The next generation of consoles is mere days away. The PS5 will release on on November 12th in Japan and the US, and will arrive on November 19th here in Europe. The XBox Series X & S are even earlier with their worldwide release on November 10th.
This feels so unreal.
Looking back at previous console releases and the excitement surrounding them, this year feels distinctly muted. There are certainly many factors contributing to this, but if I had to guess the top three reasons, it would be that we had…
But regardless, I think this coming console generation is going to be quite fascinating. There are two reasons for that: Strategic differences in how the two big players approach their consoles, and the introduction of new technology that has the potential to allow for truly new experiences and not only prettier version of the ones we already had.
First, the strategies of Sony and Microsoft couldn’t be more different. Sony is sticking with their approach that allowed them to “win” the last cycle: A machine that is build around gaming, and nothing else. Machine – singular – is key here, as there are indeed two version of the PS5, but their only difference is the addition or, respectively, the removal of a disc drive. All other internals are the same between the two versions. Having one technical target will allow Sony’s studios to continue to output the highest quality “cinematic” and visually impressive games you can find on the console market. Look no further than “Horizon Forbidden West” for an early example.
This is what made Sony great last-gen, and it’s how they aim to win this generation, too.
Microsoft on the other hand has their focus not on what worked in the past, but on what they see as the future: Game Pass, a Netflix style subscription that lets you access hundreds of games for a monthly fee. “Access” is core to their strategy, as they offer it not only for the new XBox consoles, but also for their last-gen versions, for PC, and even for mobile phones via cloud streaming, too. It’s about serving the most customers – wherever they are: New consoles are just one entry point of many.
For games, though, that means compromises as they need to be build in such a scalable way that they can adjust to many different GPU, CPU and memory demands (to be fair, this is already the case for many cross-platform and cross-generation games from third parties like Ubisoft, EA and Co. But whereas Sony’s studios will have the luxury of focusing only on one configuration, Microsoft’s own studios will always be forced to make these compromises going forward).
Where these compromises will hurt, in my opinion, is the technology that has the potential to truly make this upcoming generation special: Super fast SSDs. Providing expansive worlds with no literally no loading times, switching art-styles and assets on the fly, switching whole games on the fly… will be the killer app of this generation. The convince it brings and the potential it has for new game play ideas is what truly stands out to me as “next-gen” (and yes, ray-tracing is nice and all, but in the end it is just another visual effect).
Again, Sony provides an early impression of how that could affect game-play and look like in the “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart” trailer.
Did you notice how they load in completely different assets as the duo jumps between dimensions? With little to no load time? Jap, this feels like next-gen.
So yes, even though the lead up to this launch feels so different then in previous years, I’m still excited. Excited to see who’s strategy wins in the end, what new ideas we will see as a result of the new tech and what worlds I can escape to, if 2020 decides to last forever.