and Xbox Scarlett will be any different. According to PlatinumGames boss Atsushi Inaba, neither next-gen console is doing anything innovative or that will change how games are developed and played. Rather, they are simply more powerful machines with a few additional bells and whistles here and there. For the consumer, faster and prettier games may be exciting, but from a development perspective, "it's more of the same."

"It's OK. And by that I mean, I'm sure that things will move faster, graphics will be better, and maybe it will be easier with less wait times… that's good for the consumer," said Inaba when asked about the next-gen plans of Sony and Microsoft by VGC. "But it's more of the same, quite frankly, compared to previous generations. It's nothing that's disruptive or super innovative, if you ask me."

Inaba continued:

"Game hardware used to be about custom chips that you couldn't do on PCs. Now you look at it and they're just grabbing stuff that already exists. The Switch, for example, is a Tegra, which already existed and the other consoles are using very similar chips and graphics cards to what you see on PCs, but maybe slightly updated. None of it seems unique to that hardware anymore."

That said, while Inaba isn't particularly excited by the PS5, Xbox Scarlett, or Nintendo Switch, there's something that has his attention: Google's Stadia and other cloud-based platforms.

"For me, things like cloud platforms represent innovation and something very, very different – they're platforms that excite me and where I feel there is a lot more innovation happening."

Of course, I'm sure Inaba and PlatinumGames -- the makers of titles like Bayonetta and NieR: Automata -- will continue to develop on PS5, Xbox Scarlett, and the Nintendo Switch, but it sounds like they will also be exploring the various cloud-powered platforms coming to the market.

Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Are you excited for PS5 and Xbox Scarlett?