2019 is the ideal release slot for the PS5. It's 3 years on from the mid gen update that arrived 3 years into the PS4 gen, so the PS4 gen is 6 years long. More importantly, 2019 also coincides with the mass adoption of 4K HDR TV when they come down in price and rise in quality. A console will be required doing native 4K at 60fps with perfect frame pacing on all games, even complex open world games. The XB1X is not that console and will struggle when the real deal arrives.
How much of a jump the PS5 will be is determined by AMD and their chip research. It's all down to whether they can deliver more powerful chips at a low price for the console market at the right time. Sony may even delay to 2020 if AMD tell them they have something really nice in development but require more time.
The PS4 and XB1 gen is limited by the Jaguar CPU. The PS4 Pro and XB1X have to use the Jaguar CPU in order to maintain 100% backwards compatibility within the host gen. The latest AMD CPU tech is too expensive for the console market and cannot deliver 100% backward compatibility so it will take a few more years research for AMD to develop the right tech.
Using the AMD PC based architecture makes it easier to scale up inside a gen and maintain 100% back compatibility, but you need to jump to a new chip set when the scalability benefit of the current chip set starts to enter diminishing returns territory. Adding tech to run a second Jaguar CPU to double performance, increases the size of the host APU silicon, increasing the price and it may not be efficient. Jumping to a new chip set that uses new tech usually breaks the back compatibility.
100% reliability is crucial in the console market. Backward compatibility has to either work perfectly, or not work at all. There is no 'maybe' in the console vocabulary. Consoles are a closed system so it has to work reliably, but the PC market can tolerate incompatibility because the onus is on the user pay for an upgrade in order to compensate.
That means PS5 will almost certainly be using a new AMD chip set to maximise the jump, and that means backwards compatibility will be off the table, unless AMD can find a way to incorporate it into their chips without drastically raising the price.
The generation is not 3 years. We are halfway through the PS4 generation with a 'mid gen update.' Sony's words not mine. The mid gen update arrived 3 years into the PS4 gen, so the total PS4 gen is 6 years, hence the 2019 next gen PS5 prediction.
Money talks. The reason for not supporting the PS4 Pro was because they were too busy making the crap Gwent game to try and earn more money. I guess they sold more Witcher 3 than the Gwent after the game released and realised they were on the wrong ship.
They should have listen to gamers like me in the comment sections telling them they were wrong. But what do we know, we are not experts. We are only gamers.
I never buy special editions or DLC. They are all costly rip-off tricks that fail to offer enough real gameplay content to justify their existence.
The con is basically using addiction to make money like the bad old coin-op days. The base game is where the value is, 30-200 hrs gameplay for £40.
Uncharted 4: The Lost Legacy DLC is a perfect example with 10 hrs gameplay for £25. I loved Uncharted 4 and would love the DLC but I can control my addiction and know when I'm being conned.
The majority of the devs expenditure goes into creating the base game and it's game engine, which they get paid for in sales. Additional content is made very cheaply off the back of that using the same systems, but they charge extortionate rates to capitalise on the fact that they have hooked you in via the base game.
If you knew how cheaply these statues, art books and steel cases can be manufactured, you would realise how much profit is being creamed off the suckers that buy special editions.
If people keep buying it, the devs will keep doing it. You get what you are willing to pay for.
I criticised CD Projekt Red for putting greedy profit before pleasing their loyal fans with a goodwill PS4 Pro patch, but it now appears they have redeemed themselves. If true and they have managed to stabilise the frame rate and offer some nice anti aliasing for 1080p gamers, I will replay the game and be back on board for a sequel.
Ofcourse the frame rate will be in the same ballpark. The console is using the same Jaguar CPU, which the fanboys claimed it wouldn't.
Be realistic. The XB1X is only 40% more powerful than the PS4 Pro. 40% is nothing. The PS4 Pro is 100% more powerful than the standard PS4, and the different is not huge, so 40% on the expensive XB1X is not going to blow anyone's mind is it.
Wolfenstein has turned into a Doomed Fallout. All the fast action and fancy graphics are just going over my head. I just can't get excited about it. Something is missing but I cannot put my finger on it. Maybe nothing is missing. Maybe that's the problem. Too much stuff. Mental overload leading to apathy.
One thing is for sure, this is not the future of gaming. It's unsustainable like being on a permanent high.
justerthought's comments