Up until now, the PS5's main rival was thought to be Microsoft's Xbox Series X. With the two consoles releasing in a similar holiday 2020 window and sharing many titles, such as next-gen ports of Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, it's easy to see why. However, a recent comment by Fortnite creators Epic Games CEO suggests PS5 is aiming to take a chunk out of the gaming PC market.
- Just in: PS5 games are coming
Epic Games recently released its Unreal Engine 5 demonstration, running live on a PS5. Although the software is set to debut on both next-gen consoles and PC in 2021, Epic Games' Tim Sweeney suggests PS5 may be leading the charge in this particular technical revolution.
Sweeney points to the PS5's enormous solid state drive, claiming its got capabilities unseen in even gaming PCs: not just in raw storage size, but also the way its memory is structured, opening up new gaming possibilities.
“[The PS5] has an immense amount of GPU power, but also multi-order bandwidth increase in storage management,” he said during an interview after the Unreal Engine 5 live stream.
“We’ve been working super close with Sony for quite a long time on storage. The storage architecture on the PS5 is far ahead of anything you can buy on the PC for any amount of money right now. It’s going to help drive future PCs.”
This is not a unique claim: back in March, PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny made similar claims during a tech-heavy presentation of the new technology aimed solely at developers.
Having come from Sony itself, it was initially dismissed as hyperbole in some quarters, but confirmation from another respected industry figure like Sweeney should make gamers sit up and take note.
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Of course, PS5 is a console designed to last for a generation, and the assumption is going to be that modular PCs will quickly eclipse consoles once again, by adapting faster as technology moves forward.
Nonetheless, it's an interesting development: this is the second time we've heard the PS5's SSD will outshine even the most advanced gaming PCs, and we're desperate for a big reveal. Slated for June 4, it looks like the PS5 will finally be unveiled next month. Stay tuned.
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Matt Evans now works for T3.com sister brand TechRadar, covering all things relating to fitness and wellness. He came to T3.com as staff writer before moving on, and was previously on Men's Health, and slightly counterintuitively, a website devoted to the consumption of Scotch whiskey. In his free time, he could often be found with his nose in a book until he discovered the Kindle.