According to Kotaku, Microsoft and Sony are preparing new consoles for next year. Microsoft’s’ plan, according to reports, is to launch two new Xbox consoles – for one of them to possibly be announced during their E3 press conference next month.
This new 2016 Xbox console will, reportedly, have a larger 2TB hard drive, double the capacity of the most spacious current model and a redesigned controller. Also, according to a report from The Verge the new console will be “40 percent smaller than the current model and will likely include 4K support”.
The second one, named Scorpio, which will not be announced until 2017, will have a more powerful GPU and connectivity with the Oculus Rift. Plus, according to Kotaku, the Scorpio will be over four times more powerful than the current Xbox One, reaching approximately 6 teraflops – the Xbox One, for reference, only has 1.32 teraflops.
Moving onto Sony and their new updated version, code named “Neo”, which will bring 4K video resolution and and more power for the Playstation VR platform. It will be approximately 2.25 times more powerful than the regular PS4, and is likely to have a peak performance of 4.14 teraflops.
The two consoles not only bring an evolution to the video game industry but it seems that the big companies are changing the console market format. Instead of launching a new console every 4-7 years, companies are choosing to update the power, interactivity and the resolution of their current consoles, creating a more robust version. This means that in less time companies can update the market with more powerful consoles and more features. In that way, this can be a positive for the big games companies. For game lovers, however, it may mean their consoles will have a much shorter lifespan, ultimately meaning they will be forced to spend more money.
We won’t have long to wait, with E3 only weeks away, more announced are sure to be unveiled at Sony, and Microsoft’s press conferences.
