• With too many games getting its release this holiday season, it needs to be seen if Microsoft will continue to rule the throne or give way for PS4 in the upcoming months.

With too many games getting its release this holiday season, it needs to be seen if Microsoft will continue to rule the throne or give way for PS4 in the upcoming months. (Photo : Reuters)

Rumors are suggesting that Sony and Microsoft are planning to refresh their game consoles earlier than expected, pointing to release date for the sequels to the PS4 and Xbox One in the next few years. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Two could unbox as early as 2018, a new report said. 

If true, the two tech giants will break the usual release cycle of game consoles, according to iDigitalTimes. The online publication indicated on its report that fans can expect the PS5 and Xbox Two to come out in 2018 that will effectively cut short the normal 7-year waiting period to five.

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Both consoles will reportedly run on the next-generation AMD APU that will boast of boost speed that is five times better than the chips that currently power the PS4 and Xbox One. And as expected, there will be tons of feature upgrades and performance boosts.

Among the shortlisted is native support for virtual reality. This will come in a headset unit that likely will be packaged as an optional accessory to the PS5 and Xbox Two, complementing the consoles' wireless handheld controllers.

Another likely addition is full support for 4K display rendering that iDigitalTimes said will be made possible by the proliferation of graphic engines to fire up the gaming technology and 4K monitors or televisions where the gaming machines be easily hooked up.

The report indicated too that both the PS5 and Xbox Two will be designed with two key functions - as a traditional gaming console and as a streaming device that can accommodate not only game downloads but also other forms of digital contents. The object is for the consoles to be repackaged as do-all machines that likely will attract not only gamers but also other consumers outside of the sphere.

And serving as a bonus for longtime PlayStation and Xbox fans, the iDigitalTimes report is claiming that the PS5 and Xbox Two on release date will be backward compatible with old game titles, which the publication said is highly likely if the new AMD APUs to power the consoles will still support the x86 architecture.