The now-inevitable PC ports, not the rumored PlayStation handheld, will likely be why PlayStation 6 games may not push the system to its absolute limits.
During a new episode of the Moore's Law is Dead Broken Silicon podcast, Massive Damage's Bryan Heemskerk commented on the rumored next-gen systems by Sony, making some interesting observations on how the handheld system is unlikely to hold back the home console. First, the developer highlighted how we are in a post-resolution era where a game such as Street Fighter 6 looks better on Nintendo Switch 2 than on Xbox Series S, thanks to NVIDIA DLSS, even though it runs at a lower resolution on the Nintendo system. By focusing on resolution targets, rather than scaling down visual settings, which most devs apparently find more impactful, scaling down games from their home console version to their handheld version shouldn't be a huge hurdle, especially if the leaked specs are correct and using upscaling tech like PSSR and AMD FSR 4, which is getting better and better rather quickly.
Even if the differences between the home PlayStation 6 and the handheld system end up being bigger than the leaked specs suggest, there likely won't be a repeat of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S situation, mostly due to market share. Considering Sony's current share and what the handheld should be able to achieve in a market that's more than ever favorable for these devices, it won't be too difficult to set the portable PlayStation as the baseline system, something that Microsoft never had the chance to do for the Series S with its market share.
According to Massive Damage's Bryan Heemskerk, the now inevitable PC ports have a higher chance of holding back PlayStation 6 games. Nowadays, every PlayStation console game is being developed with a PC port that will follow the console release in mind. Having to take into consideration different system configurations, many sporting dated hardware like entry-level GPUs from a few generations back, and storage bottlenecks, developers are unlikely to create a game that pushes a console to its absolute limit if this will eventually lead to issues developing the PC port down the line. The developer makes the examples of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, a multiplatform port which remade a game that pushed the PlayStation 2 to its limits that doesn't look much better than Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and has a lot of technical issues, and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, a current PS5-only game that takes serious advantage of the system and pushes the Decima Engine to its absolute limits. Metroid Prime Remastered is also an example of a console-exclusive game that pushed a console, the Nintendo Switch, to its limits thanks to the fact that no PC port had to be considered. With AMD not having the market share to push the widespread adoption of any new feature it may develop for the next generation of consoles, it is easy to see how having to port games to PC will likely impact how they will take advantage of the new hardware.
Considering how much the video game market has changed in the past few years, it will be fascinating to see how Sony and Microsoft will face the challenges ahead with the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Next. Though nothing is officially known about the two systems, leaks suggest the two companies will tackle these challenges in very different ways, which will make the next generation one of the most interesting in a very long time.
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