The Next Generation of Consoles

[jutl]

Which probably, more than anything else, just goes to show that most of our tech news comes from the US. The global picture is that even though the ps3 came out a year later and had a fairly mediocre couple of years, it has more than caught up.

VGChartz still has the 360 about 3m ahead, and the trends it shows currently would suggest it'll take another year at least for that gap to close. Also, of course, the PS3 is not necessarily succeeding as a games machine primarily. It's a good Bluray player, and the tie ratios suggest that PS3 owners are not buying as many games for their machines as 360 or even Wii owners. The sales of new release Crysis 2 in Europe also show that - despite there being more PS3s than 360s in the market - more 360 copies were sold. So I think it's hard to compare like with like here.

[Ignatius_S]

Article claiming - or rather linking to a story that is claiming - that new Nintendo console might be coming soon - http://www.reghardware.com/2011/04/07/nintendo_wii_2_development/

... Also, of course, the PS3 is not necessarily succeeding as a games machine primarily. It's a good Bluray player...

I think most of the PS3 owners that I know, got it primarily because it was a Bluray player - particularly those who could get a free one because of a mobile phone contract.

[falafel]

Fuck me, all that graph needs is a couple of fox heads on sticks.

[VegaLA]

Rumblings of a NextBox release for 2014,  new Nnitendo could be making an appearance at E3, but other than that it's just kicking the hornets nest.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/23757/Xbox-3-Targeted-for-2014-Release-as-Console-War-Heats-Up/

[VegaLA]

Nintendo let the cat out of the bag.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/25/nintendo-confirms-next-wii-in-2012-will-preview-it-at-e3/

I suspose you can say the race has officially started.

[Still Not George]

Best reason to move to PC development ever.

[biggytitbo]

Why don't they just make these consoles from off the shelf pc parts with some custom os on top? Seems so pointless reinventing the wheel every time they bring a new one out.

[Still Not George]

That's pretty much what MS do, with a few tricks (predicated tiling etc). There's 3 models:

1) MS Model - get standard parts from manufacturer's "next year" lists, bung em together in a box, solder them together badly and watch them overheat in 15 seconds, then laugh as Sony fluff their launch so badly that your incredibly unreliable console breaks out ahead anyway.

2) Sony Model - buy or develop one really impressive piece of technology (Cell, dual vector units, etc) and make it as difficult to develop for as humanly possible. Then check out whatever is the current minimum amount of RAM required to do anything useful, divide it by 8, and put that in. Fill out the rest of the console with random bits from Korea. Spend the next few years desperately buying middleware providers as nobody can develop for your shitheap.

3) Nintendo Model - release the Gamecube again in a slightly smaller box than last time and claim to have revolutionised gaming.

[Slaaaaabs]

A touchscreen on the controller will revolutionise gaming! Or it won't! I can't wait to find out!

[HappyTree]

The Wii U looks cool, but crap at the same time.



Wii U Unveiling [HD] E3 2011

Clever. Wii U, We You.

Maybe next time it'll be Wii U I Them and those people lurking behind the bus stop.

The Wii is not aimed at people like me. Maybe it will be good. I presume they will have to sell it at a loss, there's no way such a complicated controller could be cheap enough.


As for the next Xbox, I think it will have to include Blu Ray or some other High Density format since multiple disks are not great and games are now getting too big for normal DVDs. I don't think the world is ready for downloaded content only, I think it's important to have a physical game in your hand so you actually have it.

[VegaLA]

New XBox rumours surface again.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/16/microsoft-xbox-360-successor-rumored-to-arrive-in-2012-make-an/

Personally don't think we'll see it on and off the shelves till late 2013 but then again. I recall the 360 had a year of hype before it was released, anyone remember?

[Junglist]

At the absolute earliest it'll be six months or so after the release of Halo 4, can't see MS letting that be released around the same time as a brand new console, unless they rock it double format ala Zelda GC/Wii.

[mobias]

Microsoft certainly seem to be talking about the future more blatantly than Sony who are still talking the whole 10 year life cycle thing of the PS3. That being said they'll stick to that line until moments before they announce the PS4.
I was speaking to a mate of mine the the other day who works for a rather successful games company here in Scotland and he was saying that if Sony and/or MS are about to announce the next generation of consoles then they're keeping things very close to their chests. There's certainly been no concrete talk of it dripping down to third party developers. He also said that most developers genuinely think they can squeeze more out of the current generation. Sounds like both consoles will be around for a while yet.

[mobias]

So it looks increasingly like MS are going to announce the 360's successor next year for a 2013 launch. Sony are claiming they don't want to be left behind too long this time. It'll be a total mess if both companies release consoles in close proximity to each other time wise, especially if they're at a fairly high price tag (which is somewhat inevitable, especially from Sony)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-23-sony-it-would-be-undesirable-for-ps4-to-launch-significantly-later-than-the-competition

It'll be very interesting to see what direction the consoles go in. Will MS adopt Blu-ray? Will the consoles be backwards compatible etc? 

[biggytitbo]

It's hard to see what they can do to make the upgrade from the current gen worth it.  Unless the new console can fly.

