New Consoles are Coming - Are You Ready?

 

Playstation 5 (left) and Xbox Series X (right)

    For anyone who is a big console gamer, you are sure to have already heard about the new generation of consoles on both sides of the aisle. There are three expected consoles to be released, two from Microsoft (Xbox Series S and Series X) and one from Sony (Playstation 5). All of these consoles will come in a version with and without disk drive, sport AMD processing and graphics cards, and for those with a disk drive, will support up to 4K blu ray disks. While there is not a lot of information known for sure we do know some things:

Playstation 5:

• This console will be released in two editions, with and without a disk drive
• It will be powered by a specialized AMD processor, giving a lot of processing power
• Graphics are a huge focus for this generation, and Playstation is of course including ray tracing (more realistic lighting) and will be able to create better textures and quicker performance
• The updated controller is very distinct from past generations, but with a familiar layout for Playstation veterans

Xbox Series S:

• This is the budget console for this generation, with speculated prices around $299
• While it will no doubt be far less capable, this price will allow more people to get into the next generation
• This console is lacking a disk drive, but most people do not need this as digital games are more common anyway
• No hard information is currently known about the Series S, so speculation is wildly varying

Xbox Series X:

• Speculation says that the Series X will be the most advanced console of the three, but also likely has the highest price tag
• The shape of this console is very unusual, and looks much more like a small PC than a purely gaming device
• Xbox plans to support past games, controllers, and accessories for backwards compatibility, so those with a large library on Xbox One will have no issues porting over

    So that's it - not much to go on yet, but there is a lot of excitement around these new devices. Though the price tag keeps rising year over year on consoles, we can definitely expect a long of bang for your buck. The addition of budget options (at least for Xbox) is a marked improvement and will allow even more people to jump on the new generation. Look out for more information from Microsoft and Sony coming up on this holiday season, and choose wisely!