I bet if MS and SONY were behind closed doors ready to launch new hardware tomorrow, They would still be saying we have a 10 year life cycle , no new hardware planned ECT . They are not dumb, and wouldn’t want to hurt any potential sales, with people holding off buying the current Hardware due to talk of new follow up’s.
Even though we all knew the 360 was coming , MS was still calming the X-Box was made with this 5+ year life cycle , that’s why they went so over kill with the tech Spec’s . Anyone shouldn’t hold off buying a X-Box.
I don’t know why you want to keep bringing the PC up all the time . We’ll always see upgrades to consoles and then follow up to consoles, either due to poor sales, or just the current Tech being so out of date .
In 2013 the 360 will be really old hat, and will start to be holding back development of new games , regardless of what happens in the PC world.
I think they’re both software really . Not much of either their tech is made In-House . Software does need good hardware to help it to run and make any killer feature possible .
7 years in, the Ram and old GPU will start to hold back what Microsoft developers can do . After GOW III, I really can’t seem how much more EPIC can push the 360, not matter how much more the software and tools could be improved.
[quote=“Team Andromeda”]I don’t know why you want to keep bringing the PC up all the time . We’ll always see upgrades to consoles and then follow up to consoles, either due to poor sales, or just the current Tech being so out of date .
In 2013 the 360 will be really old hat, and will start to be holding back development of new games , regardless of what happens in the PC world.[/quote]
The reason I brought up the PC is because I agree with you that’s it’s not a direct competitor. The main competitor to Xbox is Playstation. So, if both Microsoft and Sony decide not to replace their consoles until 2015, there will be no competition to force the other to upgrade (in terms of power). So long as people keep buying 360 software and sales don’t slow down, then they don’t need to release the next Xbox earlier. We don’t know that this will be the case, but we don’t know that gamers will get bored of the current hardware either, especially if there is no “better” console from the competition to shift to.
Apple is a hardware company, but it sells the software and hardware as one package, completely integrated to work together. Apple hardware is generally quite expensive, however the software that runs on Apple hardware (either Mac OS or iOS) is usually quite cheap (or bundled with the OS) in comparison to the Microsoft alternative (iWork vs Office for example). Microsoft charges a lot for Windows and Office licenses, and makes money off services and games running on the Xbox. I think Apple and Microsoft have different approaches, so it’s hard to compare the two when it comes to hardware. They have different strategies.
They will , just like they’ve always done . developers and people will want to move on , otherwise they would have been no point in updating the PS, never mind the PS2 . Both consoles with incredible sales, dominating the sales chart .
There still came a point , when limits were being reached for developers and the die hard gamer was looking to move on .
I think SONY launching the PS3 so late, gave MS a really upper hand . So no matter what they say, I’m sure MS is working hard on a follow up , and will make sure it will hit the streets 1st with it’s console (and not make a XBox mistake of going late) .
Also part of me wonders will APPLE look to launch a new console for the Home. I wouldn’t put it past them .
How much of the I-Phone or I-Pad is running on In-House Apple tech (not trying to be funny here, that was what I meant) Even SONY is moving away from making GPU’s In-House for its console .
Though if the point is about making money on every bit of Hardware sold, then yes its Apple and MS are completely different in that dept .
[quote=“Team Andromeda”]How much of the I-Phone or I-Pad is running on In-House Apple tech (not trying to be funny here, that was what I meant) Even SONY is moving away from making GPU’s In-House for its console .
Though if the point is about making money on every bit of Hardware sold, then yes its Apple and MS are completely different in that dept .[/quote]
Yeah, my point was the latter (money made on each piece of hardware). Apple use components manufactured by other companies, but they put it together as one tightly integrated package. It’s that hardware package (e.g. a Macbook or an iPhone) that I was referring to.
On a more personal level, I’m not too excited about a potential new generation of consoles. What gaming really needs is for the developers to look at improving the structure of games themselves. Games are an artform, but they’re constantly “improved” by adding bigger worlds, better graphics, more features, longer play time etc. I’d love to see more emphasis on improving story telling, characters, flow, immersion, progression… even if that means the games are less impressive from a technical perspective.
Got and valid points , but you know with thinking like that, They’ll be no need to update from 8 bit to 16 bit (at the end of the day it was just better looking 2D), and no real need to update any console after the Dreamcast. Games maybe well be Art to some, but that takes power and effects to make the game world look better, be more real , or look more Arty, handle more characters on screen
For the next generation of consoles, I would like and love to see games being able to handle 60 fps and 720p Res as the bare minimum standards (no smart PC comments please) . Would like to MS and SONY not just push the boat out with the CPU/GPU but put quite a lot of System RAM in (like at least 8 Gigs) To me RAM is always what really starts to hold back consoles developers after a few year of the console being on sale
I’m thinking of games like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shadow of the Colossus. Both are “arty” games that were released when better hardware was already available, but still managed to capture the minds of gamers who wished to be immersed. I realise that gamers like myself are not the same as the average Call of Duty gamer though, and I’m in the minority. The two games I mentioned would look nicer running on more powerful hardware, but with development costs increasing with each generation the likelihood of them being made decreases.
