Video Games & Art focuses on video games creative features as aesthetics, contents and storytelling, sustained by interactivity and processing; despite I’m a physics teacher, I’m not a real expert in hardware and software technology, I own just a basic knowledge. Btw technological features are strictly linked to creative features; technological innovations are precious tools for creative innovations. New frontiers for interactivity, gameplay, aesthetics, interactive narration and language need suitable technology; viceversa, artistic and creative requirements can drive the progress of technology. The sinergy of technological progress and creative evolution is the best option. The question is: how will next generation hardware affect gaming experience and in particular the artistic evolution of the medium?

Not the real PS5!

Well, at first glance next generation seems just a more powerful upgrade of the current one. Recently consoles tend to converge towards PC architecture. Is it bad or good? Developers see such homogeneity as an advantage; overly customized architectures are so much harder to program and more expensive for market reasons, see PS3. Thanks to architectures standardization, more and more creative people can access to more and more powerful development tools; and more and more users can access to more and more powerful gaming machines; the latters are key elements for video games artistic evolution. Trend toward hardware homogeneity doesn’t preclude innovation, a common base offers room for some precious customizations. Do not forget that consoles are closed systems optimized for gaming; the way CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD, etc. communicate with each other or the way power consumption is managed, is not the same as PCs. The latters are open systems aimed at generic users, you can configure your PC as very powerful gaming machine, but it’s so far more expensive than buying console with the same power. Games optimized for specific hardware configuration have not the same performances on different configurations; many AAA titles are optimized for consoles and console producers tend still today to capitalize development studios for exclusive games. On the other hand PCs are open systems very suitable for indie developers. I don’t know if in the far future such differences will fade out; btw I’m sure that in the next generation it will be again convenient to own both PC and consoles. The advent of remote gaming (see Stadia) is not going to considerably affect the next generation because of limits of network infracstructure. We have to wait for the tenth generation to understand the impact of remote gaming on the medium’s artistic evolution; maybe remote gaming will help to introduce expressive and narrative games to wider audience.

Xbox Series X

Speaking of customizations, new ultra fast SSDs, dedicated 3D audio processor and ray tracing technology promise sensible differences in gaming experience. In particular, I wonder how ray tracing will impact games aesthetics; maybe it’s a not so mature technology such to make the difference. It’s very difficult to predict the real impact of such innovations; it’s a matter of software and algorithms more than hardware. Higher computational power also means better implementation of AI and machine learning. When I speak of AI, I’m not referring just to better resolution upscaling, retro compatibility, ray tracing, realistic 3D audio etc.; I’m even referring to much higher and smarter responsivity of environment and NPCs to player’s inputs, such to give us more and more realistic and engaging interactive virtual experiences. AI is a key factor in expressive and narrative evolution of video games. Summing up, higher computational power, simplification and homogeneity of hardware architectures plus some customizations and optimizations give to developers the opportunity to implement new algorithms that can change the gaming experience. In the end, it’s a matter of software more than hardware. We have to wait and see how developers will take profit of next generation hardware.

I want to discuss another key factor: user interfaces, the way players can physically interact with and immerse in virtual worlds. Gamepads of next generation are not so different from current ones, they add just some haptic sensors. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that gamepad concept is old and surpassed. I would have appreciated a couple of hand controllers like the ones used in VR systems, with the possibility to join them as in Nintendo Switch system.

Oculus hand controllers

I have the impression of a conservative attitude in next generation consoles; just an impression, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we can hope for real and amazing innovations coming from VR. Speaking of user interfaces, next generation VR systems could implement eye and finger tracking, even new sensors and new machine learning algorithms for body tracking. We are expecting for so far better graphic resolution, wider field of view, better compensation of motion sickness, lighter and less bulky headsets, integration of augmented and virtual reality by means of headset with external camera, no cables and obviously better and better games. VR is very suitable for immersiveness in interactive narrative experiences. I’m a bit skeptic about the absence of cables, it would imply so far lower performance. VR systems are in their childhood, as consequence hardware empowerment has higher impact in comparison to traditional flat gaming. That’s the reason why PCVR systems, in particular Oculus and HTC, offer the best gaming experience, but at very expensive prices. Sony seems the only one console producer determined to invest in next generation VR. I think Sony will offer again a VR system more affordable than PCVR; btw someone thinks Sony could release two different headsets with different features and different budgets, just like PC competitors. Will Sony repeat the mid-generation strategy by releasing mid-generation PS5 Pro and two different headsets? The fact that Sony presented a console with less computational power than competitors’ reinforces the hypotesis. I think that next VR generation will start two years after the release of next gen consoles.

Whatever happens, in the next future I hope to play real innovative virtual experiences in terms of interactive dynamics and expressive and narrative language.