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What's gonna be the Series S of next gen?

GoldenEye98

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
Is there going to be a cheaper weaker option that still gets majority of 3rd party AAA's? PS6 Handheld is the only thing I could think of but I'm not even sure that is guaranteed to run next gen games....
 
I can't really imagine anything else right now besides a possible PS6 handheld. If it truly has to run all PS6 games, i'm curious whether it'll get as much hate as the Series S.
 
Cakeboxer said:
I can't really imagine anything else right now besides a possible PS6 handheld. If it truly has to run all PS6 games, i'm curious whether it'll get as much hate as the Series S.
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I'm curious whether a handheld can actually achieve the same price/performance ratio as cheaper TV-only box style console like the Series S....I am skeptical it will.
 
GoldenEye98 said:
I'm curious whether a handheld can actually achieve the same price/performance ratio as cheaper TV-only box style console like the Series S....I am skeptical it will.
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Handheld will be weaker in processor, gpu, ram, power consumption …. basically everything.

There is good reason why desktop pcs offer better performance than laptops or handhelds.
 
As long as the systems are not hamstrung with a memory configuration that doesn't align with the more powerful devices then that shouldn't be an issue. With memory prices such as they are, the temptation to skimp on memory might lead down that path again, but hopefully not.

GoldenEye98 said:
I'm curious whether a handheld can actually achieve the same price/performance ratio as cheaper TV-only box style console like the Series S....I am skeptical it will.
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I think a handheld will be released to drive profits, not market share, which means there won't be any subsidy like what XSS had. Not really comparable products, imo.
 
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There wont be an S version. And it would surprise me if Microsoft actually released another console. Without exclusive games, it has no reason to exist.
 
Majority of the 3rd party games next gen will be cross-gen, at least for the first few years. So the Series S may still be the Series S of next gen.
 
If any, it will be this:

Based on reports from Moore's Law is Dead (MLID) and supporting leaks, the PlayStation 6 (PS6) ecosystem is rumored to launch around late 2027 to early 2028 with three distinct hardware versions.

PS6S "Lite" (Affordable Model):
  • Purpose: An affordable, lower-spec model similar to the Xbox Series S, meant to serve as an entry-level option into the PS6 ecosystem.
  • Specs: Uses the same "Canis" APU as the handheld, likely with performance constraints similar to the handheld's docked mode.
  • Price: Estimated at $299–$399.
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Once xgen period ends, which will likely be somewhere between 2030 and 2032 base ps6 gonna be current gen series s or if we actually get portable ps6 then that might be one, but here it strongly depends on the sales data of that device, if its moderate success(think 70-80m units sold) then yup, devs gonna treat it as lowest common denominator.
If it flops or sells relatively badly- say 30m units or less and portable version isnt mandated by sony, then many devs will skip portable and just focus on base ps6 as lowest common denominator instead.
 
Perrott said:
What do you mean by "next-gen games"?
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Next gen games by definition are games that cant run on current gen consoles, or to be downported to work on current gen it would require some srs cutbacks.
Good example of current gen game that got downported to last gen is jedi survivor, u can see how it looks and runs on last gen consoles in this vid, spoilers, it wasnt smooth nor pretty by any means:
 
For gen of Series S (gen 9), main changes are: better CPU, larger GPU and faster I/O, but it has fatal hardware design issue, separated different speed memory pool, if it's a unified 12gb ram, it would have less issue than it has now.

Switch 2 maybe (if you regard it as gen 10), if we do not include nintendo, for the next gen, imo, i don't really just take the raw power of PS6 handheld (~0.5 PS5) as a main factor, but all its next gen features sets just make it not a series s if you consider how ML grapchial technologies now define the video-game visuals:

  • ML based PSSR (more sharper image by less rendered pixels, 540p->1080p for handheld)
  • PSFR( PlayStaion Spectral frame-gen, make a game render at 40 fps~60 fps to target 120 fps),
  • universal compression (better bandwidth, I/O speed and power efficiency)
  • next gen raytracing cores (the handhled is still 2~3x PS raytracing power, better UE5 lumen support),
  • better nanite support (hardware support take less CPU/GPU power)
  • AMD&Sony version neural rendering support is also next gen exclusive features, and the big ram & AI power (TOPS in int8, FP8, FP16 and e.t.c.) to make game design involved with more vivid NPC and world generation possiable.


