Multiplatform Games Might Not Take Full Advantage of PS5's Fast SSD
Yesterday, Sony published a presentation from Mark Cerny breaking down the PS5's hardware from a general technical perspective. The key aspect of the PS5 breakdown was the console's SSD and the way Sony was designing the PS5 around it. Cerny stated that the SSD could guarantee near-instantaneous loading times and could provide game developers a tool to change games in ways that are difficult to predict. Yet a question arose whether this kind of platform-exclusive idea would ultimately benefit the whole industry or Sony itself.
John Linneman of Digital Foundry wrote some of his thoughts about this subject on Twitter. First, Linneman explains the general idea that the PS5's SSD is very fast and isn't bottlenecked by other aspects of the console. However, he does acknowledge that these benefits may be more limited than Sony's admitting.
Another developer on Twitter questions Linneman pointedly, saying, "But this won't translate into anything except for MAYBE slightly faster 1st party games." He then mentions that both the PS5 and Xbox Series X's SSDs are "more than enough" for games. Linneman responds in agreement, saying "Absolutely, not saying otherwise." This first establishes that while SSDs, in general, are going to be a huge improvement over past console generations, the PS5 SSD may not necessarily be so huge a leap compared to PC or Xbox Series X – even in first-party titles.
A second question focused more on the comparison between the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. "Sure, only first-party games will truly utilize those speeds," Linneman said in response, referring to the PS5's SSD. Third-party developers will still be making games for the PC and/or the Xbox Series X, too. The PS5's SSD advantage will be used where it's simple and easy to use, but third-party developers will still focus on technology that works equally between all platforms and scale from there.
To the average console game player, the upgrade from a mechanical hard drive to an NVMe SSD between the PS4 and PS5 will be incredible. It's going to reduce, or potentially eliminate in certain games, loading times. It will help with a variety of technical issues, improving how fast the console can put high-quality assets in front of the player's eyes at further distances. The question is whether the PS5 will do tangibly more than other platforms with its SSD, and whether multiplatform devs take advantage of it.
The short answer is that no one really knows; not until there's next-gen game footage to look over. No matter what, though, that game footage will look outstanding compared to the current generation.
The PS5 is planned for release in holiday 2020.
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