Industry Voices

AN EVOLVING GENERATION

The next-generation is here. But this is a new dawn like none before, with near-seamless continuity with the outgoing devices. Seth Barton analyses the potential of both new flagship consoles

The new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are a next generation like no other, capable of playing host to thousands of existing titles between them at launch – exactly what the industry demanded. And it’s somewhat fortuitous, as truly new gaming experiences are thin on the ground, thanks in part to the pandemic.

XBOX SERIES X: A TURBOCHARGED

CONSOLE EVOLUTION OF

INCREDIBLE POWERS

Never before has so much been known about a console for so long before launch, and yet as we go to press we’re still only just seeing a fraction of even its launch period potential.

The Xbox One X… sorry, the Xbox Series X, I still struggle with the Microsoft’s naming choices at times, was first shown to the world almost 12 months ago now, an unprecedented run-in for a new console. Arguably this should have been the most finely planned and perfectly executed console release ever.

And then the pandemic turned the world upside down.

The console has arrived on time and Microsoft should be applauded for that alone. 343 Industries was impacted, though, and laid the blame for Halo: Infinite’s delay squarely at the feet of the pandemic, and that’s completely reasonable.

Meanwhile, enhanced versions of this winter’s big games are only just now rolling out, making gauging the new consoles’ power a somewhat rolling affair over the next few weeks.

Though we’ve seen enough to know that we’re impressed.

Still, the lack of a standout new experience, a fresh technical tour de force for the new hardware, somewhat limits our ability to gauge the impact of the new console over the years to come – a near-impossible feat even in ideal circumstances.

Or does it?

A new console usually means a new platform, a target for developers and publishers alike to create for and prosper from.

The new Xbox isn’t a new platform (it’s not even a single new console in fact, see page 21) instead it’s new hardware that’s just one part of the multi-threaded platform that is now Xbox.

Continuity is the name of the game here. Want a new console? Great! Want to play on PC? Great! Want to hold on to your old Xbox? Great! Microsoft wants to be wherever consumers decide to be. And this continuity is, conversely, the new revolution in games.

The question then is what, if anything, has Microsoft sacrificed to achieve this incredible democratic mandate of gaming? Is this a brilliant, progressive alliance; or a coalition

Both consoles look well set to serve the industry. With each platform having its unique outlook on what a games console should be. We’ll look at their strengths and weaknesses in parallel, without the usual combative talk of a console war. The industry is best served

by both platforms finding large audiences, and we think both will.

PLAYSTATION 5: THE CONTINUITY WE NEEDED, PLUS THE PROMISE OF SO MUCH MORE

‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is often a good mantra, especially if you’re the industry’s incumbent leader around the globe. That said, Sony didn’t get to where it is by sitting on its laurels across four highly successful generations of hardware, and this is an industry that thrives off ingenuity and innovation.

However, ‘the times they are a-changin’, and this new console generation can’t make the same kind of clean break we’ve seen before. There needs to be continuity for those big service titles, such as Fortnite and Warzone, which makes a more conservative evolution the smart play, even the necessary one.

Accepting that, Sony has still attempted to draw a line under the PS4 era in order to bound forwards into a new one with the PlayStation 5.

There’s the out-there design, a brand new controller (that made us laugh out loud in joy), blisteringly quick SSD storage, a completely redesigned store and UI with many intriguing new features. Plus the option of an all-digital PlayStation console for the first time ever.

There’s plenty to talk about here then, but not plenty to play unfortunately. As with its Xbox rival, next-gen games are pretty thin on the ground at the time of writing – although in Spider-Man: Miles Morales we do have at least one brand new cross-gen title to enjoy.

The initial success of the hardware is undoubted. It will sell out everywhere from here until at least March. The question we need to look at is how well the PS5 can support and serve the wider industry going forward, for the benefit of us all.

UPTURNED COLLAR

To be honest, we’re still not totally sold on the PS5’s design. A console’s appearance isn’t the most important thing, but in the early days of adoption it certainly matters. Personal feelings aside, the PlayStation 5 could be considered to soar, it’s cathedral-like in a way, reaching up to the heights, it could even be seen as aspirational.

of mismatched parts? And more specifically, how does this incredible-looking £450 console lead that vision?

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

While the appearance of a console becomes less important as it matures – as other aspects, such as software or audience size become more clearly defined, at launch appearance is a key factor in generating buzz.

And for us, the new Xbox is a masterpiece. Its monolithic design creates a sense of immense power in a highly practical, compact package. It looks best sitting up on a desk or beside a TV, rather than lying somewhat awkwardly below one. But upright, as it’s seen in marketing, it does not have a bad angle. It manages to be both iconic and understated, no mean feat.

And, to date in our testing, it runs so very, very quietly and with only moderately warm air emanating from its top vents. Any wild speculation pre-launch of excessive heat is dismissed within minutes of turning it on.

While the interior layout will interest only a few people, the Xbox’s internals are something of a hardware nerd fantasy, with every element slotting together neatly, thanks to its fancy dualmotherboard design. Form and function have been matched here on a level we rarely see with gaming hardware (with a nod to both the Gamecube and Nintendo 3DS) but this is truly Apple-class product design and Microsoft should be very proud of itself.

