PS5, Xbox, Switch 4K, cloud: what does video games have in store for us in 2021?
After a record-breaking year, the video game industry will fully enter the new generation in 2021. Let's see what this new year has in store for us, which already promises to be particularly exciting.
In many ways, 2020 has been a historic year for the video game industry. We're obviously thinking of the periods of containment that have enabled record growth for the industry, but also of the expected launch of Microsoft and Sony's next-generation consoles, the Xbox Series X and S and the PS5, as well as the new generation of hardware on the PC with the Ryzen 5000, Radeon RX 6000 and GeForce RTX 3000. After such an important year, what can the year 2021 hold in store for us? The news promises once again to be hot in the field.
A consolidating industry
In recent years, the video game industry has begun a phase of consolidation. The major players are buying up a lot of studios, and it wasn't long before this trend was confirmed in 2021, when Nintendo announced its first buyout on January 5. This year, we are also expecting the closing of the massive takeover of ZeniMax Media and its studios - including Bethesda and Arkane's Lyonnais - by Microsoft in the first half of the year. Once this has been done, flagship licenses such as Doom, Skyrim and Fallout will fall into the Xbox fold, and the giant will then have more than 30 development teams under its control.
However, we can expect to see more buybacks announced in the future. Microsoft has been very clear on the subject, and wants to continue acquisitions to strengthen its production capacity, but it is not the only one. Sony has announced in 2020 to be in the perspective of expanding its PlayStation Studios with new acquisitions after that of Insomniac Games in 2019. Amazon and Google, or independent publishers such as Activision Blizzard or EA, could also bid for acquisitions. For example, EA announced the acquisition of Codemasters from Take Two (GTA, Bioshock, NBA 2K, Red Dead Redemption), which had positioned itself for this acquisition.
Sony rolls out the carpet for the PS5 with many exclusives
After the highly anticipated and successful launch of the PS5 in 2020, Sony's schedule is not going to calm down. First of all, the firm must take care to succeed in producing enough consoles to keep up with demand. Based on the latest feedback from retailers and several industry players, it seems that the shortage could last until the spring of 2021 all the same. For those of you lucky enough to get your hands on the famous console, Sony has already promised a lot of strong titles throughout the year.
If we look at the games announced for the year 2021, we can mention Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, which should be one of the first real demonstrations of the console's SSD prowess and whose release was planned for the "launch window". Not only that, PlayStation Studios will also feature Horizon Forbidden West, the second episode of the adventures of Aloy, Gran Turismo 7, and God Of War Ragnarok, the first images of which have yet to be released. The latter title may be postponed, but we will still be able to make do with promising games from Sony partners such as Deathloop and Kena Bridge of Spirit.
As it stands, Sony does not seem to be preparing the launch of a new platform or a major change of strategy, but rather to offer an excellent first year of life to the PS5 to maintain its record level of demand. However, we can still expect to hear about PlayStation Now, its cloud gaming service that is currently limited to previous generation games.
After a record-breaking quiet year, Nintendo is preparing some heavy
It's hard to say that 2020 wasn't a landmark year for Nintendo. The release of Animal Crossing New Horizon on Nintendo Switch was one of the phenomena of the year, and the console has been at the top of the sales charts for many months. However, Nintendo also made a lasting impression by its absence, notably by not organizing any of its famous Nintendo Direct games during the year. Thus, while the company released a few titles such as Paper Mario The Origami King, or Super Mario 3D All Stars, tried out the Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit concept, it seemed above all to be reserving its forces for its future.
According to the very serious Bloomberg site, this future should take the form of a new Nintendo Switch whose announcement and marketing would begin in 2021. It would be a more powerful model, capable of running Nintendo Switch games with a display definition of up to 4K UHD. According to the site, Nintendo would have started asking developers to adapt their games for this new model as early as September 2020. To accompany the launch of this new model, Nintendo may have reserved its best cartridges. One thinks in particular of the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which had been unveiled in June 2019 and of which we haven't had any news since.
