Mortal Kombat creator on next-gen PS5, Xbox SSDs: 'It'll be huge'

The PlayStation 5's and Xbox Series X's customized PCIe 4.0 SSDs have the potential to revolutionize gaming, and developers like Netherrealm's Ed Boon are excited to tap that raw power.

The Zen 2 and Navi 2X GPU upgrades in next-gen consoles are exciting, but that processing power would be hindered without an ultra-fast SSD to feed the system data and assets at blinding-fast speeds. The inclusion of SSDs in next-gen systems is big in itself, but the raw speed will push next-gen to a whole new level beyond current PC tech. The PS5 can transfer uncompressed assets at 5.5GB/sec, or 100x the PS4, and the Xbox Series X can hit 2.4GB/sec, 40x the Xbox One's HDD. This means no loading times, seamless gameplay, and will change how games are made and played.

Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon is just one of the many devs who see great things in next-gen SSDs. "I think it's funny when these new systems come out, these new consoles, everyone's always like 'okay what do the graphics look like?' I think people underestimate the impact the almost-zero load times will have. That's suddenly going to open up new doors that just weren't considered possible before," Boon said in a recent interview with Geoff Keighley.

"I think we haven't even scratched the surface of what will eventually be done with those systems."

"It's kind of a given the graphics are going to be better. But this new way of handling memory and loading is going to be huge."

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The main Summer Game Fest stream was about Mortal Kombat 11's new Aftermath expansion, so we've combined some tidbits on what to expect from the new buy-to-play expac. Boon says the expansion will have five big chapters to play through that're set across a new unique story that chronicles the return of Shang Tsung.

"Our games traditionally have 12 or 16 chapters, where each chapter you go through with one character and play four fights and you take it through this narrative," Boon said.

"The Aftermath expansion is five meatier chapters. There's more fights in them. Some have four, some have six, so a lot more story happens in each chapter. So it's not typical' It's a decent amount of story that is told--a surprising amount."

Boon also confirmed that every single character in the game will have their own Friendship moves, which is a great addition. MK11 is also the fastest-selling game of all time.

Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath releases Tuesday, April 26 digitally on all platforms and will release later in June as a physical game.