[ThickAndCreamy]

Indeed, graphics have improved to the point where anything greater will stop becoming useful to the game mechanics and just become a huge burden on developers in terms of time and costs need to create them.

[Steve Lampkins]

I have a PS3, though I'm not a big console gamer. Probably LA Noire is the most impressive game I have, graphics wise, but it still suffers from slowdowns and pop-ins. Maybe I'm not getting the full effect from 720p YouTube videos, but Uncharted 3 just doesn't look that impressive to me.

The caveat is that on my new gaming PC I play Battlefield 3 at full HD resolution, with most settings at Ultra, at around 60 fps, and it is just stunning. Everything just pales compared to it. It really is a next gen game. That's the minimum that I would hope for from the new consoles.

[biggytitbo]

The thing is, the difference between uncharted 3 and a really high end top of the range pc game on the top settings is about 2 foot of distance from your TV. Whose going to pay £400 quid for that?

[Mister Six]

The thing is, the difference between uncharted 3 and a really high end top of the range pc game on the top settings is about 2 foot of distance from your TV. Whose going to pay £400 quid for that?

Not sure I follow. I guess you're saying that PCs are better than consoles?

My counterpoint would be that I spend all damn day sitting in front of a PC at work, so the psychological change of slumping on a sofa with a joypad is welcome.

[Steve Lampkins]

I sit in front of a 24 inch monitor when using my gaming computer. But it's also connected to my 46 inch LCD. Just for fun, I played BF3 from around 8-10 feet away, both in 1080p and 720p. Damn it looks good, and yes, you can see a difference between HD ready and full HD.

[mobias]

Its pretty much official now. Looks like its going to be one hell of an E3 this year. It only needs Apple to announce a console and all hell will break loose.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/next-xbox-and-ps4-set-for-biggest-ever-e3/089421

[mobias]

The next few months are definitely going to be quite funny to watch as a technological spectator sport whilst the fanboys battle it out. Sony fans have delivered the first blow in round one by claiming their console is definitely going to be the shiniest of the two. Xbox fans are no doubt waiting to prepare a counter blow. This is only day one of the war.

http://www.psu.com/Rumor--PS4s-early-tech-specs-more-powerful-than-next-Xbox--a014030-p0.php

[biggytitbo]

I hope the net gen are smaller, lighter and use less power than the previous hulking power guzzlers. Especially If they want people to use them as a media hub as well as a games console.

[mobias]

Interestingly there's now even more strong rumours going around that MS are going to side step the next gen of consoles entirely and do something completely different with the sequel to the 360. I heard a while ago that they were much more interested in going after the Wii's market share and really pushing the potential of Kinnect whilst at the same time developing and really pushing game streaming like OnLive for their higher end hard core gamers. This has been given some weight by the fact that MS don't seem to have any known plans to use Blu-ray in their next console (it would mean paying Sony for each Xbox sold after all)

http://www.gamesradar.com/what-new-xbox-360-dashboard-tells-us-about-xbox-720-hint-it-wont-be-games-console/?page=1

[falafel]

Rumours have confirmed that's probably the most spurious tech article many people have probably ever read, which makes it a fact, and on that basis it's clear his next article will clearly be about saucisson.

[biggytitbo]

Isn't all this kinect stuff, at least in terms of games, like 3d telly? A short term gimmick that will rapidly fade away?

[Zetetic]

Isn't all this kinect stuff, at least in terms of games, like 3d telly? A short term gimmick that will rapidly fade away?

I think there's plenty of room for this stuff, both in games that make it a core mechanic (where I admit there's a degree to which it's driven by novelty) and games that only use it as yet another input device. (I've been messing around with FaceTrackNoIR in IL-2 1946, and I'm not entirely enamored by it, it's only because I can't get a decent tracking framerate out of my setup.)

[thugler]

Unbelievable that people are saying 'what the point of next gen, surely graphics are as good as you can get'.

This is wildly off the mark. PC's have been capable of way better graphics than the consoles for some time, but have been massively hamstrung by the vast majority of games being developed for both, and so little incentive of making graphics better than required for consoles.

As an example, Skyrim, a game that's only just come out, looks pretty damn ropey

[HappyTree]

Maybe the Wii/Kinect market is huge, but is not for the likes of me. I got Kinect to see what the fuss was about and determined to have fun. I have yet to switch it back on after the first evening I tried it. Just can't be bothered with holding my hand at 7 o'clock until it realises I want to do something.

A bigger and better 360 sounds ideal, but they need to make the interface actually useful to people who want to play games.

[Noodle Lizard]

One thing I've always found interesting is that no matter how radically graphics have improved over the past decade or so, violence has never become more realistic (blood, for instance, or AI reactions - rarely any entry wound either).  Even in a game which prides itself on it's incredible graphics like Uncharted 3 has a cartoony little blood spray and that's it.

I'm sure there are other reasons for the violence never being too realistic (possibly good reasons, although I'd likely beg to differ), but I find it strange that the first Hitman and Soldier Of Fortune games way back when were probably among the most accurate in that regard.  Red Dead Redemption's not bad either. 

It's not a complaint, really - accurate violence is hardly a major priority, although I suppose realism can be.