Jim Ryan: Sony rejected the idea of a less powerful PS5 in the style of the Xbox Series S

According to the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan, the company really considered releasing a “Junior” version of the PlayStation 5 — a kind of analog of the Xbox Series S, inferior in power to the Series X.

However, as Ryan explained in an interview with the Japanese website AV Watch, Sony analyzed the situation and rejected the idea, considering such a move unsuccessful.

First of all, I want to say that I respect the decisions and approach of each of our competitors. Obviously, price is a very important factor for buyers. And we respect the strategies of other companies. However, we believe in the effectiveness of our own strategy and plan to adhere to it.

If you focus on the history of the gaming industry, special versions of consoles with a reduced price and less power in the past did not have much success. We have considered this option, and we know that even other company managers understood how problematic this product is.

Jim Ryan
CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment

He added that audience research is also in favor of Sony’s decision — according to the company, most players do not want to change the console two or three years after purchase. And the” younger ” PS5, in their understanding, would be outdated too quickly.

From our research, it became clear that people who buy consoles want to use them for the next four, five, six, or even seven years. They want to believe that they bought a device that will pass the test of time, and not become obsolete in two or three years.

They want to believe that if they buy a new TV, their current console will support this new 4K TV.

Jim Ryan
CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment

The Xbox Series S, designed for games in 1440p resolution, rather than 4K, has already become a controversial topic among developers — some of them felt that optimizing games for a weak console may be difficult.

However, the head of Xbox development said that there should be no problems. The Series S is significantly more powerful than the One X, and scaling games from 4K to 1440p isn’t the most difficult task to achieve with dynamic resolution or disabling individual visual effects.