The current consoles – at least their upgraded, more powerful counterparts – have 4K as one of their great big, back of the box marketing bullet points. And it’s true! Both the PlayStation 4 Pro and the more powerful Xbox One can push out 4K graphics, natively and using fancy rendering techniques to lighten the load. While it’s easy enough to find games that are rendered in 4K (with concessions, of course), it’s a lot harder to find games that are both 4K and run at the fabled 60 frames per second.
That, of course, is (and rightly should be) the focus for the next generation of consoles. Speaking to Gamespot after E3, Spencer said that while much of the focus this gen has been on getting games to look great, the next-gen will have them looking great and running like butter too.
“I think the area that we really want to focus on next-generation is frame rate and playability of the games,” Spencer said. “Ensuring that the games load incredibly fast, ensuring that the game is running at the highest frame rate possible. We’re also the Windows company, so we see the work that goes on [for] PC and the work that developers are doing. People love 60 frames-per-second games, so getting games to run at 4K 60 [FPS] I think will be a real design goal for us.
“The thing that’s interesting is, this generation, we’ve really focused on 4K visuals and how we bring both movies through 4K Blu-ray and video streaming, and with Xbox One X allowing games to run at 4K visuals will make really strong visual enhancements next generation. But playability is probably the bigger focus for us this generation. How fast do [games] load? Do I feel like I can get into the game as fast as possible and while it’s playing? How does it feel? Does this game both look and feel like no other game that I’ve seen? That’s our target.”
And honestly? That’s a great area to focus on. Thanks to both upcoming next-gen consoles shipping with SSDs, load times and in-game transition times will be significantly reduced, and the optimisation in games should trickle through to PC ports of console games. While PC’s can already have incredibly fast solid-state drives, games still aren’t really made to take advantage of them properly.
Give me smooth games with minimal load times before worrying about nonsense like 8K.
Last Updated: August 13, 2019
Admiral Chief Umbra
August 13, 2019 at 11:53
Heh, that GIF gets me every time
Wallman
August 13, 2019 at 12:01
If the PS5 is just a less noisy PS4 then I’m happy
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 13, 2019 at 12:12
When he says 60fps does he mean actual 60fps, or True 60fps?
Yahtzee
August 13, 2019 at 12:20
Whats next? Are they going to add an SSD and call it “totally true very fast load time RAM”
Raptor Rants
August 13, 2019 at 12:29
I didn’t get to use my stolen gif 🙁
Yahtzee
August 13, 2019 at 12:29
Who says you cant?
https://i.imgur.com/5irRQLe.gif
Raptor Rants
August 13, 2019 at 12:37
Because now it’s just weird. It’s in the article. Geoff GIF blocked me. JIFF blocked me.
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 13, 2019 at 12:38
*JEFF
Yahtzee
August 13, 2019 at 12:38
*GEOFF blocked
Admiral Chief Umbra
August 13, 2019 at 12:46
GEOFF GIEF GRIEF ABOUT GIF
Raptor Rants
August 13, 2019 at 15:00
lol
Pieter Kruger
August 13, 2019 at 12:29
“PS4 Pro 4k”….cough cough! Can’t wait for next gen!!! With Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing and SSD’s etc. the jump will be much greater compared to last gen!
Darren Peach
August 13, 2019 at 13:08
I know, you must me an Android. You power up every time Phil Spencer is mention and you are programmed to say bad things about Sony. Am I right ?
Viper_ZA
August 13, 2019 at 12:46
Yep, lost the plot completely. Instead on focussing on AAA games and exclusives, rather look at the frame rates and “playability”.
Pieter Kruger
August 13, 2019 at 15:12
LOL! Do you even internet?
Viper_ZA
August 13, 2019 at 15:12
Gears “5” doesn’t count. Having owned and still own a range of devices, I am sorry to say MS will have to up their game and quick too. I bought the X on launch, paperweight at best 🙂
Yahtzee
August 13, 2019 at 12:12
“People love 60 frames-per-second games, so getting games to run at 4K 60 [FPS] I think will be a real design goal for us.”
Funny. Because that was confirmed and advertised for the original Xbox One. Not the more powerful X version… the basic entry level “new gen” Xbox One at the beginning of it’s life.
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 13, 2019 at 12:20
https://media.giphy.com/media/uAivJT1fQ0te8/giphy.gif
Yahtzee
August 13, 2019 at 12:20
Or numbers xD