Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida believes that Sony and Nintendo should hold back on launching next-generation consoles and give Xbox its “time to play” with Project Helix. In an interview with The Verge, Yoshida spoke about the financial difficulties that many will likely face when it’s time to buy next-generation consoles, especially due to memory shortages that have caused hardware prices to skyrocket.
To counter this, Yoshida discussed a possibility for Xbox to pursue a subscription model that players could pay to get access to the console and multiplayer features. Assuming Project Helix costs over $1,000, however, Yoshida believes that a $ 200-a-year subscription fee would be too low.
“Well, $200 a year might not be enough, right? If it’s over $1,000 [for the] hardware price, and it basically comes with the services, maybe $300 a year or $400 a year. A $50 a month subscription – how’s that?” Despite this, however, he also believes that Xbox will need to go ahead with its next-gen console plans as part of its larger efforts to grow its business. Sony and Nintendo, on the other hand, shouldn’t be in such a rush, he said.
This also comes down to the fact that PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 owners are likely quite satisfied with their console purchases thanks to a mix of third-party releases and strong first-party support.
“While Sony and Nintendo have sold enough numbers of current-generation hardware, because of the cost of goods they might be looking [at] pushing back the launch of next gen. And I think they should try to keep the current generation as long as possible, because I think people are very happy using PS5 and Switch 2.”
“People have finite budgets, and it feels like PC and consoles, the components very specific to these devices have increased the price way more than all the other forms of entertainment. People who have systems like PS5, Switch 2, or good enough PCs probably will be happy to play games on them, and not necessarily consider replacing them.”
On the technical side of things, Yoshida doesn’t think that the full power of current-gen consoles has been tapped by developers just yet. Along with this, players also seem to be quite happy with the visual fidelity and performance on their PS5s and Nintendo Switch 2s for now.
“I, for myself, I have a gaming PC for work that I purchased five years ago, that was pretty good. And while I was thinking to replace my gaming PC, this price hike happened, so I was late to replace it. I wish I had made that decision a year ago. So, I think that kind of thinking will happen to many people.
“I don’t think lots of people are asking for ‘more power, we need more power’. Or even developers, I don’t think developers are asking ‘we need better hardware’, or [anything] like that. So, I think that means that the current generation, Sony and Nintendo, are going to do pretty well for many years to come, still.”
In the meantime, rumors have indicated that both Sony and Microsoft are on track to launch their next-gen consoles in late 2027. For more details, check out what it means for the upcoming consoles for their chips to have been “taped out”.
