10 Things The Next Console Generation Needs

As the current console cycle begins to wind down, our favourite tech brands are getting ready to win over their fans at the start of the next console war.

With the PS5 and Xbox Series X set for Holiday 2020 release dates, both Sony and Microsoft have begun showing off bits and pieces of their upcoming consoles to fiercely dedicated fanbases, in the run up to a full reveal in the coming months.

Specs have been boasted about, with numbers very few understand thrown around in the hopes that "bigger is better" is something gamers do understand.

Of course, there are more important things than the numbers - features that gamers have been calling for over the last few generations.

Some we've had before, but they slowly slipped away as another generation took over, leaving fans waiting for things to go back to the way they should be again. Others were unrealised promises from the advent of the current generation - ones that never got to a stage that made any impact.

The following are ten essential features that the next generation consoles need to launch with, if they truly want to feel next generation.

With graphics having hit a bit of a plateau in the current generation, we've been told that we shouldn't expect too much of a leap when the new consoles come around.

There will be little things here and there that make environments feel a little more real, and more powerful processors alongside more RAM mean that these already impressive graphics will be able to be displayed on more character models at a time, but the graphical resolution and realism won't be changing much at all.

What must be changing is how fast we get to experience those graphics. If loading times cannot be eliminated entirely, then they should be diminished as much as possible with those that are noticeable being disguised by small in-engine cutscenes.

And it looks like we'll definitely be getting that wish granted, as both console makers have confirmed the addition of Solid State Drives to their devices.

With rumours marking these as up to 36 times faster than current consoles, it's likely that only the biggest games will have loading times beyond a couple of seconds, and then only for their most intensive loads.