We already know the PS5 is coming. No less than the head of PlayStation himself has confirmed that the PS4 has entered the final legs of its life cycle, and there are a whole lot of rumors pointing at a release for the new console within the next couple of years.

Those who are technically inclined would also tell you that it is likely to leverage AMD’s Ryzen in some way or the other- so it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that Sony’s Simon Pilgrim has started to work on some tuning for the AMD Ryzen “znver1” microarchitecture support within the LLVM compiler stack.

We can assume this is being done for the PS5, since this does not in any way apply to the PS4 itself- that, or they are just performing R&D that won’t actually reflect in any of their systems (they used to do this back in the PS2/PS3 days, it is unclear if they would do this now). Nevertheless, while this is not confirmation, PS5 using Ryzen seems likelier and likelier now.

[Phoronix]

NOMINEES

Nintendo Switch: 

Nintendo’s new console managed to overcome all odds and skepticism, and actually work. The handheld-console hybrid showed us just what the utility of having a flexible, modular system like the Switch truly is, while its spontaneous local multiplayer capabilities made it stand out from every other portable system that had ever come before. In terms of specs, the Switch may not be the most impressive- but in terms of imagination, and how much it altered the paradigm, the Switch truly stands out.

Xbox One X: 

Going in the opposite direction of the Switch, the Xbox One X doesn’t try to do anything new- it just tries to do what it does exceptionally well. And it pulls it off with aplomb. The Xbox One X, with its stunning 6 TERAFLOP GPU, and its 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, with support for HDR-10 and native 4K gaming, with every bit of the latest, most sophisticated tech packed into it imaginable, is a beast of a console- and a reminder that Xbox’s heritage lies in delivering true power to console gamers.

AMD Ryzen CPUs: 

The first nw CPU architecture that AMD introduced in five years, the Zen-powered AMD Ryzen won everyone’s hearts and awe right away earlier this year- because of the sheer extent of performance it delivered. PC gaming gas always been a step ahead of consoles and portables- and with Ryzen, that generation gap has been widened even further, cementing PC gaming’s technological supremacy.

Decima Engine Used In Horizon Zero Dawn: 

Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of the most stunning games ever made- that it achieves this on a gaming console, while having a vast open world makes it veritable black magic. And it’s apparently a hugely flexible piece of tech, too, since Hideo Kojima will b using the engine in his widely anticipated upcoming game Death Stranding.

Frostbite 3.0 Engine Used In Star Wars Battlefront 2: 

Okay, look, Battlefront 2 has a lot of issues. We don’t even want to get into any of that right now. What is undeniable is that, for all the problems the game has, it looks and sounds spectacular- thanks to the technical wizards at DICE, who, with Frostbite 3.0, have upped the ante on the kinds of visuals we should expect in games yet again. We can’t wait to see what DICE does next- just how stunning will the next Battlefield look?

WINNER:

Nintendo Switch: 

The Nintendo Switch introduces an all new paradigm to gaming, and it executes it nigh on flawlessly. The hybrid concept just works, and the flexibility and convenience offered by the Switch is so great that at some point, you will find yourself wanting to play every game on it. Does it lack in power? As a home console, definitely- but when you consider how much Nintendo managed to stuff into a 6.2 inch across diagonal tablet, it is mind boggling. The Switch wins our best tech of the year award for not just doing what gaming technology has always done, but better- but for doing something completely new, and then more or less perfecting it along the way, too.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

We already know that Microsoft are planning on making the Xbox One Scorpio the most powerful console ever made- but so far, apart from vague and ambiguous targets, Microsoft have only stuck to discussing the system’s GPU performance (which we know will be an admittedly impressive 6 TFLOPs).

However, it seems like Microsoft may be going all out on the CPU front, too- according to a picture taken by someone on NeoGAF at AMD’s CES booth, it looks like the Scorpio may be using the truly impressive Vega architecture that AMD just debuted for their CPUs, including the fresh Ryzen. If this is true, the Scorpio will have literally one of the newest, most advanced CPU chipsets within it, and far beyond most gaming PCs on the market. That, coupled with its GPU, is likely to make it a truly impressive beast of a machine.

Of course, it is unclear how Microsoft will sell such a device at mass market prices (will they swallow a loss like they did with the Xbox and Xbox 360, or pass the costs on to customers?), or whether such power even has any meaning given that all Scorpio games are also mandated to run on the standard Xbox One- but for fans of technology, it seems like the Scorpio may have a lot to offer.