Xbox Series X 

This week got off to a very quick start with news coming from the official Xbox news wire. They featured an article from Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer regarding the upcoming specs of the Xbox Series X. Up until this point, the only information we had regarding the internal specs of the system were mostly speculation based on inside or close sources. Although, for the most part everything was in line with the information that we already had. However, there were a few new bits of new information to start piecing together what this generation is going to look like. Also having an official confirmation from Microsoft is great. It’s also very exciting as every press release and every interview is one stop closer to a full reveal. Then the only thing left would be the release.

I think one of the bigger questions besides price and launch dates going into the next generation is how would cross generation gaming work.  At the end of the PS3 and Xbox 360 we got some great games that were remastered and resold to us. Gamers were given the choice to rebuy games including the likes of GTA5, The Last of Us, and Diablo 3. These remasters were in addition to collections of games that offered more value by bundling the series together including Uncharted, Bioshock, And Halo. Nonetheless, these packages offered great value for gamers that never experienced any of these games in the first place, it still left early adopters out in the cold. I guess it depends where you fall on the argument but I think it really depends on how much work is put into the updated version. I am also not sure how Nintendo consistently gets a pass on this practice but I’ll give them a pass for the WiiU remasters and that console had some great games that more people needed to experience even though I was two of the 13 million systems sold. 

Xbox is calling this feature Smart Delivery and here’s how Phil Spencer describes it “This technology empowers you to buy a game once and know that – whether you are playing it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X – you are getting the right version of that game on whatever Xbox you’re  playing on. We’re making the commitment to use Smart Delivery on all our exclusive Xbox Game Studios titles, including Halo Infinite, ensuring you only have to purchase a title once in order to play the best available version for whichever Xbox console they choose to play on. This technology is available for all developers and publishers, and they can choose to use it for titles that will be release on Xbox One first and come to the Xbox Series X later” 

With Microsoft making the first move with a feature like this that is so consumer forward, it seems hard to believe that the Sony won’t have to offer something similar or counter in some way. Phil does say that third party developers can use it if they want and you wonder if they will take advantage or if it will mainly be reserved for first party Xbox titles. The good news, you don’t have to wait long to wonder how developers feel about it as CD Projekt Red have already announced CyberPunk 2077 will take part in Smart Delivery. The official CyberPunk twitter tweeted out that gamers should never forced to purchase the same game twice shortly after Microsoft posted their in depth article. 

I think Smart Delivery will help drive sales for games that are coming out for the current generation as the existing install bases are quite large. I have already heard some people say they might hold off on purchasing a certain game until next gen release so they can play the best version. This alleviates that concern for developers if they choose to partake in “Smart Delivery”. 

As for the specs of the system, those are fairly on point with what has been speculating.  In case you missed the article, the big bullet points are as follows. We already know that it’s going to have SSD as they have already confirmed that. What is new is that it will feature the ability to suspend multiple games at once and resume them instantly. Even if you turn off or restart the system. I think this sounds amazing and hope it works as well as promised because one of the worst problems this generation is the long load times, the patches and the updates. All of these issues drive a wedge between the consumer and gaming, and yes these are first world problems.  

On the processing side of things I’m just going to let Phil explain “Xbox Series X is our most powerful console ever powered by our custom designed processor leveraging AMD’s latest Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures. Delivering four times the processing power of an Xbox One and enabling developers to leverage 12 TFLOPS of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) performance – twice that of an Xbox One X and more than eight times the original Xbox One. Xbox Series X delivers a true generational leap in processing and graphics power with cutting edge techniques resulting in higher frame rates, larger, more sophisticated game worlds, and an immersive experience unlike anything seen in console gaming”

That higher frame rate he mentions will be that the Xbox Series X will support up to 120 FPS. It will also support one of the latest trends in gaming and that is Ray Tracing. The Series X will support “DirectX Raytracing – a first for console gaming. This means true-to-life lighting, accurate reflections and realistic acoustics in real time”

You can take those last two items with a grain of salt if the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X were anything to go off. First, knowing little about PC, what I do know is that very few cards can do ray tracing to its fullest and based on comprises a console usually has to make, we are likely to see a reduced version of it.

Similar to when we received those half step consoles we were told it would be true 4K gaming, but under the hood there were sometimes ways the system could duplicate 4K by using alternative methods like checker boarding. A lot of games initially made you choose between prioritizing resolution or frame rate. Most likely the same concessions will have to be made this generation as well. Do you want ray tracing or true 4K or 120 FPS? You most likely will not be able to get them all at once. Nonetheless, these are still some exciting features that are coming to console that are typically reserved for high end PCs not too long ago. 

It’s a very exciting time to be a gamer and it’s always interesting to see how one announcement or features affects the competition. I can’t wait to see what we hear next.

GDC 

Late Friday, the organization behind GDC have decided to postpone their event until Summer at the moment. This comes in the wake of seeing first hand how many attendees dropped out of Pax East this week and how many companies were already changing their attendance plans for GDC. This is all in relation to looming dangers from the corona virus. Last week, we looked at how the corona virus was beginning to impact the global economy and how it was slowly sweeping into the gaming world. As we said before the main concern is the well being of all the people that have been affected by this virus. 

Shortly after announcing their decision to not attend Pax, Sony also made the announcement they wouldn’t be attending GDC either. Their decision was followed by some of the biggest names in the world, gaming related or not. Facebook, Amazon, Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft, Epic Games and the list was most likely going to keep getting larger. 

GDC takes place in San Francisco, which is a travel hub for the eastern hemisphere where the virus originated from. On Tuesday, San Francisco’s mayor actually declared the city in a state of emergency.  While this doesn’t mean that the virus has taken over the city by the bay, according to CNN “The move will, among other things, help the city get reimbursed by state and federal governments for money it spends on preparedness” which the mayor said at a press conference. 

As for how the virus has been spreading to North America, the article stated “The number of coronavirus patients in the United States was at 59 on Tuesday, most of whom returned to the US after being aboard a cruise ship that was traveling in Asia. San Francisco's hospitals have treated three coronavirus patients who were transferred there from other areas, but there are otherwise no active cases in the city”

On the official GDC site the organization posted this comment “After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we're genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time.

We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks”

Between the few cases already in San Francisco and how many companies were already deciding to not attend the event,  I think GDC made the right call to postpone the event for a few reasons. On the human side, the less high traffic events that take place with attendees from around the world the better chances of the virus not spreading are.  On the business side, the amount of companies that were dropping out of the event was definitely going to hurt the amount of content that would be at the show and thereby reducing the overall value of the show. 

I also think that with the postponement of GDC until late summer, that it might actually be a place where Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo announce some of their big fall plans.  Obviously, in the case of Sony, this would be a good venue to talk about the PS5 with their absence at E3. With Microsoft seemingly being ahead of the announcements this year and possibly releasing the Xbox Series X earlier than the PS5, it might give them a chance to give people some hands on time with the system. Finally, in Nintendo’s case it might be an event that helps them showcase their fall and winter lineup to compete with the new consoles. Overall, delaying the conference was not only the right thing to do from a health and business perspective but it also might benefit them based on timing of the event.