The next generation of consoles is almost upon us. Even with the COVID-19 outbreak and having the world burn around us, it seems as if Sony and Microsoft are determined to see their new systems on shelves in some capacity this holiday season. We’ve heard a lot of talk, we’ve seen some things, but in the end, it’s hard to convey it without the thing being in the your hands. And someone who agrees is Microsoft’s Phil Spencer.
Spencer was part of the second episode on Talking Games, the new podcast from former Nintendo of America President Fils-Aimé. In it he talked about the upcoming system, but also some of the frustrations in trying to convey just how the leap to this new generation will be. He said they can talk all they want, show all the want, in the end it’s no substitute for feeling it for yourself.
“One of the things I’ve talked about publicly … but it’s hard to come across, is the way it feels to play games on a box where frame rates are higher, frame rates are more stable,” Spencer said. “The fluidity of it, showing that in video form, is just impossible. How do you show how something feels?
“We’re getting to the point where the immersion feel that you get through fluidity and other things is now up to par with the visual capabilities that we have. How do you share that with people in this kind of world?”
I’ve said it a few times myself here, but in the end, all the next generation hype can be fun, but until you have the machine in your home running on your monitor or television, it remains not a whole lot more than hype. Both the Xbox Series X as well as the PlayStation 5 are slated to release at the end of this year, so let’s look to getting them for ourselves. The pre-order page for the Series X is also live if you want to stalk that out in your spare time.