Xbox Series X may have one additional advantage over Sony's PlayStation 5 console: machine learning. In an interview with WCCFTech, Quantic Dreams CEO David Cage revealed that the design of Microsoft's Xbox Series X gives it the advantage in machine learning compared to the PlayStation 5. Cage revealed that while the slightly better CPU and beefier GPU of the Xbox Series X gives Microsoft a slight edge over PS5, it's really the machine learning capabilities of the Xbox console that may help it succeed against PlayStation's faster SSD. "The shader cores of the Xbox are also more suitable to machine learning, which could be an advantage if Microsoft succeeds in implementing an equivalent to Nvidia's DLSS," Cage explained. However, the PlayStation-focused developer also explained that Sony has consistently punched up to deliver great looking games on not-so-powerful hardware in the past. "I think that the pure analysis of the hardware shows an advantage for Microsoft, but experience tells us that hardware is only part of the equation: Sony showed in the past that their consoles could deliver the best-looking games because their architecture and software were usually very consistent and efficient."

David Cage scoffs at the notion that videogames are fun. "They should trouble you, move you, make you react," he says. As founder of the studio Quantic Dream, the French developer has been stunning and confounding players for two decades with cinematic games that tackle heady issues of love, death, domestic abuse, oppression, and the afterlife. "Some people are shocked when a game evokes real-world issues," he says. "But this platform is about becoming the characters, not just seeing them from the outside like in a film."

In 1950, Isaac Asimov imagined a future in which sentient robots are built to serve and protect humans, but end up doing the opposite. Almost seven decades later, that scenario has become much more prescient as artificial intelligence and robotics technologies bring us closer to a world of helpful, servile automatons. Now, Detroit: Become Human, a narrative adventure from experimental studio Quantic Dreams is the latest work to imagine the consequences of relying on such super smart machines. Set several years in the future, the game takes place in a world where androids have taken over most menial tasks and humans are figuring out what to do with all their leisure time. The major manufacturer of replicants, CyberLife, says its machines are safe and under control, and everyone is happy to trust them.