The next generation of consoles is nearly upon us! The anticipation is rising, speculation and rumors are buzzing, and some official details are surfacing. Big questions such as price, release date and launch games have yet to be answered, but the biggest questions remain, who will be dominant in the next gen race and how will they appeal to gamers?
In past generations of consoles the answer was simple “better graphics and better games“. Now in present day it’s a lot more complicated. For example, while the Xbox One X is the powerful console in specs and raw power, it isn’t as popular or more dominant with gamers as the PS4. PlayStation has won this generation with its excellent, award winning and fan favorite exclusives and appealing launch price point. So while one has the best raw power, the other had better price and better exclusives.
Meanwhile Sony had been enjoying it‘s dominant lead, Nintendo was getting ready to disrupt the console race. Sony and Microsoft has implented into their consoles many “social media” features and helped launch the popularity of streaming services with gamers such as Twitch and YouTube. Nintendo on the other end was innovating their next console The Nintendo Switch to bring into fruition something gamers always wanted but seemed impossible, which was console quality gaming handheld. They sacrificed the latest in specs and raw power, being almost a generation of tech behind PS4 and Xbox, but they appealed to gamers by innovating with a feature that won over gamers that was playing high end HD games on TV and handheld seamlessly and have gone to outsell their previous console the Wii U in just its first year!
As we have seen what won gamers over in each generation has changed and has become more varied. The PS4 won this generation because of better exclusive games and launch price even though the Xbox One X had the better raw power and specs, but then the Nintendo Switch came in late to the race but has been selling at an unprecedented pace because of its innovative technology. What will the next gen of gaming bring to win over gamers?
We have received some information about Sony and Microsoft‘s next gen consoles. We know that the next PlayStation will have an SSD hard drive that will make load times up to 10 times faster and will be backwards compatible and a custom CPU, GPU among other things shown in the chart above. While the new Xbox will also be backwards compatible all the way back to OG Xbox, and will supposedly launch with two versions, one traditional disc console with high end tech and the other a cheaper cloud based digital console. Microsoft has also bought dozens of studios to make AAA quality exclusive games so they won’t lose on that end to Sony as they did this gen. Beyond that not much else is known, but will what’s been announced be enough to impress gamers and will one get the edge over the other by a mile or will it be a close race?
As technology advances, so does innovation. With each generation gamers are expecting a fresh new experience they can’t get anywhere else. What will the next few years reveal about the future of gaming and will it win over gamers? What appeals to you? Is it innovation, raw power, high quality exclusive games, rich social features, price point, a mix of some, or all of the above? Gaming has been growing and advancing at an exponential rate and the future will be exciting!
