When Google took to the stage last week to reveal its new cloud streaming subscription service model for video games, Google Stadia, you could practically feel the reverberations shaking across the industry. That trembling got even more palpable when the tech company announced that Stadia would run on 10.7 teraflops of processing power, directly comparing it to the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, which operate at close to half of that computing speed.
But for those worried about whether Google is about to derail the PS5 and Xbox Series X before they've even been announced, don't worry. Kotaku's Jason Schreier, a trusted source for games industry rumours and leaks, has confirmed that both Microsoft and Sony plan to beat Stadia's 10.7 teraflop threshold with their next-gen consoles.
Commenting in a Resetera thread, Schreier reconfirmed his belief that the PS5 and Xbox Project Scarlett will be releasing in 2020, while stating that "both Sony and Microsoft are aiming higher than that "10.7 teraflops" number that Google threw out last week." This will come as consoling news for console loyalists who may have worried about the operating power of next-gen platforms compared to the rise of cloud streaming software, and Schreier also stated that "Microsoft's got a few things in the works", corroborating with reports that its upcoming Scarlett console isn't the company's only plans for the future of gaming.
However, the reporter again reiterated that "the number of people briefed on next-gen is still very limited. Even within companies like, say, DICE, there'll be a small team of engineers who now have a rough idea of specs, and everyone else will know when they need to know. Not a lot of devs are disclosed on next-gen right now."
In short, don't worry. Traditional console gaming is here to stay... for now at least, but we probably won't be getting our hands on the PS4 and Xbox One's successors for a little while yet. Meanwhile, the general public still has questions about the pricing and bandwidth requirements for Google Stadia, which could put a serious setback on excitement levels for the upcoming service.
But enough about hardware! Here's all the biggest new games of 2019 on the way for this year and beyond.
