Sony continues to slowly provide gamers with morsels of info on its next-gen PlayStation. We’ve now got the first comparison video showcasing the system’s vastly reduced loading times.
It was barely over a month ago that the Japanese company broke the silence with the first details of the upcoming PlayStation. At a recent meeting in Japan, Sony was once again showing off its capabilities. The Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki was on hand, and captured two comparisons between the current next-gen hardware and the PS4 Pro:
Sony's official video comparing performance of PS4 Pro vs next-gen PlayStation pic.twitter.com/2eUROxKFLq
— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) May 21, 2019
The first showcase compares a single scene’s loading time. On the current hardware it’s just a hair over eight seconds; on its successor it’s less than a second.
The second example plays very much like what system architect Mark Cerny described during last month’s info blowout. Using Marvel’s Spider-Man, the camera speeds through New York City. On the PS4 Pro, once it hits Peter Parker’s top swinging speed pop-up begins to happen. On the PS5 there’s none of it, even when the speeds pick up.
This is possible largely due to the PS5’s custom solid state drive (SSD). It sounds surprising, but loading times could very well be one of the main battlegrounds in the next generation. Despite each console generation’s increased horsepower, loading times have crept up too. Google is promising practically zero with its new Stadia streaming platform, and Microsoft is rumored to be looking at an SSD solution too.
Speaking of Microsoft, Sony announced a partnership with its erstwhile competitor last week. The Sony/Microsoft team-up won’t result in an XStation 5X though: the partnership will focus on cloud solutions, AI, and semi-conductors.
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