[dporter]

Some interesting articles have been coming out lately from game developers almost pleading with the large companies to move on to the next phase of techonology.  

Dice has said that the Frostbite Engine is already ready for whatever comes next and there is this article about Ubisoft:
http://www.gamercast...ls-for-the-next

Sony and Microsoft though don't have any immediate plans for what comes next.  

I read this morning though that Nintendo is already demoing their next prototype.

It's all speculative at this point, but if Nintendo can somehow meet it's goal of holiday 2012 and they can incorporate hardware that beats both the PS3 and Xbox360 then they could potentially enjoy a non-comptetive market for a few years.  

I'm definitely interested to see what comes out of E3 this June and if there are any major announcements so I'll be glued to the news feeds.  I'm also ready for the next generation of consoles as well.  I can really tell that this hardware has reached it's peak and in the next couple of years the games are going to be pretty much stagnate as far as innovation goes.  

What are some of your wishlists as far as the next generation goes?  I've got some lengthy ones but I've rambled long enough so I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks.

[Ick]

Skip the 3d technology.  Give me the ability to have surround style TV screens on a console.  Much better for flight simulators and shooters.

[Bota:16]

The 360 and PS3 are still cash cows.  Microsoft and Sony have no need for a new console, yet.  I read a  report that MS posted some job positions for  hardware gurus which mean development hasn't really even started beyond software.  I thinking earliest we will see the next XBox or Playstation is 2013.  While some devs are ready for the "next" generation of consoles some have come out and said they don't want them because development costs for current gen is already too expensive.

Either way I see the next generation to be more of a Entertainment/Social Hub type thing than a gaming console.  They are essentially that already.  I think a lot of the content will be "cloud" based.  Microsoft and Sony will become equivalent to what cable companies are now but for the internet generation.

[WhiteKnight77]

Bota:16, on 15 April 2011 - 03:02 PM, said:

While some devs are ready for the "next" generation of consoles some have come out and said they don't want them because development costs for current gen is already too expensive.

What sources do you have for this? Which devs?

[MONOLITH]

dporter, on 15 April 2011 - 09:22 AM, said:

Some interesting articles have been coming out lately from game developers almost pleading with the large companies to move on to the next phase of techonology.  

Dice has said that the Frostbite Engine is already ready for whatever comes next and there is this article about Ubisoft:
http://www.gamercast...ls-for-the-next

Sony and Microsoft though don't have any immediate plans for what comes next.  

I read this morning though that Nintendo is already demoing their next prototype.

It's all speculative at this point, but if Nintendo can somehow meet it's goal of holiday 2012 and they can incorporate hardware that beats both the PS3 and Xbox360 then they could potentially enjoy a non-comptetive market for a few years.  

I'm definitely interested to see what comes out of E3 this June and if there are any major announcements so I'll be glued to the news feeds.  I'm also ready for the next generation of consoles as well.  I can really tell that this hardware has reached it's peak and in the next couple of years the games are going to be pretty much stagnate as far as innovation goes.  

What are some of your wishlists as far as the next generation goes?  I've got some lengthy ones but I've rambled long enough so I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks.

Excellent thread.  Keep me posted on the Nintendo stuff. I have room next to my 360 for another console if some cool new tech emerges.

Aside from photo-realistic graphics, I like the 3D direction.  I'm currently playing through Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition, and the 3D is actually pretty cool once you get your TV settings right to compensate for the glasses.

[Cpl Ledanek]

MONOLITH, on 15 April 2011 - 05:57 PM, said:

Excellent thread.  Keep me posted on the Nintendo stuff. I have room next to my 360 for another console if some cool new tech emerges.

Aside from photo-realistic graphics, I like the 3D direction.  I'm currently playing through Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition, and the 3D is actually pretty cool once you get your TV settings right to compensate for the glasses.

when you say compensates, do you mean your TV is not 3D TV?

