Microsoft fires the first shot in the "NEXT" generation.... - Page 135

My only concern (from MS/Sony POV) is whether or not people are willing to treat their game systems like their phones and/or tablets. I feel like people put their consoles on a lower tier than their other devices, and as such don't want to shell out that often.

Maybe RROD was a good thing from this POV, it conditioned people to keep buying 360s.

BTW: I would probably not buy into this type of console, and just stick with PC.
Edited by number1laing - 1/10/13 at 10:42am

Well, its up to them to continue to find ways to add value to it. At release, the 360 played disc based traditional games. By now, it plays a far wider variety of games including kinect, it does movies and music nearly as well as anything, makes video calls, web browsers, live events.

Make it a device worth upgrading and people will upgrade. And whoever still doesn't give a ****, and just want to play a few games....the low end xbox will still last 6 years.

somebody made a third-party version similar to the Microsoft tech and is given out the toolkit for free. the demo shows a standard Kinect, a projector, and a Windows PC:

I don't think consoles should be upgraded as frequently as phones. I think it's a bit silly for people to upgrade their phones more often then every few years or so, but I digress.

Consoles are meant to evolve through content, not hardware. But that is the problem next gen consoles are facing. They can't simply rely on game makers to be able to optimize the next gen system in the span of 6 years. It just doesn't seem as though it will take that long to make full usage of the next systems. Perhaps gaming technology is advancing faster now?

Either the intended lifetime of the console is shortened a bit, or interchangeable parts should be introduced. If the average person is capable of swapping out their 360's harddrive, then they should have no problem swapping out other components.

MS has already been testing a new profit model. They sell a new 360 for $99 with a multi-year XBL contract. It's just like a phone. It ends up subsidizing more frequent hardware refreshes and revisions. If consoles were that cheap upfront, people would be more than willing to upgrade every year or two. It would also potentially be a way around problematic hardware (RRoD) since many consumers would just "trade up" before the thing craps out. Not a good thing from consumers' perspective, but it sure would be appealing to the manufacturers.
I agree that it's silly, but that doesn't stop it from happening. Disposable goods are the source of increased profits in nearly every industry.
Indeed it is. If you do any gaming on mobile platforms, you're pretty familiar with just how rapidly the tech is advancing. It's truly insane. At some point it's got to level off, but right now gaming performance is booming on mobile platforms with major leaps every 3-6 months. If consoles decide to emulate the business model of mobile (as MS already has), then consoles could also undergo rapid tech revisions every 6-12 months.

It could happen. If it doesn't, it won't be for lack of trying.

It's almost like the media is baiting the console makers with their own user bases. Trying to force them to show their hands early and often.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/14/to-e3-or-not-e3

Sometimes baiting does work, Kotaku did it to get some info on Vs XIII out of Square Enix, heck, even a gamefaqs user managed to get a reply out of Square Enix.

Decent updates for the interested. I was more interested in the issues growing out of the second article about security problems. MS' "Blended" convergence ecosystem is here to stay whether we all like it or not. I like some aspects of it but hate the app bloat part of it...as I have stated before. Unfortunately for them the app bloat jackpot inevitably expands their security risks. And the infamous Newscorp/Murdoch/Bing alliance is a clear security risk for some, as evidenced by their heinous disregard for privacy in the exploding UK scandal. Sometimes a jack of all trades strategy ends up getting you "NADA". I simply do not like the growing politicization of a gaming console. I think MS has a potentially great ecosystem if managed properly. Meaning that if one was to do an 80/20 priority analysis. I would prefer 80% of the new console be focused on AAA and Arcade style gaming. With solid integration with the WIn 8/Surface/mobile markets. And 20% allocated to the other junk that I easily get elsewhere if I want it.

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/4803/20130114/microsoft-xbox-720-durango-rumors-shifting-away-packaged-products-going-to-the-cloud.htm
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/01/06/microsoft-discusses-xbox-live-security-problems
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-720-release-date-news-and-rumours-937167?src=rss
http://www.gamezone.com/products/xbox-720/news/industry-analyst-xbox-720-to-release-this-november-400-price-point
http://www.oxm.co.uk/49319/dragon-age-3-artist-xbox-720-tech-wont-be-as-obvious-a-leap-as-xbox-to-xbox-360/

"Whether we like it or not"

Most not, I think. More like, whether we BUY it or not. If you don't buy it, they'll learn. But I doubt enough people to force a change will not buy it because they hate their stupid metro UI. If they have some must have exclusives (I doubt), then I'll buy. But in terms of multiplatform stuff I'm sticking to my PC from now on. New xbox has to have some serious goods for me to buy the new one.

More info:

http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/17/showtime-ps4-rumoured-at-1-84tf-xbox-720-at-1-23tf/

Man, I hope this is true.

Speaking of specs, even if the system reveals come later...I can't imagine we don't have some really solid leaks around GDC in march. Thousands of developers working on next gen games ,mixing with press, add a little alcohol, maybe a few dollars exchange hands....leak central.

Counterpoint to the above link and possibly some additional information:

 

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1769813/nextgen_xbox_720_will_be_more_powerful_than_ps4_report.html

 

There is a note at the bottom of the article that seems to contradict themselves. This is fun 

 

Laters,

Jeff

I'd find it very difficult to believe the nextbox can have kinect come in the box, be more powerful, yet cost the same as the PS4. One of those three has to give.

