What’s to Blame for the Lack of Hype for the PS5, Xbox Series X?
Excitement for the new console generation has been muted. Is it the most obvious reason — These Trying Times — or the lack of compelling exclusives for the Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X?
2020 is a weird year. We’ve exhausted every euphemism to acknowledge the pandemic professionally and personally (“Hope you’re staying healthy” is the most common introduction in my inbox), adapted to new social norms in public, and faced extreme political and economic strife, all while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy.
But from a gaming perspective, this year wasn’t supposed to be normal, with next-gen consoles expected from both Sony and Microsoft. Unless long-committed plans get disrupted at the last minute, we’ll see the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 arrive by year’s end.
So, why doesn’t the anticipation feel bigger? Sure, there are fans awaiting pre-order opportunities and hardware enthusiasts excited about the new generation’s capabilities, and I’m really interested to see what the more powerful, SSD-equipped consoles will do. Still, the buildup to the two console launches feels pretty understated.
Is It the Virus?
The most obvious explanation is the pandemic. COVID-19 has messed up everyone’s 2020 plans and weighed down the current zeitgeist. The distancing and isolation, month after month, is draining, so it’s hard to get excited. It hasn’t yet affected the PS5 or XSX’s planned release dates, but many games have been pushed back (and pushed back, and pushed back).
More directly, the pandemic canceled E3, along with virtually every other major trade show and fan convention of the year. The annual game and tech journalist pilgrimage to Los Angeles would have been where Sony and Microsoft unveiled their new consoles, fueling dozens of hands-on, first-impression stories. Even if the consoles were just hardware under glass, there would have been photos and speculation. That didn’t happen.
Instead, Sony and Microsoft have been fencing with each other on carefully timed live streams and trickling out new PS5 and XSX details, respectively, over the last two months. A few games here, some hardware details there, the chassis design over there, and so on. Small splashes in the coverage pool, but not the attention E3 would garner with star-studded live events and the resulting coverage and social media chatter.
Is It Us and the Fans?
Part of the lack of hype is on us. And I say this while noting that it is not, in fact, game and tech journalists’ jobs to hype anything. We aren’t promoters, we’re journalists, and we strive to look at these products impartially. But even then, there’s a difference in energy between “I got my hands on the DualSense controller and saw the PS5 in action under controlled conditions” and “Sony streamed some new details today.”
The more direct attention we can give to something, and the more access we get to it, the more detailed and engaging our coverage. Being able to tell you how a controller feels or whether I noticed screen tearing during a demo is more directly valuable to you than simply going over the spec information that’s publicly available online.
There’s also the fact that the pandemic has canceled most fan events. PAX West and PAX Australia? Canceled. San Diego Comic-Con? Canceled. South by Southwest? Canceled. New York Comic Con is still on, at this point, but I’m not expecting it to come to the Javits Center this fall. That represents a lot of valuable PS5 and XSX hype on blogs, vlogs, and TikTok that no marketing team could replicate.
Is It the Technology?
After Microsoft and Sony released almost every piece of information about their new consoles online (except for price and release dates), I’m not sure the pandemic is the sole reason there hasn’t been a lot of hype. Something’s still missing, and I think it’s the games.
The first year or two of new consoles always feels a bit light, but there are usually one or two exclusive, system-selling games that make the new boxes attractive. Sony has been making a somewhat valiant effort on this front, with Gran Turismo 7 confirmed, along with a new Ratchet & Clank game, the Demon’s Souls remake, and a few other PS5 exclusives. The biggest names won’t come out until 2021, though, and the launch game lineup (exclusive or otherwise) is tiny.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is hamstringing itself by trying to blur the line between console generations. It has been adamant that all major first-party games for the next couple of years will be compatible with both Xbox One and Xbox Series X. That means very little, if anything, in the way of exclusives. Even Halo Infinite, possibly the biggest first-party game still scheduled to come out this year, will work on the Xbox One. So will Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Avengers, and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (and they’ll be on the PS4 and PS5, too).
On paper, the PS5 and XSX are clearly more powerful consoles than the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but we’ve yet to see any really compelling use of that power in their upcoming games. A possible exception is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and its seemingly instant world-changing gameplay mechanic, but even that appears to be due more to the PS5’s SSD than to the console’s processing power. Nothing truly sells either new console on its new capabilities, and considering how launch years tend to be light, we probably won’t see anything intriguing until 2022.
First-Year Jitters
Maybe during a normal year, these hurdles wouldn’t seem too big for the new consoles, and they would have drummed up extra enthusiasm via in-person events and hands-on coverage. But the pandemic has locked off most of the hype-building tools Sony and Microsoft would have otherwise had at their disposal.
I’m still looking forward to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and I can’t wait to see whether the claims about load times really hold up with their SSDs and faster hardware. Still, you can only get so excited about load times, and without some strong hooks to really build up attention and anticipation, these upcoming console releases feel a bit flat.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
