With the recent launch of the Nintendo Switch, all eyes have been on the newest gaming platform out of Japan with its experimental control setup and its longstanding fan-favorite franchises, like Zelda, but now that it’s finally hit store shelves (with a somewhat divided reception), the focus is beginning to turn to the next offerings of its competitors, meaning the console wars between Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox could be on the verge of heating up again.
Microsoft’s Xbox Scorpio is expected to arrive later this year, at which point Microsoft, for the first time since the original Xbox, will have the most powerful system in the marketplace, but it looks like the Xbox reign will be short lived. A new report by Macquarie Research reveals that Sony’s PlayStation 5 is expected to arrive sometime in the second half of 2018 with a GPU performance greater than 10 TFLOPS, far outshining the 6 TFLOPS GPU performance expected from Microsoft’s Xbox Scorpio.
While the Scorpio’s dethroning could come swiftly at the hands of this newly fabled PS5, it is important to note that many gamers have been thoroughly dissatisfied with the more recent PS4 Pro, which shipped without 4K disk read capabilities and barely raises the bar any higher than the already aging benchmarks of the PS4, meaning Microsoft has a big opportunity to win over any disgruntled PlayStation owners in the months it has before the PS5 actually arrives in 2018.
Obviously, each iterative hardware release by either company will (hypothetically) be greater than the last, so news that the PS5 is going to be more powerful than Xbox Scorpio shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone, but if the reported hardware capabilities are true, then Sony will surely get a good long look from most gamers, especially with such a strong slate of exclusive games, such as the newest release, Horizon: Zero Dawn, which has seen massive success as the biggest new franchise launch seen by the PS4.
At the end of the day, while hardware is admittedly a significant factor, gamers play games, meaning they will ultimately gravitate toward the console that offers them the games they want to play, which is why Nintendo has maintained a loyal fan base for years without even participating in the semi-annual hardware competition between Sony and Microsoft. The Scorpio isn’t expected to have any major titles to set itself apart from the competition at launch, and with three of the top ten games in Screen Rant’s 30 Most Anticipated Games of 2017 being PlayStation exclusives, Microsoft’s hardware edge could be a moot point when gamers are looking for their next big title.
Source: Barrons
