For almost eight years, the PS4 and Xbox One have been in operation, and it’s time for a new era in gaming machines. Though Microsoft and Sony were very tight-lipped about their upcoming consoles, some exciting announcements were brought to us by the recent E3 press conference.

Xbox recently shared Project Scarlett, a codename for what could be known as the Xbox Two. On the other hand, Sony has stayed quiet about its projects, but over the past few years, there have been plenty of clues and confirmations to give us an image of the successor of the PS4. Many virtual reality tech benefits are associated with these next-generation gaming consoles. Here’s what we should be looking forward to in Next-gen gaming consoles:

Boost in Power

The next-generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles are powered by AMD and look to pack a punch. Based on current high-spec desktop setups, the Japanese console will be powered by an 8-core AMD chipset and a Navi GPU. It is similarly compatible with its Zen 2 and Navi architecture for the Xbox, which claims to be four times better than the Xbox One X, the generation’s most powerful console.

Pairing best-in-class CPUs and GPUs offers real-time ray tracing technology to illuminate CGI models in films, a Hollywood technique. And developers can push the limits of what’s possible in console gaming today with all this strength. At buttery-smooth 120 Hz frame rates, gamers should look forward to playing. 4 K gaming will eventually be the standard with 8 K performance theoretically available.

The next-gen consoles’ turn to solid-state drives is to provide a severe jump in pace. There will be up to 40 times faster load speeds. It is possible to create game worlds even quicker, enabling developers to cram even more detailed specifics into every inch of the environment.

We don’t know much about how these consoles look yet, but there’s plenty to be excited about because they’re internal.

Play Your Old Games

Developers emphasized the delivery of top-class day-one games with fourth-generation consoles to entice gamers to pick up their new devices quickly. They had the hard job convincing players to unplug their old consoles and the hundreds of games they had and move to the next generation with only one or two games. Often, these games were more costly, mind you.

Xbox and PlayStation have undoubtedly gained a lot from the ordeal and have revealed their forthcoming consoles’ backward compatibility. Now you won’t feel the nostalgic sting you had when you left your Xbox 360 game library for the new console.

Owners of the PS4 would be delighted to know that the PS5 will play all their old games. But the new Xbox takes the cake here, offering backward compatibility (assuming you’ve always held it) for all Xbox titles since the original. They also went out of their way to announce that all current Xbox one peripherals will work with next-gen consoles, such as existing controllers and headsets. Just imagine such savings.

And compatibility with backward means one thing: disks!

Gaming on the Cloud

Google may have aggressively announced its clear intentions for a “video game Netflix.” Still, PlayStation and Xbox surprise announcements about their video-gaming streaming platforms have given the veterans back hope.

The even bigger surprise is the rivals’ decision to partner and share resources to make their respective cloud services work. The partnership will include sharing resources like A.I. And data to give a head start to these legacy console builders.

When you consider who they’re up against, the partnership is hardly shocking. In gaming, Google may not have the pedigree, but it sure has the technology and information to disturb the present duopoly. In the fight for cloud-gaming, having more developers adds competition, which is good for games and suitable for us.

Most of the knowledge surrounding PlayStation and Xbox cloud services is still under wraps at the moment. We don’t even know if it will be ready for launch or for years to come. But both consoles seemed prepared for the next step of 5G-enabled gaming with its extremely future-proofed hardware, which is the kind of power that cloud-gaming would need.

Solid-state drives and heavy output graphics ensure it is possible to render these large files quickly. Instead of the Stadia datacenters, having the consoles in our homes may also suggest quicker and more seamless rendering. This may be the edge over Google that Sony and Microsoft have.