Ninth generation of video game consoles

The PlayStation 5 was developed by Sony as the successor to the PlayStation 4 and was first released on November 12, 2020.[16] The primary goal of the PlayStation 5's development was to reduce loading times in games, particularly those that use in-game streaming such as when the player moves across an open world. Sony developed a custom solid-state drive (SSD) architecture based on a 12-channel, 825 GB SSD along with a fast software decompression method that enables an input/output speed of up to 8 to 9 GB/s. In most early development tests, this virtually eliminated loading screens and masking loading times for open world games.[17] The main system is backed by an AMD Zen2 system on a chip running at a variable frequency capped at 3.5 GHz, and a RDNA 2 GPU also running at a variable frequency capped at 2.23 GHz. The GPU has a total potential processing power of 10.3 teraflops. The system comes with 16 GB of memory.[18]

The PlayStation 5 was launched with two models. The base model includes an optical disc reader for most disc formats including Blu-ray, UHD Blu-ray, and retail PlayStation 5 games. A cheaper Digital model lacks the disc reader, but otherwise is equivalent to the base model. Both models support expanded memory options to store games and other data onto external drives, thus allowing players to obtain and store games through online distribution via the PlayStation Store. The PlayStation 5 has mostly complete backward compatibility with PlayStation 4 games, with only a limited number of games not currently supported on the console,[19] while the PlayStation Now cloud service is available for users to play games from the older PlayStation consoles.[20]

The Xbox Series X/S is the successor to the Xbox One and was released on November 10, 2020 in select regions.[21][22] Microsoft followed the Xbox One's dual console models: a high-end line (the Series X comparable to the Xbox One X), and a cheaper model (the Series S comparable to the Xbox One S).[23] The performance goal for the Xbox Series X was about four times that of the Xbox One X,[24] but without sacrificing game development for the lower-end Xbox Series S.[23]

Both the Xbox Series X and Series S use an AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU but with different frequencies and compute units. The Series S has lower frequencies with reduced performance, and the Series X has graphics performance estimated at 12 teraflops compared to the Series S's 4 teraflops.[25][26] Microsoft developed a Velocity Architecture, which includes an internal SSD system (1 TB on the Series X, 500 GB on the Series S) used for storing games and new DirectX interfaces with improved input/output and in-game texture streaming and rendering. The Series X includes an optical disc reader supporting Blu-ray and UHD media, which is absent in the Series S.[27] Both consoles support external game storage media and online distribution via Xbox Live. Full backward compatibility was announced for all Xbox One games, including previously supported Xbox and Xbox 360 games, but excluding Kinect games.[28][29] Microsoft encouraged third-party developers and publishers to use its Smart Delivery approach to give Xbox One games free performance upgrade patches for Xbox Series X/S.[30]

The Nintendo Switch's position compared to the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S remains unclear.[3][2] The console was released in March 2017, long before either of these units, as Nintendo wanted to recover quickly from the commercial failure of the Wii U.[40] As they had done with the original Wii, Nintendo designed the Switch in a blue ocean strategy to set the console apart from the competition.[41] The Switch has generally been technologically considered a member of the eighth generation, due to lower processing power. However it remains competitive, hosting multiplatform games alongside PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. These Switch versions may be supplemented by the power of cloud gaming based solutions, as with Control and Hitman 3.[42]

Two major cloud gaming platforms, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, were introduced in November 2019 and October 2020, respectively. These systems lack any financial breakthrough as home video game consoles, but they are viable for multiplatform ninth generation games.[43]