The best thing the PS6 can do is be less powerful than PS5 - Reader's Feature
In two years' time we're going to be drowning in news, rumours and leaks about the PlayStation 6. Everything seems to point towards it coming out in 2027 and I have not met a single person that's excited about it. Everybody thinks it's too soon, everyone thinks the PlayStation 5 has barely started, and everyone thinks Sony has dropped the ball in terms of games.
Or maybe everyone doesn't think that. Maybe I'm just living in a bubble with my video game savvy friends, but it doesn't matter because dread it, run from it, the PlayStation 6 will arrive all the same.
We haven't got any details yet, that I'm aware of, but the few hints we've had are of a new console (and a portable) that is even more powerful than the last one and no doubt even more expensive. Considering the PS5 Pro is already the most expensive console I don't even want to think about how much the PlayStation 6 is going to cost.
As we all know by now, more powerful means it'll take even longer to make games and need more money and people. This will mean less games, less often, and absolutely no risks of any kind – including probably any new IP at all. We've already seen this in this generation, where everything's slowed to a crawl, but a new console is only going to make things worse.
What makes the whole situation all the sadder is that there is no way on Earth the extra power is going to make any difference. There's barely any difference between PlayStation 4 and 5 games as it is, so the difference between 5 and 6 is going to be miniscule and certainly nothing a normal person will ever notice.
Remember that PlayStation 5 tech demo that looked a bit like Tomb Raider? We haven't seen anything like that so far in an actual game, so that was all just a lie. They always are, I know, but whatever excuse they try to give for the PlayStation 6 needing to exist is going to be a con.
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Considering everything going on in gaming at the moment the only decision that makes any sense to me is making the PlayStation 6 less powerful than the PlayStation 5. If that sounds silly to you, I guarantee the vast majority of people wouldn't even notice. If you told them it was more powerful (which I'm not suggesting Sony do) they'd probably believe it, just because nothing in terms of graphics has looked any different in years.
Sony should explain that in order for the portable and console machines to be running the same games they had to lower the overall power, since a portable can never be as powerful as a home console.
There are better reasons to decrease the power though and not just because it'll make the console cheaper. We've known about the problem that games cost too much to make for years now and nobody has done a thing about it. Not Sony and not anyone else.
If the PlayStation 6 is more powerful – if it is just another box under the TV- then the problem is only going to continue to get worse until something snaps and suddenly video games just aren't viable anymore.
I don't want to see a future where the only video games are indies, mobile games, and free to play, but that is where we're headed, and very quickly. The future should be AA games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream (which I haven't played yet but was fascinated to hear about this week).
But none of the big publishers care about that, they think it's small beans and not worth bothering with. If they carry on their current course, games will end up costing £100+ (there's already rumours of that for GTA 6), they'll take 10 years to make, and they'll only be the safest of safe franchises and ideas.
It's not just publishers I worry aren't doing anything about this ticking time bomb, it's gamers who just hope the problem is going to magically go away. If games become unprofitable publishers will simply stop making them. They won't start making cheaper games because then their graphs won't go up, they'll just find something else to make money from. More Trending
Something has to change. It's not enough even to draw the line here, they have to go back to before the PlayStation 5, when companies could still afford to make games and we could still afford to pay for them.
By reader Captone
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The 15 Nintendo Switch games that should get a Switch 2 upgrade
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Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. King K. Rool steals the Banandium Root and after Donkey Kong and Pauline defeat him, he steals it once again and uses it to corrupt a human city on the surface (aka New Donk City from Super Mario Odyssey). When you beat him again, he is sent flying away. After completing the post-game content, Donkey Kong and Pauline use the Banandium Root to ascend to the surface, as the latter wishes to sing onstage at City Hall. 'Grandmother will be so proud,' she remarks. The final shot shows artwork of Pauline performing onstage in New Donk City. While the game features a 13-year-old Pauline, it's not clear if it's the same Pauline who is the mayor of New Donk City in Super Mario Odyssey. In fact, there's some evidence (albeit, tenuous) to suggest Donkey Kong Bananza is actually a sequel to Mario's adventure, and not an origin story for the singing mayor, as many originally assumed. Throughout Donkey Kong Bananza, teenage Pauline makes various references to her grandmother, who we never see. In one key scene, where the pair encounter Diddy and Dixie Kong in the Racing Layer, Pauline tells DK, 'I'm glad you got to see your friends again! But if I don't get home, Grandma will worry.' The identity of Pauline's grandma is never confirmed but there are several convincing theories. However, to understand the madness, some context is required on the history of Cranky Kong, aka Donkey Kong's alleged grandfather. While there has been conflicting details over the years, the prevailing theory is that the Donkey Kong who kidnapped Pauline in the original arcade game is actually Cranky Kong. In Donkey Kong Bananza, there's even some evidence to support this, as the elder ape makes a reference to an old rival who wore overalls. 'In my day, rivals had charisma… even in overalls!' he remarks. 