The PS5 and Xbox Series X arrived a year early –...

Phew! 2020 was a cluster of a year, from the coronavirus pandemic and political turmoil to economic disruption and the iPhone 12 delay. That slated the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X and the start of a new generation of games around needing the kick back this year. But there is a little problem.

As much as I enjoyed reviewing the Xbox Series X, and as much praise my colleagues gave for the Xbox Series S and PS5, I think all three consoles arrived about a year early.

The obvious sticking point is that there aren’t enough exclusive platforms for either console. And all of the big games that will debut on the PS5 and Xbox Series X will also appear on the PS4 and Xbox One.

So if you had waited a little longer for Halo Infinite or a new God of War game to lead the Xbox Series X or PS5, the consoles launch would have been much more kinetic. While pre-orders on all consoles sell out quickly, this lack of launch games doesn’t seem to have dampened the appetite for new slot machines.

And I admit that there is something very appealing about having a lot more power for current generation games to give them more power and visual impact. The Xbox Series X is particularly impressive with its Auto HDR function. But I don’t think that’s enough to get that excited “I need to” feel about the new consoles that their predecessors arguably had.

Electricity is wasted

One of the biggest problems with this is the mid-generation update of the PS4 and Xbox One with the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. Both computers have started enabling 4K console gaming, either using checkerboard rendering or native 4K with the One X. .

Hence, the jump to 4K at 60 frames per second is very impressive. But not necessarily a revolutionary leap if you’re coming from the PS4 Pro or One X. The One X actually has more teraflops of graphical performance than the Xbox Series S – 6 teraflops compared to the 4 teraflops in the newer console.

With that in mind, I feel like my Xbox One X has a lot more to offer in terms of performance as developers tend to get the most out of consoles at the end of their lives.

Take Red Dead Redemption 2, for example: It runs at 4K and a reasonably stable 30 frames per second on the One X and looks fantastic while doing it. Sure, 60 fps would be even better. But I’m not sure if it’s $ 499 better.

And since the One X can do this in such a big game, imagine what could happen to an exclusive Xbox that has been carefully calibrated to take advantage of the One X’s power. The long lifespan of the Xbox 360 demonstrated what is possible with sophisticated console hardware with Halo 4. This was a visual delight for a game running on a seven year old console. The same thing happened with the PS3 and The Last of Us, which looked amazing when they arrived in 2013.

Not only do I think Sony and Microsoft could have got more out of the current generation consoles before they launched the PS5 and Series X, but I also think they should have.

The world is getting smarter about the threat of climate change. So it would certainly be more environmentally friendly to get the most out of a machine before it is finally brought to the large console store in the sky. After all, these are game consoles where the money is made from games and software subscriptions, not hardware sales that drive the incessant update and iteration cycles of smartphones.

Outlook for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Don’t get me wrong, I find that the release of new consoles and hardware in general really tickles the “I want” glands. But the reasonable part of my tech-savvy gray matter is guessing either to wait or really weigh the benefits of a new shiny hardware thingy.

Of course, I’m lucky enough to have an Xbox Series X to test out. But if you’ve been thinking about whether to buy it or the PS5, I’d advise you to wait a bit. There will be a lot of cross-platform games in the next year. And while they may not look as good on older hardware, the game graphics are so good these days that I don’t think you’re going to be missing out too much.

I hope Sony and Microsoft spend more time really building the features of their upcoming consoles as I really want them to deliver real next-gen games over the next 12 months. Halo Infinite looks better and God of War 2 has to blow my mind.