Sony PlayStation boss: "I feel we've been fighting against obsolescence"

Sony's worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has said that the PlayStation console is in a continuous battle to stay relevant in the face of evolving technology.

The boss of Sony's games development studios, Shuhei Yoshida, has said that the PlayStation business is constantly fighting to stay appealing to tech-savvy consumers.

"Like Michael Pachter saying console is dead, or this is the last console generation, I feel we've been fighting against obsolescence," Yoshida told Eurogamer.

"Even when PS4 is doing well, you might look at the sales, the fast pace of PS4 sales, we may be just selling to the same people faster" - Shuhei Yoshida

"Even when PS4 is doing well, you might look at the sales, the fast pace of PS4 sales, we may be just selling to the same people faster, right! That's a sad view of things, but it could be the case."

He said that there is always a threat to the console business as new technology becomes dominant in its respective markets.

"Every time there's a new threat, like PC was before, now it's mobile, look at the Japanese market which has the heaviest impact. When you look at the video game market in Japan, it's going like crazy because of mobile is huge."

The mobile market is one of the reason Sony isn't currently considering a handheld successor to the PlayStation Vita.

"We have to continue to work hard to really bring back people who used to play console games before PS2 era, or find new people to provide great experiences, that people who never had their own consoles might find useful for their lives," he added.

One of the areas PlayStation is currently pushing is virtual reality, with Yoshida hoping the PlayStation VR headset can eventually go beyond games and into a wider entertainment market.

"PlayStation VR has broader applications than the games, and demos we've been doing, the very first demo we provided was The Deep. It has no gameplay at all. Anyone can enjoy it.

"Of course there's a challenge of pricing and whatnot, but in the future we position PlayStation VR not as a peripheral to VR, but as a virtual reality system that makes use of PS4. We're hoping in the future that people might pick up PlayStation VR and PS4 not only for the games, but for other entertainment usage."