So in the end it depends the game development pipeline,
  • 3rd parties and 1st party multi-players games will have way longer cross-gen, 3rd parties need consider the huge and various PC hardware, they need some legecy solution for raytrcing, texture quality, asset quality, lod and e.t.c.
  • 1st party SP games of the first couple years will mostly be cross-gen titles and there will be some next gen only titles, when 1st party developers fully drop baken lighting to full use RTGI, use ML graphical technologies in their development and optimizations to make game development faster and more economic, leave more efforts and time on gameplay and stories, then it will dorp last gen.

P.S.: Let's look what "Road to PS6 family" next year will tell us about the next-gen game development pipeline, we may got a lot of ML-related stuffs and see examples how these next-gen feature become part of game development and game design
 
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deriks said:
Switch 2; games doesn't look as good, but still runs ok
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Switch 2 just doesn't get 3rd party AAA's releases in nearly the same manner as the other consoles.

Whether you like or hate the Series S...it was a cheaper option that existed this gen that gets the majority of 3rd party AAA's.
 
GoldenEye98 said:
Switch 2 just doesn't get 3rd party AAA's releases in nearly the same manner as the other consoles.

Whether you like or hate the Series S...it was a cheaper option that existed this gen that gets the majority of 3rd party AAA's.
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I can see this changing within the near future. Just look for recent tittles and you see a grow in third party games

And since next Xbox will be just a PC, doesn't make much difference for them
 
Is Switch 2 considered "next-gen"???

If so, that one

Otherwise nothing, unless you count the PS5 Handheld that is coming out: but it's not meant to be used on a TV screen, so not the same thing
 
A handheld ps6 would be hilarious because of couldn't match a base ps5.

I think Sony will be smart enough to focus on what they do best
 
PS6 handheld for next gen systems. Sounds like that will be the lowest common denominator for new PS and Xbox gadgets.

Currently, people say Series S, but it's really not for lots of games since many still have ports/BC back to X1 and PS4.
 
Digital only Switch 2 Lite.

Since it's digital only, Nintendo will subsidize it to be $300. They know how important their ecosystem is and they know how important it is to have a cheap option for children for when Pokemon Wind/Waves releases.
 
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MisterXDTV said:
Is Switch 2 considered "next-gen"???

If so, that one

Otherwise nothing, unless you count the PS5 Handheld that is coming out: but it's not meant to be used on a TV screen, so not the same thing
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I wouldnt put Switch 2 automatically as a factor. Indie games run fine I'd assume. But for big name third party games that are multiplatform, it seems S2 doesnt get many of them at all to begin with. And when they do it's like S1, it'll get a weird shitty port 3 years later which looks like an afterthought the studio just thought of downporting asap the past 18 months. Core development of the game didnt even think of it at the time.

For truly next gen games, the biggest lowest common denominator will be PS6 handheld. For widespread multiplats that only run on current systems and higher, probably Series S, or Switch 2 if it's considered in dev right away with the rest of the platforms.
 
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deriks said:
I can see this changing within the near future. Just look for recent tittles and you see a grow in third party games

And since next Xbox will be just a PC, doesn't make much difference for them
Click to expand...

Getting select 3rd party AAA games is not the same as being a default target for them. Which Series S basically is along with Series X and PS5.

No one could rely solely on Switch 2 as a way to get access to the latest 3rd party AAA games. With Series S you basically can.

It would require someone to release another ~75W non-portable device next gen similar to the Series S imo. Something that's basically next-gen architecture but with a scaled back GPU/memory(lower storage option as well to cut back on cost) to do nex gen at ~1080P/lower RT. It's doable but someone has to do it....
 
Topher said:
I think a handheld will be released to drive profits, not market share, which means there won't be any subsidy like what XSS had. Not really comparable products, imo.
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PS6 Portable actually having competition (Switch 2) means that they are not in a position to price it up like they want.
 
Is Sony really planning to release a portable PS6? Haven't they learned portable is the major field for Nintendo?
 
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Boy bawang said:
A handheld ps6 would be hilarious because of couldn't match a base ps5.

I think Sony will be smart enough to focus on what they do best
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I don't think making a handheld to match the base PS5 is the point of having a handheld.

And what they need to do is make handheld that in some way can play ps6 games in some sort of handheld mode. You don't need to match base PS5 to be able to do that.
 
Mr.Phoenix said:
I don't think making a handheld to match the base PS5 is the point of having a handheld.

And what they need to do is make handheld that in some way can play ps6 games in some sort of handheld mode. You don't need to match base PS5 to be able to do that.
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In this case, the ps6 will be severely gimped if a handheld less powerful than a ps5 can play its games ; and Sony may have a hard time justifying not releasing those games on ps5 as well.
 
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