When the next generation of consoles comes around it would be nice if the consoles push the hardware or experience forward in a way that is more than just better graphics and framerates. The original Xbox introduced a built in harddrive making games like Morrowind possible on a console. The Xbox 360 was where digital downloads and gamer profiles really started to take off. Hopefully the next Xbox is more than just a more powerful 360.
There’s more to this generation that COD . Games like Drakes II, Blue Dragon, Val Chronicles, Bishock all feature beautiful Art
Like there was more to the PS and Saturn generation than racers or JRPG’s and Vs fighters . In every generation of Hardware they’ll be a genere or a series of games that sell, like mad and capture the limelight, and quite alot of sales . They was far more to the Mega Drive than just SONIC.
Games like Panzer Dragoon shooters are more for when you’re a platoform holder to make , rather than ones to make when you’re a 3rd Party after sales sadly. I think that was just as true in the 32 bit generation
What was the Mega Drive if it wasn’t a more powerful Master System , same for the Snes vs NES. The 360 is just a more powerful X-Box at the end of the day . But that power allows you to offer more opportunities for developers and add and be able to run more features.
The Call of Duty example is interesting because it shows that gamers are willing to buy very similar games with minor improvements. Take the two Modern Warfare games for instance. Modern Warfare 2 is very similar to the first game, so much so that it could almost be an expansion pack. Despite this it’s one of the most popular games around. Eventually people are going to get sick of the series if it doesn’t improve much, but for now at least it shows that there’s money to be made in rehashing the same game.
I agree that games like BioShock are better off on the current generation of consoles than say, running on Xbox 1. I just wonder if the majority of gamers care enough about graphical progression to stop buying the games if a new console doesn’t come out in the next five years.
Just the same happen with SONIC . How many games did Dave Perry make , that really played much the same, but when on to sell loads and make millions Platform games sold like Mad on the Snes and Mega Drive, Vs Fighters , and JRPG’s made up the Japanese charts for the 32 bit Generation . I don’t see much of a difference myself .
Every Generation will have a game or a genre that sells in their millions . The only diff now , is back inthe 16 bit days , you could still make a profits on lowish sales . Today your game needs to sell a million , due to production costs.
The more serious gamer would , and they’re number in their millions imo.
The increasing production costs may make all the difference. But, I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this, Team Andromeda, since console lifespan is not something we can be certain of either way. Time will tell which one of us is right.
I think everyone kind of glosses over the fact that PC gaming is kind of stagnant right now, and I don’t mean the games are stagnant, but the huge increases in graphics power just aren’t happening anymore. There hasn’t been a title that has really pushed PC gaming since Crysis. Starcraft 2 is made to run on the what I would consider a lower end PC. Crysis 2 and id’s Rage engine are both being made to run on the consoles, which most likely will decrease the scalability on the PC. The 2 fold increase in computing power each year just doesn’t happen anymore. Each new generation of videocard isn’t getting faster per say. They are adding new effects and making them run cooler, but no technology or game is really jumping out as heads and shoulders above the rest anymore.
We are at a point where it is more feasible to have a console last longer and with the world economy the way it is, I really don’t expect to see anything new for a few years. This could be better for gaming in general because then maybe the focus will be on gameplay rather than graphics. This is my hope anyway.
It will be interesting to see where PC gaming goes in the next 5 - 10 years. Perhaps we may see more emphasis on episodic content and subscription fee games that run on lower end PCs, rather than requiring the gamer to pay for an expensive upgrade.
You brought up a good point about a potential focus on gameplay over graphics. When it comes to first person shooters, have any games really pushed the envelope (in terms of gameplay) since Half-Life 2? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I’d like to see more innovation in this area (and in story telling).
I suppose you could count Portal as an FPS. You shoot open portals. It’s more of a first person puzzle game though.
Regardless, Portal is a good example of innovation. It will be interesting to see where they take Portal 2. Hopefully they will fuse more story telling in with the gameplay.
It will be interesting to see where PC gaming goes in the next 5 - 10 years. Perhaps we may see more emphasis on episodic content and subscription fee games that run on lower end PCs, rather than requiring the gamer to pay for an expensive upgrade.
You brought up a good point about a potential focus on gameplay over graphics. When it comes to first person shooters, have any games really pushed the envelope (in terms of gameplay) since Half-Life 2? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I’d like to see more innovation in this area (and in story telling).[/quote]
First person shooters really have been pretty stagnant and unchanging. I am looking forward to deus ex 3. Most of the games I have enjoyed recently usually incorporate more rpg elements like mass effect or oblivion. Mirror’s edge was something fresh, but the focus still seems to be on the action. I love HL2 and the episodes also, but mostly because of the story behind it and the characters. I would love to see some more creativity on that front rather than all out graphical upgrades. I don’t think it is coincidence I have always enjoyed the end of a consoles lifecycle the most. Once developers are done with the constant upgrading, we get some of the best games!
