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Sony and Microsoft’s new-generation gaming systems will carry hefty price tags, writes
From the electronic ping-pong machines of the 1970s to the ultra high-definition consoles of today, computer games have been the defining influence on the leisure time of several generations of the young and young-at-heart. But for the next few months, the gameplay will be off the screen, not on it, as the industry heads towards one of its climactic showdowns.
You will know about it when it happens because it will be accompanied by requests from your children or grandchildren for the inclusion of one of the two soon-to-belaunched systems on the next birthday or Christmas list.
The games industry takes no prisoners, and several former household names have had to retire wounded in previous skirmishes. In particular, the Japanese developer Sega has not produced consoles for a decade, although it still publishes games. And its rival Nintendo is not the force it once was.
That has left the field to Sony and Microsoft, both of which have been previewing the next generations of their flagship systems: the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, respectively.
These are not just games consoles but all-round entertainment centres with more power than the average home PC. Both will be capable of 8K definition, which is twice the resolution of most TV sets. A few 8K models are on the market, but you won’t see much change from £4,000, and with screen sizes of 75in typical, you might need to knock through a wall or two.
You don’t need an 8K set to use the new consoles, but their appearance will likely fuel the demand for them. The new models will also play 4K Blu-ray discs and include within their tall, rectangular cases a solid state hard drive that loads up to 10 times faster than conventional disks.
Gaming is not the solitary activity it once was, with vast online communities competing with each other in real time.
Which system you will be asked to bankroll depends on the one its recipient
Wireless cordless musical doorbell chime: This wireless doorbell features a bell sound and 25 different music sounds, so you can choose your favourite door bell music when the knocking button is pressed. The unit is powered by 2 x AAA batteries. £12.58, from www. auto-gadget.com has used before. Both the new consoles will be backwards-compatible with previous generations of their respective games, while the coming weeks and months will determine whether any of the newer titles are to be exclusive to one.
As you might expect, the upgrade will not come cheaply. The expectation is around £450 for a basic package, with games, extra controllers and other peripherals sold separately.
Despite this, there will be many takers. Sony, whose PlayStation platform is by far the more popular, has sold 107 million PS4 consoles in its seven-year lifetime, and plans to turn out up to six million PS5 units it its initial run alone.
However, the market may yet be clouded by the arrival of Google’s Stadia, a complete newcomer to the gaming arena. It’s already available and, while not a direct competitor to the PS5 or Xbox Series X, it rivals them in power.
Stadia is a cloud service from which you stream games in much the same way as a film from Netflix. There is no need to download anything to a console, which means the start-up cost is a lot less. Around £120 gets you a Stadia controller, a Chromecast Ultra receiver, which streams 4K HDR gameplay to your TV, and three months of Stadia Pro membership, which includes a few games. You can pay just for the ones you want thereafter.
As with much other mass media, content is king here, and the gamers in your family will demand whichever system delivers the titles they like most – so don’t worry if you don’t understand all the details. Your grandchildren will soon put you right.
Which system you will be asked to bankroll depends on the one its recipient has used before.