One insider has claimed that major game releases beginning their projects today will likely target PlayStation 6 because of how long development cycles have gotten. It is no secret that development hell is something that plagues developers, with the time between announcement to release lasting years longer than expected, but if this claim is true, then the standard development cycle for big-budget releases could last as long as those known for their long development times.

With the latest generation led by the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series systems being less than three years old, it may come as a surprise that game projects beginning today could potentially be targeting the next generation already, but the cycles for big-budget releases have been significantly expanding. Rockstar Games is a perfect example of this, as the time between now and its last game Red Dead Redemption 2 marks over 4 years with no official announcement for Grand Theft Auto 6 despite pre-alpha footage of that game leaking.

This news came via a tweet from insider Jason Schreier, commenting that brand-new projects from big-budget studios would likely aim for the next generation of PlayStation. And this makes more sense with this context in mind. Console lifecycles typically range from 5 to 7 years long, so keeping Rockstar as the example, if it launches Grand Theft Auto 6 within the next couple of years, that would be in the middle of the current console lifecycle, and based on the company's track record for the past decade, the next planned game would come out during the next generation of consoles.

Fun fact: Video game production cycles have gotten so long that if a big-budget game studio started working on a brand new project today, it would likely be for the PlayStation 6

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 2, 2023

One thing to note about Schreier's speculation is the ability to access current systems, particularly the PlayStation 5. Even now the difficulty of getting a PlayStation 5 is just starting to potentially ease, with major releases like the Resident Evil 4 remake and Street Fighter 6 being cross-generation games to reach as much of a player base as possible. If developers start targeting the next generation now, it could mean this generation will only have a few years to be the primary target or that development length has ballooned to an unprecedented degree while the current generation is given a longer cycle to become more widely adopted.

Progress for this current generation has been sluggish as most new releases can be played on systems close to a decade old, and manufacturers have to decide if they have to extend this generation's lifespan, which runs the risk of staggering game development and innovations but leaving room for consumers to pick up and play their systems. The PlayStation 6 is speculated to release in 2028, which potentially leaves less than 6 years for the current consoles to become the most widely adopted ones, but if teams are already considering it, then many studios could be gearing up to release one or two games every decade.

Posted: Jan 08, 2023 12:24 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/major-game-projects-playstation-6-insider/