Former Sony Developer Warns PS5 May Struggle Running Big Open World Games

The PS5 may have the superior SSD, but the Xbox Series X is packing more power than the new [...]

By Tyler Fischer

The PS5 may have the superior SSD, but the Xbox Series X is packing more power than the new PlayStation console, and this lack of power may come back to haunt Sony. Speaking during a podcast, ex-Sony game designer Chris Grannell -- who worked on series like Killzone and Wipeout -- noted that he thinks the difference in compute units between the PS5 and Xbox Series X is "pretty huge." Further, Grannell states that he thinks the PS5 could struggle running big third-party open-world games.

"The big [difference] really is the amount of CUs (compute units) that's pretty… that's pretty huge when you start to look at real time ray tracing and things like that," said Granell while speaking to RDX via This Gen Gaming. "Where PS5 is potentially going to struggle is some of those big third party games like open world [games]."

Grannell continued, talking about ray tracing, one of the flashy selling points got both the PS5 and Xbox Series X:

"There's only one next-gen console that will be able to do real time ray tracing," said Grannell. "That's a bit of a controversial statemet, but Cerny skipped over it and didn't talk about it. It comes down to CUs, consistency, what's on the hardware."

ps5 dualsense playstation controller
(Photo: SIE)

As you would expect, Grannell's take quickly circulated around PlayStation and Xbox corners of the Internet, which prompted the developer to issue a bit of a clarification. Taking to Twitter, the ex-Sony developer noted that he doesn't think the PS5 won't be able to run these big open world games, but rather developers may have to make compromises in order to get them to run up to snuff.

Of course, while Grannell has plenty of experience in game development, everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. While Grannell has more insight than most when it comes to topics like this, until we see games actually running on both consoles, it's hard to predict how games will and won't run on both next-gen systems.

The PlayStation 5 is slated to release sometime this holiday season. At the moment of publishing, there's been no official word of a precise release date or price point.

For more coverage on the new PlayStation console, be sure to check out all of the relevant links below:

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