With game consoles being at the end of their lifecycle, a new generation of gaming machines are on the horizon, writes Aiman Maulana
SONY PLAYSTATION 5
WITH Sony Interactive Entertainment pulling out of E3 2019, it has been speculated that the PlayStation 5 still has a long way to go and there’s nothing noteworthy to showcase.
This makes sense. If they have nothing interesting to show, it’s best to focus their efforts elsewhere.
In a surprising move, however, Sony has revealed a number of major details on the next generation PlayStation console.
For starters, the PlayStation 5 will be powered by a customised AMD Ryzen processor based on the 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture, and a custom AMD Radeon Navi graphics processing unit.
According to Sony PlayStation lead architect Mark Cerny, the hardware is powerful enough to support ray tracing, a technique that models the travel of light to similar complex interactions in a 3Dspace.
It is also expected to support up to 8K resolution (7680x4320) graphics, and should be able to play all games on at least 4K 60 FPS.
The next-generation PlayStation console will also address the biggest bottleneck which held the PlayStation 4 back, the storage device.
It will be utilising a custom Solid State Drive which is capable of loading Marvel’s Spider-Man in just one second. In comparison, the PS4 Pro with a regular Hard Drive storage takes roughly 15 seconds to load the game.
Other notable features include full backwards compatibility with PS4 games, as well as support for the existing PlayStation VR headset.
This means that if you already own the PS4, you don’t have to get rid of your games and the VR headset. You can simply reuse them on the new console without any issues.
According to the Sony financial reports for the 2018 fiscal year (which was published in April this year, it appears that they don’t have plans to release it anytime soon.
One thing’s for sure, it will be a major upgrade over the existing console and it will be a very powerful gaming machine.
MICROSOFT XBOX TWO
DESPITE being outsold by the competition, the Xbox One did well enough in the market for Microsoft to develop a new variant.
DuringE3 2018last year, Xbox chief Phil Spencer confirmed that their hardware team, the same people behind the Xbox One X, is working on the next Xbox consoles.
The interesting part about this is that Spencer specifically said “next Xbox consoles”. This implies that there will be multiple variants of the next-generation Xbox.
From what we know thus far, there will at least be two variants of the console, one codenamed Xbox Lockhart and the other codenamed Xbox Anaconda.
Xbox Lockhart is expected to be more affordable, with hardware matching the Xbox One X but with some additional refinements for improved performance.
Xbox Anaconda will feature beefier hardware, much like how the Xbox One X is to the base model Xbox One console.
There is also a possibility of a variant that will utilise Cloud Gaming technology.
Instead of having powerful hardware, the actual processing will be done on a Cloud Computer, in which the feed will then be streamed to the console. This will be backed by the Microsoft Project xCloud game streaming service. It will be the most affordable variant but it will require Internet connection for it to work.
With Microsoft’s recent acquisitions of game development studios such as Ninja Theory and Obsidian Entertainment, we can expect to see more high-quality exclusives on the platform.
Unfortunately, there’s still a lot that we do not know about the next-generation Xbox console.
However, we might not have to wait for long to learn more as Microsoft is said to discuss further on the next-generation Xbox at E3 2019 taking place this June in Los Angeles.
NEW NINTENDO SWITCH
THE Nintendo Switch is relatively new in the market so we won’t be seeing a successor anytime soon.
However, Nintendo is no stranger to mid-life cycle hardware upgrades, similar to what they did with their Nintendo 3DS handheld system. It appears that there will indeed be two new variants of the platform coming soon.
According to a report on Bloomberg, the more-affordable Nintendo Switch Lite will be coming sometime in the middle of this year, possibly by end of June.
While no specifics about the variant were mentioned, it is expected to omit some features as a cost-cutting measure. It is allegedly designed as a way to get Nintendo 3DS owners to jump ship from the ageing handheld platform to Nintendo’s newest gaming system.
There will also be a variant that is packed with beefier hardware, similar in concept to the PS4 Pro.
The only given description was that it will be a “modest upgrade” over the existing console, but not enough to be a full-fledged successor. This variant is expected to release much later, with no known release window at the moment.
At the moment, Nintendo has declined to comment about new variants of the Nintendo Switch. Given that the platform is only two years old right now, it might be too soon for an upgrade.
The cheaper variant would be a smart move as it will encourage more people to adoptthe new platform. Nintendo typically saves the more significant news and plans for their Direct presentation at E3, so we may hear more about this at E3 2019.