It is called MS takes a decent loss to get the system out the door.

And then assuming Sony does the same thing, we're back at square one.

That nowgamer article is horrible. I can barely understand it. 1 article says 4 tflops the other says 1. PS4 has 4g ram on one, 8g on the other. I think this is a big pile of not true stuff.

This makes these stupid words that no one's ever heard of in that nowgamer article more coherent.

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1769561/nextgen_huge_xbox_720_ps4_specs_report_by_insider.html
Edited by Yrd - 1/17/13 at 2:33pm

The truth might be all of the above. Prototype dev kits probably have much more processing power and RAM than the final build. And that number changes (shrinks) as production gets closer. The difference might just be when the information is from, not where.

I say follow the money or follow the lawyers...and you'll get closer to the truth.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/16/next-gen-secrets-allegedly-leaked-to-nvidia-by-former-amd-executives

Those are old rumors that IGN published last year and are reusing in an article worded to make you think they are leaks. Note the first line from the section below then check it in the link above.

As our well-placed sources told us last year, custom silicon based on AMD's A8-series APU and HD 7670 GPU will be used in the PlayStation 4, while the Xbox 720 will combine an IBM PowerPC CPU and a custom version of AMD's 6670 GPU.

PlayStation 4 Unveil Could Come May 2013 or Sooner

http://www.dailytech.com/Quick+Note+PlayStation+4+Unveil+Could+Come+May+2013+or+Sooner/article29673.htm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57564215-235/sony-exec-hints-at-playstation-4-announcement-in-spring/

you know what is crazy is that the PS4 is about to be announced and there has not be a release of ico/SoC game (who knows when the last guardian will release, if ever) and no Kingdom hearts 3, no Jax and Dexter (yes i know they went a different direction). If you would have told me that those 3 games would not come out before the PS4 i would have called you a liar..

No Kingdom Hearts 3 has been surprising, but the series shifted to handhelds, which have been better for Japanese RPG's this generation.

No ICO style game for PS3 is a huge surprise, but it's not for lack of trying.

Jak and Daxter is just the PS2's Crash. We'll get a PS4 Uncharted, Drake is way bigger than Crash or J&D.

I hope MS at least maks an optional, accessory controller like this for Durango. One that blends all of the XBox Live, Surface, WIn 8, Mobile and Win-Live ecosystems under one X-Controller umbrella. Or I hope the Nvidia controller can be modded for use with XBox.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-project-shield?cid=GF-email-jan13

To me, it looks like MSFT and Sony are playing the flinch game to see who will release first so that the other can try to 1-up them.

FWIW, I would like to see less gimmick controllers or other accessories and focus more on improving the ability to tie available technologies together. Meaning, keep the controller the way that it is, but focus on improving Kinect and tablet integration. So, allow me to connect my tablet to the game so that I can pick spells, weapons, etc without going into a menu on the game. Set up the Kinect so that I can customize different actions to different words. etc, etc.

For me, that would be far more useful and interesting than holding the controller to zoom or anything else that I've seen out of the nextgen set of features...

It's too late at this point for performance oneupmanship. If they were playing that game, that played out already. At this point in the build-up (assuming a late 2013 launch), they've already solidified specs and hardware and are moving rapidly toward production. They may have some wiggle room, but there are too many agreements with other companies, production pipelines, etc. to be able to make substantial changes to the hardware at this point. They're both likely already committed to what they'll launch with.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-next-gen-xbox-specs-leak

And here's the specs for the nextbox. Nothing confirmed of course, but its eurogamer, and if they're staking their rep on it, I believe it.

Both nextbox and PS4 use essentially if not exactly the same CPU.

Kinect is bundled in every box, so id expect quite a few games to use it.

Its significantly (50%ish) less powerful than the PS4. I expected a disparity, just not that big. Oh well, I guess when you put all the budget towards the kinect and not the GPU, that's what you get.

No word on the controller.

So looks like the next gen is essentially a leap roughly equal to the last gen leap. It's a little disappointing considering its been 7-8 years instead of 5, but they should be affordable at least.

Doubtful. MS has very few in-house studios left. The Kinect will exist primarily for media navigation and for the handful of Wii-style "family focused" games. The bigger Kinect push will probably be media navigation, as I expect that will be the overall push for the box in general.
Entering into the market with dominance in the NA market means that we'll get a bunch of multiplatform games tailored to the "lowest common denominator." And with the Wii U running at even lower specs, I don't imagine we'll see that disparity amount to much outside of a handful of excellent Sony exclusives.

That leap is going to look less and less impressive as more and more 4k sets hit the market between this and whatever version precedes it. It's a shame they aren't future proofing this a bit more but probably a bit premature to make too many assumptions just yet.

Most gaming PCs can't even output at those resolutions for gaming. We're far from 4K mattering much in gaming. The new Xbox may have a built in hardware scaler, but I wouldn't expect much beyond that.

If (and that's a big "if") we get another generation of consoles after this next one, that's when something like 4K resolution gaming might actually matter. But even then, I'm skeptical. In that amount of time, we may see a totally different paradigm shift in display technology that isn't about raw resolution output. We've seen a bunch of "bottom-up" disruptions happening throughout consumer electronics over the past five years. Display tech may be next.