Another console cycle is about to begin so you know what that means. Manufacturers spending the next year hyping you up for a product on par with a low mid-ranged computer. Now I’m not an elitist thumbing my nose down at the console peasants. Feigning that there is some unbearable stench emanating from the unwashed masses as I huff my own farts.

I rather enjoy my consoles, even if they go through periods of being nothing more than glorified streaming devices. As a PC player, watching console manufacturers attempt to hype up their newest and most innovative platform to date is simply akin to watching Apple boast about new features Samsung had half a decade ago. Not particularly impressive as far as rhetoric goes.

Yet this rhetoric does make traction and invites tribalistic disputes over who’s platform is better, but these discussions have for Sony veered into objectively bullshit territory. Rather than denying Microsoft will have the power difference next generation or at least in the first half of it, Sony has taken to having their developers proclaim it is the code that matters!

Never mind both consoles have shared a similar coding architecture with the PC since this last generation. Exploring who exactly is making these claims for Sony’s superiority one discovers they are not only lacking impartiality but in fact, work to or have ties to Sony.

Or have retracted their interview claiming the PS5 would have the technological edge over the Xbox Series X, as covered by WCCF Tech.

“The developers are saying PS5 is the easiest console they have ever coded on to reach its peak performance. Software-wise, coding for PS5 is extremely simple and has so many abilities that make the [developers] so free. In total, I can say PS5 is a better console.”

Let us take a moment and realize this claim essentially means developers are maxing out the PS5’s power at launch rather than midway through the generation. A failing the Xbox One endured during the first half of its generation. Resulting in downgrades and marked performance issues for multi-platform titles.

Then you have good old Jason “Objectivity is a silly thing to strive for” Schreier, also covered by WCCF Tech. Once again go to bat for Sony but in the process utter absolute absurdities.

“Everybody is now seeing this spec sheet and they see PS5 10.2 TFLOPs and Xbox Series X 12 TFLOPs, but meanwhile, the people that I’ve been talking to over the past few months, over the past couple of years, who are actually working on the PlayStation 5, have pretty much unanimously all said ‘This thing is a beast, it is one of those the coolest pieces of hardware that we’ve ever seen or used before, There are so many things here that are revolutionary’.”

Setting aside, “of course Sony is going to say their console is number one,” the notion there is anything revolutionary on the PS5 or the Xbox Series X is purely marketing, not reality. SSDs are not a game-changer. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tasted one and I will never be able to go back to a disk-based drive. Console players will adore these, but they’re neither new nor revolutionary. Perhaps five years ago this claim could have been made with some honesty, but today the hardware in both consoles is similar to what you can already get on the PC.

Fortunately, he kills his case by arguing math isn’t real nor do numbers matter.

“What I’m hearing from the people who are actually working on these things, working on the metal, is that the Xbox Series X is not significantly more powerful than the PS5 despite this teraflops number.”

What about Microsoft’s rhetoric Sony’s fanboys are likely decrying now. To answer this question I must say I find Microsoft’s rhetoric to be a bit more appealing. Make no mistake that doesn’t mean it’s legitimately exciting, but unlike Sony’s generic “no really it’s more powerful” Microsoft has ensured their talking heads are dropping specific talking points each time they praise the console, as reported by Windows Central. (Emphasis added on talking points to highlight the marketing)

“We knew with the next generation of Xbox, we needed to rethink and revolutionize the traditional console architecture to deliver consistent, reliable, and sustained performance never before seen in the living room with no compromises. Whereas past console generations have primarily been defined by increases in graphics innovation and performance, game developers’ creative visions have become increasingly constrained by technical limitations such as I/O performance. With Xbox One X, we reached the upper limits of performance in traditional rotational drives. To unlock the creativity of developers to create transformative gaming experiences, we knew we needed to also invest in SSD level I/O speeds and innovation.

