The launch of new consoles is always exciting. Not only does new hardware feel great to connect to your TV for the first time, but it also unlocks the potential for the games we'll collectively experience over the next several years. With the new hardware just over the horizon, I reached out to both PlayStation and Xbox to hear their cases for why upgrading to next-gen hardware is worth the investment.
For many, when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S release the second week of November, it will mark the dawn of a new era of gaming. However, plenty of others will be sticking with their existing systems for various reasons. With so few next-gen exclusive titles across the two platforms, many are content to hold off on upgrading. Xbox has said that its first-party titles will continue to release on both Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One in the near future, and on the PlayStation side, big titles like Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West have been confirmed to release on PlayStation 4 as well.
Since you can play these games on your PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, is there really reason to upgrade? According to both PlayStation and Xbox, the community comes first when deciding to let players enjoy the big near-future games on current-gen hardware, but the best experiences will inevitably come on the newer consoles. "The PS4 community is incredibly important to us, and will be for many years to come," says PlayStation senior vice president of platform planning & management Hideaki Nishino. "That being said, with PlayStation 5 we’re delivering a truly next-generation experience to you that offers innovation when it comes to gameplay, immersion, visual fidelity, and storytelling."
Similarly, Xbox is focused on continuing support for Xbox One, but with an eye toward the future. "If you, as a player, are entirely happy with your Xbox One X experience and you want to continue to stay there, we're completely happy for you to do that," says Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald. "But at the same time, with Xbox Series X, it was critically important for us to build our fastest, most powerful console ever, and really provide that transformative, next-generation gaming experience. And with Xbox Series S, our goal was to provide the exact same great gaming experience, just in the smallest, most affordable next-gen console."
The two-console approach is a unique way to begin the generation. While the two PlayStation 5 models are nearly identical aside from one not featuring a physical media drive, the Xbox Series X and S deliver more variance in both features and price. The PlayStation 5 models sell for $499 and $399, while the Xbox Series X and Series S have respective $499 and $299 price tags. However, unlike the cheaper (and disc-free) PS5, the Xbox Series S features less processing power and is unable to deliver 4K resolution despite its designation as a next-gen console.
For those who went all-in on this generation and picked up an Xbox One X, which has more TFLOPs of power than the Xbox Series S, is the move from an Xbox One X to an Xbox Series S a true upgrade? Xbox believes so. "As we think about this next generation of technology, not only are we continuing to advance the graphics, which people traditionally think of as the defining feature of the next generation, but with this generation, where I think you'll see a lot of innovation is things like higher and more steady frame rates or frame rates well beyond what people traditionally associate with consoles, with support for up to 120 frames per second," says Ronald. "Then you also look at things like the addition of custom NVMe SSDs, and the Xbox velocity architecture where it was a radical rethinking and revolution of how a traditional I/O system works in a game console, and that means things like the virtual elimination of load times, things like Quick Resume ... how can we get you into the game faster than ever before? With the massive advances in CPU performance and I/O bandwidth, there's going to be a lot of transformative gaming experiences that you can't deliver on current-generation hardware, because a lot of times, those constraints were really limiting game design. Those were really focus areas for us as we designed both consoles, and the great part about it is the CPU performance and the I/O performance is identical between the two consoles."
The solid-state drives in both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are key to both severely cutting down on load times, but also delivering new kinds of experiences that are not possible on current-gen hardware. "PS5’s ultra-high speed SSD and integrated custom I/O system were developed with the goal of removing barriers to play – specially loading screens in games and the ability to 'fast travel' in between locations of a game world," says Nishino. "Developers are able to pull data from the SSD at an incredibly fast rate, which allows them to design games in completely new ways. We revealed a new extended gameplay demo of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart back in August, which showed the player being sent across different dimensions with near-instant speed. The SSD truly is a game-changer that allows developers to create experiences that are only achievable on PS5."
However, that doesn't mean only next-gen games benefit from the addition of the SSD. In fact, in my time playing backward compatible titles with the Xbox Series X, I noticed dramatic performance improvements, including load times cut to a fraction of their Xbox One X counterparts. Compatibility – in particular, making your existing library of games even better – was something that was central to Xbox's mission heading into this generation.
"It's an area we're fully committed to, and it was a key design decision in the earliest days of Xbox Series X and Series S," says Ronald. "Playing a game on these new consoles ... it just feels more responsive; it feels like the technology is getting out of my way and I'm just much more immersed in my games. Then you have things like improved CPU performance, so games will always run at their peak resolution and frame rates. You're going to see higher and more consistent frame rates, so if a title used to drop a frame occasionally and you'd see a momentary hitch, now it's just buttery smooth. [...] Then you also look at things like Auto HDR; that's a new platform capability that we've never had before. Earlier this year, we showed Fuzion Frenzy from original Xbox. That's a game that was written before HDR was even a concept, let alone 4K and HD graphics. Now we see that running with HDR applied, and it doesn't impact the frame rate, it doesn't impact the available memory that the title has. We're really focused on how do we give you the best version of the game that the hardware is actually able to deliver."
Xbox's compatibility focus also applies to its peripherals, with all controllers and accessories also carrying forward. With the Xbox placing such a keen emphasis on compatibility of past titles and accessories, will the team be expanding its library of backward compatible titles from Xbox 360 and the original Xbox? "It's definitely something that we're looking into, and I'll say 'Never say never,'" says Ronald. "But I will also say some of these games were designed before the idea of generational compatibility came into play. So, in some cases, we've run into some technical challenges, and in other cases, there's licensing challenges and whatnot. So, the team's definitely looking into it. I can't commit to anything here, but it's definitely something top of mind for us and something that we are investigating."
For PlayStation, the focus remains on looking ahead toward new experiences more so than backward compatibility. Still, most of your existing PlayStation 4 library will work on PS5 from day one. "We know our fans have invested a lot of time building their collection of PS4 games, so library portability is critically important," says Nishino. "When you sign in to PS5 with your account, you will automatically see your library of played PS4 content through the menu. Approximately 99 percent of the thousands of PS4 titles, both catalog and newly published, will be playable on PS5, and we’re excited about supporting our PlayStation community as they transition from PS4 to PS5 when they’re ready."