The next generation of consoles is on the horizon and with that greater power, comes greater responsibility (yeah, I went there and what?).
Not only will games look better than anything we’ve ever seen, it also means smoother framerates, faster loading times and a Pandora’s Box of potential like we’ve never seen before. This quite naturally has got gamers and developers alike excited as we eagerly await the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
One other aspect that has got developers excited is the immense power of the immersive worlds in which the next generation of video games will live and breathe in, not just in an RPG adventure such as The Witcher series, but racing games too, especially with the likes of the Forza Horizon series.
In a recent article with IGN, a number of developers shared their excitement as to what the next-generation of consoles may have to offer.
Elijah Freeman, VP of Virtuo’s of Games Division had this to say on the next-gen potential: “The increased power and speed of consoles like the Xbox Series X will mean worlds many times bigger than we’ve seen before, and with more stuff in them too,
“You’ll also be able to move around them much quicker, whether that’s driving in a high-speed sports car or flying around on a dragon, perhaps with no loading screens at all.”
The PS5 and Xbox Series X will elevate console technology to the next level and one such technology is the consoles SSD (Solid State Drive), a storage device that will offer greater speeds for the next-gen consoles.
Brany Cannon lead developer of Night School Studio, the team responsible for Oxenfree and Afterparty, had this to say on the next-gen potential of the SSD: “Having an SSD, the actual gameplay implication that I think of first is world streaming.
“That’s something that’s really hard to do seamlessly, especially with a studio of our size, and having a solid state drive where we can be pretty sure that the level is going to load in seconds, we can have a streaming world that doesn’t really impact our performance too much and it doesn’t have too many design problems when it comes to hiding the loading from the player.”
At this time, we have seen system specs for the Xbox Series X, while Sony has kept the PS5 somewhat under wraps (other than a handful of snippets), we can only speculate at the potential of next-gen videogames and consoles, though we have had some teases here and there with the likes of PS5’s Godfall.
We perhaps would have had further next-gen teases at E3 2020, at least from Microsoft, but with the event now being cancelled due to the concerns of the Coronavirus, we’ll have to wait a little longer, that’s assuming that the PS5 and Xbox Series X doesn’t get pushed back to 2021 due to the outbreak.
But regardless of when the next-gen consoles will arrive, it’s exciting times ahead for gamers and I can’t what to see what the future holds. So let us know what you’re excited to see in the next-gen? For me personally, I’m hoping for a new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Resident Evil 8.
Featured Image Credit: Gearbox