“This became the foundation for the Xbox Velocity Architecture, which comprises our custom-designed NVME SSD, a custom dedicated hardware decompression block, our new DirectStorage API which provides developers with direct low-level access to the NVME controller, and our innovative Sampler Feedback Streaming solution which acts as a multiplier of the physical memory in the console. The Xbox Velocity Architecture was designed to be the ultimate solution for game asset streaming, delivering a level of performance well beyond the raw specifications of the hardware, allowing developers to virtually eliminate loading times and enabling them to deliver even larger and more immersive, dynamic, living worlds for gamers to explore and enjoy.” Jason Ronald, Director of Program Management for Xbox

 

“The most exciting thing for me is the addition of an SSD and the custom hardware surrounding it to help get data into memory faster. This is not only going to allow for better streaming and load times but also make it easier to work with larger data sets that don’t easily fit into memory. The addition of hardware ray tracing is also super exciting, but it’s how it can be used outside of graphics that will enable the biggest changes.

I can already see potential uses for it in games like The Long Dark, where we would be able to simulate physically accurate weather and wind by sending some rays into the world and then having the audio and physics change dynamically based on where the snow is accumulating or melting. These sorts of things are going to allow some really immersive experiences that weren’t easily achievable before.” -Joel Baker Technical Director at Hinterland Games

 

“If you’re in the business of making games, you’re always excited about new hardware, and what it means for game development. First and foremost, the Xbox Series X is a genuine and significant boost in performance from the Xbox One. We saw how important both frame-rate and resolution were with the previous generation, so it’s so exciting to be able to deliver 4K gaming at 60 frames per second on a console. Something that the Xbox One X offered was the ability for players to choose between resolutions and framerates, and we think giving gamers even more choice in this regard will be a good thing. The increased processing power means we will not only be able to offer silky-smooth gameplay for things like long-range ballistic mechanics with pinpoint accuracy, but we can actually take that gameplay up a level in complexity.

Hardware-accelerated ray tracing is also a very welcome feature. Not only does it allow us to take players to environments that are that more realistic and dynamic, but ray tracing hardware can do more than just rendering! For example, we can do incredible things with the acoustics to enhance realism. Modeling realistic sound occlusion for AI’s hearing in real-time, for example, is an incredibly useful feature for creating stealth games.

The SSD storage speed then lets us take those beautiful realistic environments and make them load in a flash. And we’re talking about bigger environments than the ones we could create on Xbox One.

Finding new things to stream is an important part of this generation, and animation streaming is a game-changer for motion capture. Now we can support detailed motion capture on a much wider scale, like non-player characters simply doing their thing in the background. Instead of all enemy NPCs moving in an identical way, for example, the SSD storage speed means we can offer many unique motion-captured animations – and given we own Audiomotion, Europe’s leading motion capture studio, it’s something we’ll be very keen to do.” Kevin Floyer-Lea, Chief Technology Officer at Rebellion

There are a few other quotes in Windows Central’s coverage, but you can notice the marked difference between how Sony and Microsoft are pitching their console. Where Sony utters vague statements Microsoft drops specific talking points and hardware details that assure consumers they will be able to deliver this performance and how they will be able to deliver this performance.

“Playing games at a high refresh rate, at those crazy resolutions, is the next big thing in gaming. Anyone that played Ori and the Will of the Wisps in high resolution in 120 hertz will know what I mean. Previously this was only something that PC enthusiasts spending thousands of dollars on their machines would be able to experience. Bringing this kind of performance and quality to the general public is very exciting to me, and I think that will be the true next-gen leap we’ve all been waiting for.” -Gennadiy Korol, Director of Technology at Moon Studios

Sadly it is rhetoric aimed to hype you up, and like Sony’s rhetoric it’s not based in reality. Years ago you would have had to spend thousands to acquire that kind of performance, but today your monitor will probably run you half of what you’ll need to render at 4k.

Regardless of which side you’re on, those who will come out ahead in all this are the consumers. Publishers more often than not wish to achieve console parity leaving many features on the cutting room floor for no other reason than the consoles cannot handle them. With the increase in power, we will begin to see games making steps forward again. Something that we can all enjoy.