So that sucks, but there’s some less disappointing (maybe?) news too – although the game was expected to be a PS5 exclusive, Sony has now revealed that it’s also in development for PS4. Talking to the PlayStation Blog, the publisher’s first-party studios boss Herman Hulst concedes that for some of its marquee franchises, “it makes sense to develop a title for both PS4 and PS5”, and cites “the next God of War”, Gran Turismo 7, and Horizon Forbidden West as three examples.
“You can’t build a community of over 110 million PS4 owners and then just walk away from it, right? I think that’d be bad news for fans of PS4, and frankly not very good business.”
He’s not wrong, obviously, but it’s a total reversal of Sony CEO Jim Ryan’s previous claim that “we believe in generations”. In a May 2020 interview, Ryan told Games Industry that some or even most PS5 games wouldn’t be available on PS4.
"We have always said that we believe in generations. We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include. And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features."
"We do believe in generations, and whether it’s the DualSense controller, whether it’s the 3D audio, whether it’s the multiple ways that the SSD can be used… we are thinking that it is time to give the PlayStation community something new, something different, that can really only be enjoyed on PS5."
Awkward.
