As the current consoles advance with games like Marvel & # 39; s Spider-Man, God of War, and Forza Horizon 4, part of the player community has already turned its attention to the next wave of hardware, the Xbox Scarlett and the PS5.
These consoles are light years away from reaching store shelves (in the case of Xbox Scarlett, they have only been confirmed publicly recently), but as far as we know, they are in full development at this time.
Predicting how they will be when they arrive is a challenge. The current hardware has almost adapted to the viewing standards, which means that Xbox Scarlett and PS5 can not offer 4K HDR images and call it per day.
So, what is the next step for the consoles?
External developers to Sony and Microsoft do not have the answer to that question. But, what they do have is the knowledge of what they will do when they have the next-generation hardware in their hands.
In a conversation with Scott Phillips, Game Director of Assassin & Creed Odyssey, we had the opportunity to talk about how the acclaimed Ubisoft series could benefit from the power and versatility of next generation consoles.
In his response, Phillips mentioned a number of areas for improvement, including artificial intelligence and immersion of the franchise's expansion environments, and how more games (including Assassin's Creed) could follow in the footsteps of the Games life model as a service.
TechRadar: What do you think the next generation consoles bring to the table? And what could next-generation hardware with a series like Assassin & # 39; s Creed?
Phillips: Well, I think I can see what Yves Guillemot said in terms of the transmission being the future and more people who have access to this type of games because they do not have to buy a console to to play. I think in terms of opportunities creatively, obviously improving things like AI, credibility of the world, credibility and interactivity; how much you can push and pull the world and how it reacts to you, as well as how we keep the game alive and active for the players, because the idea that the games have an extended duration or an extended playing time for the game where you finish, but you do not necessarily throw it away … it's where Assassin & # 39; s Creed could continue to progress in the future.
TechRadar: Can you give me an example? Have you thought about what that mechanics would be like?
Phillips: We'll talk more about what we're going to do after the launch specifically for Assassin & # 39; s Creed in the next few weeks, but all that does not necessarily have to have a mechanical game that creates the content for you but keeps the developers around you and keeps them reactive with the community and with what people are interested in, and then continues to develop in that direction. Games as a service or games as a hobby are a kind of touchstone or reference words for that kind of style and I think more games will continue in that direction.
Games as a service versus immersive worlds
The crux of Phillips & apos; prediction for the future is that more games on next generation consoles will follow in the footsteps of Destiny, Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch in that the base game continues to grow overtime through a mix of free DLC and payment that can continue years after its initial release.
If Microsoft and Sony decide to make the transmission of games a cornerstone of their next systems, they may be able to offer players the latest version of the games for a fixed price, keeping players connected at a constant flow of content and keeping developers on board long after a game first "is sent".
This could work in tandem or with other games that use the consoles and apos; Integrated processing to create more immersive worlds with AI and more interactive environments: an idea that Microsoft joked with the first version of Crackdown 3 that had an open world of completely destructible buildings and CD PROJEKT RED demoed in the latest advance of Cyberpunk 2077. [19659002] With today's technology it seems impossible to offer both options simultaneously due to the large amount of data that should be communicated, but as Internet speeds continue to improve and the data transmission algorithms improve, that could change by when Microsoft and Sony is ready to reveal its next generation hardware.
- The transmission of games in the cloud could decide the future of Xbox Scarlett and PlayStation 5