According to a member of the Death Stranding 2: On the Beach development team, the difference between the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 is not great, but the current generation system has made game development more efficient.

In an interview published in the latest issue of Edge Magazine, as reported by GameSpot, Kojima Productions’ Chief Technical Officer commented on the difference between the two Sony consoles, saying that it is not great. The most obvious improvement introduced by the current generation system is faster loading time, but aside from this, the biggest difference is that, on PS5, there are more efficient ways of arriving at similar goals, such as artists no longer being constrained in world creation, no longer having to find workarounds to make levels work. At the same time, this increased freedom leads to other issues, such as technical challenges for programmers. In some ways, Sakamoto-san added, this has created a situation where artists are out of control, which likely often happens at a development studio headed by a visionary mind like Hideo Kojima.

As highlighted by the current console generation, the days of massive generational leaps may have become a thing of the past, although manufacturers like Microsoft still promise massive leaps with their future console generations. More powerful hardware, however, may not be needed to create compelling experiences that look great, especially looking at what games like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach can deliver on base PlayStation 5, so things may not be too grim for gaming in the future, even without those incredible technical leaps seen in older console generations.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launches on PlayStation 5 on June 26th.