[Bota:16]

WhiteKnight77, on 15 April 2011 - 04:52 PM, said:

What sources do you have for this? Which devs?

http://www.eurogamer...or-new-consoles


http://www.destructo...d--186468.phtml

[WhiteKnight77]

Bota:16, on 16 April 2011 - 01:14 AM, said:

http://www.eurogamer...or-new-consoles


http://www.destructo...d--186468.phtml

Interesting reads. It makes the Ubi article seem as if Ubi is trying to run others out of business. I honestly would like to see the console hardware sold for what it actually cost though. It would quell some of the arguments some have for using a console over a PC.

[MONOLITH]

Cpl Ledanek, on 15 April 2011 - 11:46 PM, said:

when you say compensates, do you mean your TV is not 3D TV?

Correct. I'm playing on a 42" 1080p HD TV, but it's not a '3D capable' TV.

The game comes with the old school red and blue glasses, and you turn the 3D effect on in the game options.

[Cpl Ledanek]

MONOLITH, on 16 April 2011 - 02:22 PM, said:

Correct. I'm playing on a 42" 1080p HD TV, but it's not a '3D capable' TV.

The game comes with the old school red and blue glasses, and you turn the 3D effect on in the game options.

old school 3D .... I likes!

[bangurdead]

The reason Microsoft and Sony don't or wont develop newer consoles yet is because they haven't made the profits off of them YET like they did the PS2 and original Xbox, lets face it they take a bullet on the consoles then the expect video game sales to make up that bullet and then some, hell only 2010 did they the PS3 actually break even

Source
http://news.cnet.com...0414022-52.html

even the xbox360 I bet has barely broken even yet due to the horrible RED RING OF DEATH that plagued nearly all 1st gen consoles and continued in lesser degrees on to the final xbox360 revision...

to say they want to develop a new console would be like them taking a raw hamburger and eating it whole, its just not going to happen...

which for PC gamers means one of two things, they'll start experimenting once more on the PC side and scale everything down for consoles which the last generation of consoles proved that this ended up with both systems getting the best games available

Rainbow six 3 (PC raven shield) was in the top 10 xbox video game rankings for over 3 years...

[dporter]

Bota I think it will be even later then 2013 for microsoft and Sony.  I'm thinking more around 2015-2016.

This whole wii thing though has become extremely intriguing to me and I'm wondering if they've had this whole mastermind plan all along.  It seems nintendo worked on capturing a certain share of the market by being innovative instead of hardware driven.  Wii's sold like hotcakes and they sold well for a long time.  Lots of families picked them up because their games were suitable for everyone and the motion sensor seemed like a pretty cool idea.  Obviously it didn't suite the needs of the hardcore gamer out there but it didn't seem to matter because the price was always low enough that many could pick it up as a second console at a reasonable price.

Now Microsoft and Sony caught up with the motion sensor arena and surpassed what the wii can do and I have a feeling that Nintendo knew that would happen and had plans this whole time to launch something with a little bit more horsepower after the other consoles had been out for several years but far in advance of their competitors launching anything new.  If this was how they planned it all along then it seems pretty ingenious to me.

I'm seeing more and more of these rumor articles about the next Nintendo console that will be showcased at E3 and if the rumors hold true that it is far more powerful then both the 360 and PS3 it will be very interesting to see what happens to the console market.  

Ah speculation is so much fun.  

As far as 3d goes I'm not a big fan either.  Part of my wishlist includes moving away from matchmaking and making the whole console more PC like as far being able to select services to join, or the ability to create rooms with a certain map rotation.  A desktop type setup with all your games on the main screen that can be launch from sign-in would be helpful as well.  This last one is based on the assumption that at some point the developers will be moving to a more digital copy based distribution to hopefully help lower the cost of games and lower their overhead.  I don't foresee them going entirely digital for some time since the broadband reach in the US is still very limited but I'm hoping that they will cater more towards those who can get digital copies and offer discounts and special offers to help promote people to buy digitally.

[Nemesis]

Bring on the day when a single system is required that can do the same as a PC, manage my TV as in HD TiVo, integrate my household phone, has a programmable handset that you can also use as a mobile/cellular device with LCD has internet features & roaming wifi, has a light (as in projected) keyboard as well as an intuitive GUI, oh & speech recognition for talking commands to the system also BUT ISNT tied to just a single service.