All that engineering isn’t just showing off either. It was clear from the off that one of Xbox’s key aims in this generation was not to be outgunned by PlayStation again. And in that regard it has certainly succeeded.

The numbers have been chewed over and over ad nauseum, if you care about those teraflops the headline numbers must be burnt into your retina by now, (see page 22 if you need a quick reminder, though). But in short, the Xbox Series X and PS5 are largely equivalent in most regards bar one or two.

The Xbox Series X has a notable advantage in raw graphics power. Its GPU has almost 50 per cent more compute units and despite those running at slower speeds it still comes out a step ahead of its rival. Whether that advantage proves to

It’s also pretty practical, it comes with a base in the box (no add-on sales there I’m afraid) and with it can stand proud, like a Foster skyscraper, or lie down, making it more of a ZahaHadid gallery. Either way, it’s a work of art, like it or hate it, and that’s well-suited to Sony’s ambitions (and a clear differentiation from the industrial design aesthetic over the road).

Turn it on and it glows in a nice understated way to indicate its status. It’s quiet and well-behaved too, unlike the airplane jet noise of my old PS4 Pro – not Sony’s finest moment and one we’re happy to move on from.

And that new-found serenity is an impressive feat, as the PS5 runs its GPU hard and fast compared to the competition. With around a third less compute units, it makes up much (but not all) of the power differential by running them at up to 2.33GHz (compared to 1.825Ghz in the Series X).

Processors can be roughly priced by the transistor, and here Sony looks to have almost matched the Xbox in power with what must be a significantly cheaper chip. If all is well in terms of cooling, and we have no reason to believe it should not be, then Sony may be able to be more aggressive when it comes to pricing in the future.

Putting aside chips sizes and speeds, though, the bottom line is the PS5 lags behind its rival in terms of raw graphics performance, by around 15 per cent. To what extent that will be noticeable to consumers in big cross-platform titles, such as Cyberpunk 2077, remains to be seen.

Developers would likely prefer near-perfect parity between the devices, but the gap certainly isn’t so large that it will cause any major headaches. Especially given that practically all major titles are still being balanced for both last-gen devices and innumerable PC specs as well.

Returning to the console itself, the rest of the specification is largely in line with that of the Xbox Series X. Providing a huge step up in CPU performance to drive higher frame rates and more complex worlds. Although the new console does have a potential advantage in terms of storage speed, which we’ll return to in depth later.

be significant in terms of visible differences in big-franchise, cross-platform titles remains to be seen. But we can be certain that if anyone has a graphical edge here, it’s Xbox.

That extra hardware capability must come at an additional cost, though, which may impact the Series X further down the line when it comes to pricing. Although it’s clearly intended to be (and is likely to remain) a premium product with pricing to match.

THE SLENDER CONTROLLER

The new Xbox Wireless Controller neatly sums up Microsoft’s continuity approach to the Series S and X. In fact you don’t even need it at all, with the older model being fully supported going forward by all games. A move which will be particularly welcomed by anyone developing a couch co-op title for release next year.

So while the new controller hasn’t even earned its own moniker, and could be mistaken for the old one at a distance, it does have a few key differences. Most notably there’s a share button now, so that function is easier to access. The d-pad is much improved, requiring less movement and having a crisper click to it. In fact the start, menu and bumper buttons all have a crisper, more positive feedback to them. The sticks resistance has been tuned to feel more consistent across the range and the trigger pulls are slightly shorter.

Overall the controller has a generally refined feel, but it’s still deeply familiar.

The real work has gone on elsewhere though, with Microsoft successfully streamlining the input path from your thumb to the action onscreen, something it calls Dynamic Latency Input. Testing by Digital Foundry in Gears 5 showed the average

RESISTING CHANGE?

A far more visible change for the PS5 is the all-new DualSense controller. While Sony has made incremental updates to its DualShock controller design over the years. The new controller’s streamlined appearance marks arguably the biggest change since Sony bolted analogue sticks to the bottom of the original controller.

With that said, there’s a lot of the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller still in its DNA. Anyone needing to design a control scheme that works across both controllers will have no problems whatsoever.

The placement and spacing of the analogue sticks is essentially identical (although arguably they could do with a tad more grip on top we felt), the d-pad and face buttons are also in the same places and have a familiar feel. The bumpers have a touch more travel and more positive feedback, while the triggers have more resistance for finer control. The DS4’s largely underutilised touchpad returns, as does motion sensing, along with the onboard speaker and headphone jack.

So what’s new, apart from the fact that it looks fantastic and feels great in your hands? Well, there’s a built-in microphone now, so players always have basic voice chat capabilities, even when your headset is out of reach. That potentially opens up some design possibilities, but we can’t see too many devs taking them up given that players on other consoles, or even the PS4, would need to have headsets to play too.

Best of all are the new haptic feedback triggers, they’re simply a revelation.

The PS5 comes with a pre-installed title, Astro’s Playroom, to showcase the new features of the controller. As soon as I was demoed the new triggers I laughed out loud in joy, they’re that