Raise your hand if you’re surprised. No one? Yeah.
Start saving those pennies. Looks like 2012-13 will see the next generation kick off. I still think it’s a little premature because there’s clearly life left in the current crop of consoles, but I guess GPU tech has advanced so dramatically that it’s time for an upgrade.
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I just can't see anything before 2013, and ev en in 2013 might surprise me. I mean if they can get it to developer's soon enough, they might make a push for 2013 holidays, but I don't know.
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I’m guessing 2013 as well. Nintendo is jumping the gun a little bit with their 2012 release date, but that’s because they need to: they’ve had no console momentum for two years. They’re in the same place Microsoft was in 2005 when they jumped the gun with the 360.
Nintendo 2012, Sony and Microsoft 2013. IMO. -
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Damn! Lol,
What I wrote was that I'm not surprised by this. Even though Sony and Microsoft were rumored to try to get another 3+ years out of their systems with their move accessories, I don't think it's realistic to think that the systems will hold up that long. We've reached the point where consoles are holding gaming back in terms of graphics. That in an of itself is not a huge deal, but gamers are starting to take note and with PC gaming getting cheaper, if consoles were to hold off for too long then we could see a resurgence in the PC market (it actually went up 20% last year).
PS3 and 360 are running Direct X 9 I believe, while PC's are already running direct X 11. I can't find any cross platform titles that are true HD because they're being ported across from the 360. In the meantime Crysis 2 looks worse at best equal to what it's predecessor did years ago. We all know that PC games generally look better than consoles, but the gap is widening, and it's only going to grow faster. The next gen of game engines is SICK, and if consoles want to stay in the game they'll have to update their hardware.
Now, I know that graphics don't make a game, but I honestly haven't been blown away by graphics in a console game for a good long time. Granted I am a digital artist who stares at renders all day, but recent releases such as LA Noire already look dated to me. I can usually count on FF bringing the eye candy, but that wasn't the case in FF13. The last time I was blown away by graphics was the jump to GTA 4. GTA 4 looked really good for it's time, and coupled with the scale of the game I found it to be very impressive. Fallout 3 also looked great, but it's sequel looks extremely dated. I was disappointed with Gran Turismo, etc.
Anyway, the sooner the better in my eyes. I'm looking forward Witcher 2 graphics on my big screen... -
PC gaming is actually increasing in cost, truth be told. CPUs are giving great bang for the buck, but GPU costs are skyrocketing. Nvidia and AMD have reestablished $700 as the top-of-the-line price point, but it used to be roughly $500 a couple of years ago. Now, there’s a great sweet spot market out there for roughly $1000-1200, but basically GPUs have been increasing in cost without really, truly, appreciably increasing performance. My two generation old Radeon HD 4850 X2 is still one of the best cards out there. :lol:
That said, there are clearly areas in which consoles are holding back graphical advancement, but PCs have sort of plateaued as well. The Radeon HD 7000 line coming out later this year looks to just be a more power efficient version of the 6000 series, and Nvidia’s next GPU probably won’t be out until 2012. I would like to see what consoles can do with cutting edge GPUs, since the PS3 and 360 are still putting up impressive graphics with six year old GPUs.
The PS3 does not use DirectX IIRC, and the 360 allows developers to embed a specific version of DirectX on the DVD, so basically developers can use whatever version they want.
I have to disagree with you here. AC Brotherhood and Revelations look fantastic. FF13 was utterly amazing graphically, especially chapter 12. I was never very impressed graphically by anything running in the Gamebryo engine (FO3, FONV). Uncharted brings some amazing graphics to the table. Halo Reach is gorgeous. MGS4 and NGS/2 still look fantastic, and MGS Rising looks equally impressive. Even Rayman Origins looks great to me, though I love 2D graphics in general and wish vector graphics had taken off.Stitches likes this. -
Speculation based on statements from the investor’s meeting:
I agree with the speculation. It’s plausible that Sony won’t go with hugely expensive custom parts this time. The GPU could be pretty much off the shelf with some extra VRAM, as Nintendo appears to be doing. The CPU could be either a faster Cell (depending on how costs have come down over the last six years) or they could go PowerPC as Microsoft did and Nintendo is supposedly doing. RAM is pretty cheap these days, it won’t cost much to go with as much as 2 GB of system RAM. Blu-Ray drives have gotten cheap, they can keep that.
The next gen could be fairly inexpensive. -
RAM is cheap enough these days I'd be surprised if the minimum for a console by 2013 (if they made it for that year) would be under 4 gigs. They may even push for the 8 gigs by then.
I'm wondering if the companies will be bold and go for flash drives if the prices come down a lot in the next couple years. It would help with console size, not to mention speeds. -
Learned my lesson last generation. I won't buy next generation consoles until at least 2 years after launch. Give them time to work the bugs out and have all the bells and whistles (especially Microsoft's) added on.
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I learned my lesson with the Wii. :lol: Plus my PC is capable enough of playing all the big name cross platform titles through roughly the end of 2012. That’s the absolute latest when I’ll have to start thinking about a GPU upgrade at least. The next gen of consoles can wait.MonstBlitz likes this.
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I think you messed something up. :lol:
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I had a PS2 stop reading discs, but it was from like the 1st run so I'm not surprised given its age and use at the time. Still got an "80gb" (fat) PS3 running, though it's way out of date FW wise. I know a lot of people have had their fat ps3's die (YLOD typically I believe).
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Well Microsoft's whole issue came from Nvidia screwing them over price wise on GPU's in the original Xbox (Which was a heavy duty monster in terms of hardware stability) which forced them to rush into the 360 on a much shorter R&D timeline then usual so they could be out before Sony.
Even MS can't be daft enough to go into the next generation without paying extra special attention to the hardware. -
I had the same PS1 forever (still own it and it still works), the same PS2 forever (also still owned and works)....I did have a PS3 pack it in on me (YLOD).