3D.....give me holographics!

[MONOLITH]

The one thing I never want to see, is a game go hands free Kinect style only, with no controller support.

I don't want to be forced to jump around my room like Batman to play Arkham Asylum, or have to point my fingers at the screen and duck behind my couch to play Battlefield 3.

WhiteKnight77, on 16 April 2011 - 11:55 AM, said:

It would quell some of the arguments some have for using a console over a PC.

Even you PC holdouts are benefiting from consoles....



"When Crytek announced that the third iteration of its ambitious CryEngine technology would appear on both PC and consoles, a portion of its hardcore fans became skeptical -- would the engine's progression be hampered by a dumbed-down ball-and-chain?

The company's R&D principal graphics engineer, Tiago Sousa, responds to that mindset in a new interview with Digital Foundry, saying that a multiplatform approach in developing Crysis 2 was beneficial to the company's central goal -- which is to make big-budget games, not just budget-hostile benchmarks. "The PC market just does not support that cost of development, but going multi-platform does," Sousa said. "If making a game that is bigger, better, more stable, performs better across a wider range of hardware, provides a continued visual benchmark for PC gaming, and more fun with a huge single-player and multiplayer offering is considered selling out, that seems like a really odd application of the phrase. The decision to go multi-platform has allowed us to bring a better game to everyone, which has been our goal all along."

[WhiteKnight77]

That might be Crytek, but does that include others? I can think of one company that can't even make a graphics busting game with what they for any platform. What I was getting at was that the with the PS3 originally being $805 to build and the next consoles being close to or well above that, the PC is too expensive argument is busted. If Sony actually charged the $900 they should have for the first PS3s, I would bet not many would have sold (though games could have been cheaper most likely as we both know games subsidize the hardware).

[MONOLITH]

Speaking of graphics, and I'm too lazy to research it;  but I assume the BF3 videos we've been watching are from the PC version?

[WhiteKnight77]

I haven't watched any BF3 videos.

[Kirq]

MONOLITH, on 17 April 2011 - 09:02 AM, said:

Speaking of graphics, and I'm too lazy to research it;  but I assume the BF3 videos we've been watching are from the PC version?

Yup, all of them so far.

[dporter]

I think this year at E3 we will definitely be getting some more detailed information on the next Wii-U and what it will bring to the table but I don't think there will be much in the way of any new information from the Sony and MIcrosoft camps.  I think that stuff will probably start getting leaked more and more during the Holidays.

The real reason I wanted to resurect this thread was because of a converstation that Mono and I had the other day about some of the things that we would like to see in the future of gaming.  Both of us have families that love to game (a family that plays together stays together!), and that can get downright expensive sometimes when you have to buy multiple consoles and copies of games for each person.  It would be nice to see something similar to how Microsoft does family packs for their Microsoft Office software and incorporate that idea into games.  Make a family pack version of the game for an extra $20-$30.  This would have to somehow be linked to a live family membership so that each person is designated their key to use the game.  I'm not sure how something like this would work on a PS3 format since currently online is free and there is no family grouping online but I'm sure they could figure something out.  Obviously it's not in the game developers best interest to help families save money when they could sale 2-3 copies of the game for $60 a piece instead of a $80 family pack but I can still hope.  

The other thing that I think would be nice is to create a version of the next console that doesn't have a DVD drive at all.  I know that the biggest drawback to going digital download is that not everyone has a fast internet connection.  For those of us who finally do though it would be nice to have a cheaper version of the console (since it won't have blu-ray) that we don't have to worry about getting the disk unreadable message or worry about the laser crapping out on you.  I'm really hoping that digital download is offered a lot more on the next generation of consoles and that they make it cheaper to encourage more people to go that route.

[dporter]

http://www.wired.com...5/ff_unreal4/4/

Not so much about next gen consoles but it does give some interesting information about the UE4 engine.  I didn't even know that Epic was headquartered down in Raleigh (about 3 hours from me).