We Are Living in the Upgraded Console Generation

AMB and Xbox announced that FSR 4.1 is on its way to Xbox Series X and S consoles. This announcement came a few weeks after Sony announced QSSR upscaling for base PS5 consoles, which is a result of their partnership with AMD. This pair of news stories got me thinking how this is, as far as I can recall, the first home console generation where the launch hardware will be capable of better visual fidelity and performance deep into its lifecycle. My first thought jumped to the Expansion Pak for the Nintendo 64, which doubled the console's 4MB of RDRAM to 8MB. You could pay up and upgrade the console's performance in some games or you had to upgrade for others like Majora's Mask or Donkey Kong 64. I remember buying DK64 at a garage sale and then needing to buy an Expansion Pak to actually play the thing. I think we bought one at the Hollywood Video down the street. In the generations before, developers would design custom chips for the game cartridges themselves to enhance performance;…

Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town