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This is a different look from the mayor Pauline in Super Mario Odyssey, who has brown hair. While this might be a simple character redesign, or a flight of fancy with some hair dye, references to the original blonde Pauline can be seen on billboards within New Donk City. Again, it might be a nod disconnected from any narrative cohesion, but the New Donk City Festival in Super Mario Odyssey – where Mario replicates the arcade Donkey Kong game under spectacular fireworks – is referred to as the 'story of our city's beginnings'. As such, this implies New Donk City was established after the original arcade game. By extension it's possible Mayor Pauline is a descendant of the blonde Pauline, i.e. Pauline in Bananza is the daughter of Mayor Pauline and the granddaughter of the original arcade Pauline. The evidence for this is super thin but it could mean both Bananza protagonists are third generation offspring of parents with very limited imagination when it comes to naming their children. This is certainly the most satisfying theory, but there's also a strong chance the teenage Pauline is a younger version of the mayor in Super Mario Odyssey, which would place Donkey Kong Bananza as a prequel. That would mean Pauline in Super Mario Odyssey is possibly the granddaughter of Arcade Pauline, and Nintendo just skipped a generation for some reason. More Trending A question in Super Mario Odyssey supports this theory somewhat. During a quiz for a power moon, Pauline asks Mario 'which of these things did I actually do a long time ago?' where the correct answer is 'captured by ape'. While many assumed this was a reference to the events of the original arcade game and Cranky Kong, it's possible this refers to Void Kong and Donkey Kong Bananza's events – which is a nice bit of recontexualisation. Perhaps the most disturbing ramification of all this is, if you buy into the theory of multiple generations, is where does this leave Mario? Is Jumpman the grandfather of the Mario seen in Super Mario Odyssey? Is he an immortal being untethered to time itself? Perhaps thankfully, these are not questions which Bananza concerns itself with. Based on the inclusion of King K. Rool, Donkey Kong Bananza is set after the events of all three Donkey Kong Country games, and 1999's Donkey Kong 64. Redditor Espurreyes, who subscribes to the theory that Donkey Kong Bananza is a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey, has laid out a convenient timeline of the main Donkey Kong games above. Of course, there's not enough evidence from Nintendo to roll out a definitive chronology of Donkey Kong's lineage, or exactly when all the games are set, but if you enjoy pondering the family tree of a fictional ape dressed in a tie, consider your needs served. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. 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The average Nintendo fan is around 30 years old according to new data
A new survey breaks down the average age and gender of fans of popular gaming franchises like Pokémon and Final Fantasy. Compared to Sony and Microsoft, whose priorities lie in appealing primarily to adult gamers, Nintendo has long benefited from catering to the whole family. The Nintendo Switch 2's initial line-up perfectly demonstrates this, with Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza being simple, easy to understand experiences for kids yet offering enough depth to appeal to adults. And yet according to new research on average age and gender ratios for popular video games, it appears the average Nintendo fan is in their 30s, while online live service games are where theyounger audiences are. The research was conducted by GEM Partners and Nikkei Entertainment, which surveyed 30,000 people across the ages of 15 to 69, and has been handily compiled and translated over on the ResetEra forums. While it focuses solely on the Japanese market, there are still some interesting takeaways regarding the more globally recognised gaming franchises. Nintendo franchises appear to skew more towards older audiences. The average age of players of the Super Mario, Kirby, and Pokémon games falls between 30 and 32, with The Legend Of Zelda and Animal Crossing sharing an average player age of 35. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The one exception is the Splatoon series, where the average player is aged 27. Perhaps this is a result of Splatoon being much newer, with the first game only coming out in 2015, whereas the other franchises are over 20 or 30 years old and thus more appealing to older, nostalgic fans who grew up playing the original games. Japanese outlet Kultur reports that the average age of gamers is around 30 years old, so Nintendo does appear to have cracked the code of ensuring its most popular franchises are appealing to the most common demographic. Intriguingly, these Nintendo franchises have a near even split in terms of gender ratio. Pokémon and Zelda have a male to female ratio of 60:40, while Splatoon's is 65:35. Super Mario's audience is mostly male at 70:30 but Kirby, and especially Animal Crossing, are more popular with female players, with ratios of 45:55 and 25:75, respectively. Elsewhere, the data shows that the average age of players of live service shooters such as Valorant, Apex Legends, and Fortnite are in their 20s. All three examples also have the same gender ratio of 85:15, with very male dominated player-bases. On the opposite end, you have Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises, which still skew heavily towards male players but have an average player age of 42. Both franchises are long-running role-players that have been around since the 80s, so it makes sense for their core audiences to be older people who've been playing them since the early days. More Trending However, it also shows that both franchises have struggled to make themselves appealing to younger audiences. In Final Fantasy's case, this could be a contributing factor as to why both Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth underperformed in terms of sales. Of course, this doesn't necessarily reflect the gaming habits of the Western market. Mobile gaming, for instance, is even more popular in Japan than it is here, as evidenced by how prominent mobile games are in the collected data. It also demonstrates how console gaming is being predominantly held up by the older generations, with console franchises like Resident Evil and Like A Dragon having average player ages in the late 30s while mobile games like Brawl Stars and Project Sekai have average player ages of 18 and 22, respectively. This can be attributed to how mobile games are typically free-to-play and thus there's less of a barrier of entry for kids, teenagers, and unemployed or underpaid young adults. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: PS6 and next gen Xbox could cost over £1,000 based on AMD chip leak MORE: Nintendo and Steam crack down on hentai and other 'eSlop' filling up game stores MORE: Video game spending has dropped almost 25% amongst young people
