The first thing that the majority of people think – and ask – when a new generation of consoles is announced is: “How good will game graphics look on the new systems?” It is a normal question to ask, after all, the difference between console generations has always been marked by improvements in visual fidelity.
According to Twinfinite.net Mortal Kombat 11’s Creative Director, and Gaming Legend Ed Boon is much more excited about loading times (or the lack of them) on the new machines,
“It’s funny when these new consoles come out and everybody goes “ok what do the graphics look like?” I think people are underestimating the impact that the almost zero loading time is going to have.
That’s suddenly going to open doors that weren’t considered possible before and I think we haven’t even scratched the surface of what will eventually be done with those systems.” – Ed Boon (Twinfinite.net)
Ed Boon is not alone in that opinion, as Sony has touted its SSD (Solid State Drive) as its trump card. The Playstation 5’s 825 GB SSD will be capable of a blazing fast 5.5 GB of input data per second. In terms of hardware specifications, it is one of the few areas where the PS5 will hold an advantage over the more powerful (CPU/GPU) Xbox Series X whose SSD will read 2.4 GB of data per second.
Both systems will offer drives that are faster than anything available on the console market right now, but it is clear that Sony is betting big time on speed, while Microsoft is betting on raw horsepower. While it has been speculated that the PS5 will suffer (in comparison to the Series X) when it comes to its ability to render complex worlds with Ray Tracing features on, Sony’s considerable advantage in drive speed remains a mystery in terms on how it will enhance its gaming experience over Microsoft’s gaming machine.
The obvious improvements in both machines will be seen in load times, current open world games like Days Gone, and Kingdom Come Deliverance have persistent loading times, and in game asset loading problems. Long waits during loading screens, and the popping of artifacts, and textures as players traversed game worlds have plagued this generation of open world titles. Some developers fared better than others in hiding or at least minimizing the loading issues. But the issues are there.
Developers are excited about their ability to create seamless worlds devoid of interruptions, and weird “pop up” of assets. As we get further into 2020, we expect to see games that will demonstrate the enhancements that the SSDs will provide, as eventually some real gameplay footage of launch titles will be shown in greater detail. Needless to say; we are very excited about the future of console gaming.