Microsoft bets more and more on its Xbox Game Pass
Like Sony, Microsoft is now looking forward to a great first year for its new Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. The firm must first work to produce more consoles to enable it to keep up with demand, which is lower than the PS5 and yet stronger than the offer at the moment. But for Microsoft, the battle is not about selling consoles, but rather about developing its Xbox Game Pass offer. The company has managed to put its subscription at the center of industry debate, and is now in the front line in creating the true "Netflix of video games". After convincing 15 million gamers to subscribe, Microsoft wants to further accelerate its strategy.
The service itself is expected to continue to evolve this year. The idea of adding all or part of the Ubisoft catalog is already being discussed, but the addition of EA Play's PC catalog has been postponed to 2021 without further details. But it is especially from this year onward that Microsoft should rely less and less on third-party developers to provide the content for the Xbox Game Pass, and more and more on its internal studios. The company would be well advised to start talking about "Xbox Game Pass Originals" for these titles that are released on PCs, consoles and in the cloud.
The Xbox Game Pass can also be played from the cloud, today on Android and from spring on iPhone and PC. This cloud gaming service is also expected to evolve to begin offering Xbox Series X games. Until now, Microsoft has been using Xbox One S to power its cloud gaming servers, but there are rumors that Xbox One is expected to begin being replaced by Xbox Series X this year. It is also hoped that the service could be rolled out to other devices, including televisions from Samsung, a major Microsoft partner for several years.
The Xbox All Access offer, which allows you to pay for your console by subscription with the Game Pass, should be available at more retailers in France. We are also waiting to see if the Xbox Live Gold offer will evolve. As early as 2020, we explained why it would be time for Microsoft to abolish this subscription.
Cloud gaming moves forward with Google and Amazon
After several years of projects and rumors, Amazon and Google have officially entered the video game industry with their cloud gaming services, Luna for one and Stadia for the other. With the successful launch of Sony and Microsoft consoles, and the ongoing launch of the Nintendo Switch, the two tech giants still have everything to prove in what remains a new market for them. After a rocky start, the release of major titles for the first time simultaneously on consoles and in the cloud, such as Cyberpunk 2077, has started to build up a following for its services available instantly, without downloading and from many devices.
Amazon Luna should logically extend its beta for the time being limited to the United States only and we hope a forthcoming arrival in France. For its part, Google will have to continue to sign partnerships while waiting for the preparation of the first titles developed by its own teams. The firm has promised 400 games to its catalog in the near future. We're also waiting for the release of Stadia on Android TV, now Google TV, this year. In principle, this could allow access to "console" games from any connected TV set running Google's OS and thus avoid paying the 300 to 500 euros required for a home console.
AMD and Nvidia are already preparing the next step.
As mentioned above, the generation change also took place on the PC with the launch of new processors and graphics chips from AMD and Nvidia. The two manufacturers are expected to introduce their new products for the world of notebook PCs at the beginning of 2021. This will enable a new wave of notebook PCs capable of running the latest games of the moment in good conditions.
On desktop PCs, we can expect to see new versions coming to expand the ranges of the two designers of graphics chips. But the rest is already being prepared, and we are starting to hear about the cards that will replace the RTX 3080 and other 3090s with more powerful versions that consume less power. For AMD, the future seems to take the form of a chiplet design that has been so successful in the processor field. For Nvidia, the next architecture would be called Lovelace and already seems to promise a huge leap in power.
Let's hope first of all that we'll be able to quickly find all the latest components in stock and at their advertised price.
A new generation of video games
This was already the common thread of this article, it is in 2021 that we will really discover the first games of the new generation. Those that have been designed to take advantage of the new capabilities of the consoles, and in particular their new SSD-based storage architecture. On this point, Microsoft has announced that the DirectStorage API will arrive on Windows 10 in 2021 and should allow to better exploit the SSDs of computers. It is also this year that Epic Games plans to launch its Unreal Engine 5, which will allow developers to create even more ambitious games.
Beyond that, we obviously hope to discover nice surprises, games that have not yet been announced or new gems developed by indie players. For the industry, it will also be necessary to rediscover places to meet for these announcements and discoveries. Will Microsoft and Sony resume their online broadcasts, or will the year mark the return of the conferences? 2020 was held without E3, but the show had officially promised to make a comeback in 2021. It remains to be seen under what conditions.