New consoles expensive SSDs do not guarantee faster gaming

The next generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles promise us faster game launches. But speed won't ultimately depend solely on hardware.

The PlayStation 5 console should bring us faster game loading thanks to the use of a solid state drive or solid state drive. It states that this will be the most significant change for the next generation of consoles and I have already written that it is high time for such a thing. But I was particularly intrigued by Sony's promise that the games would not only load faster but also run faster. This may sound confusing to you now, but the difference is. Game loading happens between the moment we press Play / Continue and the moment we gain control of the game. Starting the game happens between the moment we start the game and the menu where we give the command to load the game.

Under the current system, you must first run the game to choose whether you want to play its single player or multiplayer component. It should be different on the PlayStation 5 and you can immediately choose from the main console interface of the game you want to play. Moreover, at Sony they promise that we will be able to see what's going on in a game without actually starting that game. For example, if you want to play Raid in The Division 2 or Crucible PvP in Destiny 2 under the current system you have to start the game and then start what you want. On the PlayStation 5 you will be able to immediately launch the specific part of the game you want to play from the main menu. That is at least a promise, and performance will actually depend on whether the game makers want to enable such a thing.

However, there is one unanswered question for now. Does the game start in the same sequence as the standard startup (the one we have today) or is the startup different? I find this question interesting because with all these promises of faster startup, I do not expect startup to be really faster.

You see, when you start any game before going to the main menu you have to go through a series of animations and notifications. First you see who the publisher of the game is. So who made the game. Well then notice that the game can be dangerous for people suffering from epilepsy. Well then notice that you should not turn off the console while the autosave function sign is displayed. Then you get the message that Ubisoft's play is the product of fiction and the work of a multicultural team of different faiths and worldviews. So then Fifa asks you to choose the language that the game will use. So then you might be greeted by an introductory animation for the game. Well, if you play on a PC then an advertisement for AMD or Nvidia follows, depending on who has the partnership for that game.

These messages and animations don't take long, but the thing is, you have to go through them to get to the main menu at all. And they are awfully grueling because you look at them every time. You can't even break some. You cannot disable them on consoles, you can remove them on a PC, but in some cases they can be restored after a game update. So, if my console is going to run the game faster, and still use a series of messages every time I start the game, then this is only a partial acceleration around which things can be done. Here are my suggestions on how to speed them up:

MANUFACTURERS AND PUBLISHERS ANIMATIONS

The option to interrupt / skip these animations should be mandatory in all games. I understand that everyone wants to highlight the fruits of their work, but when I start a game for the fifth hundredth time, it doesn't really mean to me that I'm being shown who made it. It would also be handy if the animations of the publisher and the producer were merged into one where the publisher owns the team that made the game, so then we only have to skip one animation, not two pieces.

HEALTH WARNINGS

This is an important and useful message, but let's be real - the game throws a bunch of text that no one can read before it disappears. It would be far more elegant if this were done in the form of notification. You start the game, a short message pops up that the game may be causing epileptic seizures, and if you want to read more, you press a key so that the full text appears as an overlay in front of the game that is being launched. All happy and satisfied. Admittedly, this should be done directly on the console itself, not inside the game. But hey, if there can be a link in the game that opens a store with DLC packs and microtransactions, then there might be this.

SPONSORSHIP OBLIGATIONS AND LICENSE REMARKS

This section is mostly static as an image and refers to the technology used and the licensed content. For example, if a game uses SpeedTree technology then it will be listed somewhere as text and / or logo. Each time will also be highlighted which franchise they own, what real brands appear in the game, etc. Given that this part is static, it is also technically easy to put in the main menu when the game launches. It would not be the first time that a separate section is on the main menu, as today's games already have a section reserved for news on new content and events.

Even on PlayStation 4, we had an example of a game that got rid of this stuff. It was Killzone Shadowfall - one of the first console titles to put all legally binding stuff into the credits section, not the game launch process. Unfortunately, as the Guerilla Games team revealed, they had to negotiate with a number of parties for this, because they all held their previous practices from the time when games were being loaded from DVD media.

SELECTION OF LANGUAGES

This kind of crime can only be seen in FIFA games, which ask users to choose the language of the game each time they start a user. Players have been complaining about this for a long time, it is not clear to anyone what this option is. And the point is simple to solve - all you have to do is connect the language to the other user settings the game saves. If you can keep me all the statistics from the matches and you can tell me how often I shot left and right, then you can remember which language I use. You don't have to ask me every time I start the game. After all, let it tie into the language settings I use on the console / PC itself, I don't care, just that they don't slow down loading without the need for it.

ALL OTHER MESSAGES

Once upon a time, games on the first PlayStation on launch alerted users to the harmfulness of piracy. Over time, it was noted that this message did not contribute to anything and was ultimately removed. Some even more unnecessary "promotional messages" have come to her place, such as the one already mentioned that there is a team of different cultures and creeds at Ubisoft. To whom does it matter except themselves? If they have to insert such a message, they should insert it once before the start of the game and almost - not at every startup.

CONNECTING TO DLC SERVERS AND CHECKS

Ubisoft games do the same. You go through all the animations, alerts and messages, and then in the main menu for ten seconds you wait for the game to connect to the server or to check for any DLCs on offer. This process should be started as early as possible when starting the game. This should be done in the background, not that I am staring at the message that the game is being merged. I wish the game was already connected to the server once I started it, not to start it so it would just start merging.

BONUS: EXPRESSING ACCEPTANCE WITH THE PLAY AGREEMENT

This part is not every game and is only present on first launch, but it is terribly irritating. Some games require that you read all the items of the user agreement before playing and generally entering the main menu. No one reads that, of course, but games like PES or the Spyro Reignited Trilogy require you to go through all that text, scrolling, so they can eventually tick the box to agree to the contract. If you disagree - no game.

We know that these are legal aspects that sometimes have to be respected, but sometimes it's really unclear to me why. For example, the aforementioned Spyro Reignited Trilogy, a 10+ game, initially has about twenty pages of text that you have to go through to find out that you are not entitled to prosecute Activision based on that game and anything related to it. Really?! What changes if you don't agree? You still have no right to sue Activision based on the game because you do not have the right to access the game until you have agreed to it. Ingenious. And terribly pointless.

SLEEP MODE SAVING?

Technically speaking, if none of the above changes, the fastest way to start the game will be not to exit the game and not to shut down the PlayStation 5 but to put it into sleep. Specifically, Sony has announced that the PS5 should deliver significant power savings, so it would consume as much power in Sleep mode as the PlayStation 4 when turned off but still plugged in. This works great with the Nintendo Switch so you can start playing in less than five seconds after turning on the console. Unfortunately, it only works with one game at a time, so it's not a solution if you play multiple games alternately.