EA: This Console Generation Will Last Longer Than Usual
- Thread starter Austin MacKenzie
- Start date
This is pretty obvious, really. The costs of what are now apparently essential parts of a high-end game console- high-capacity optical disks and a hard drive- just haven't fallen that quickly. Never mind video hardware that eclipses the current generation and putting together a manufacturing process that can actually keep up with consumer demand in a timely fashion.
So make the programmers find some good old-fashioned ways to cadge more power out of the existing hardware. It will be good exercise for their lazy port-buildin' butts.
So make the programmers find some good old-fashioned ways to cadge more power out of the existing hardware. It will be good exercise for their lazy port-buildin' butts.
Well this is a good thing, course I'm kinda hoping mircosoft will step down from consoles and go back to PC gaming exclusivly, and just help produce games to PS3 and Wii, or if they decide to keep their hands in the game make a console that doesn't have billions of factory defects that take years to fix and even then still be entirely flawed compared to the competition.
There really isn't much point in making new consoles yet, seeing as the PS3 and the XBox 360 have plenty of room for improvement, especially the PS3, both in function and games. If they were to make a new console now, any differences would be hard to see, and a drastic change in internal programming structure would just push third-party devs away. Seeing as current devs are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what the PS3 can do, and learning how to employ all possible resources at their disposal, making a new console would just be a great big nail in the coffin. If developers want to take their games in any new directions, I think the closest they have to new hardware would be the surge in peripherals.
Personally, until someone invents a functional and easy to develop VA system, I don't think there'l ever be a need for a new console as far as Sony and Microsoft are concerned. As for Nintendo, far as I can see, they have two options: 1) Design an upgrade to the Nintendo Wii that allows for HD games to be played (Not a new console, just an upgrade), or 2) actually design a completely new console that can perform on a level equivalent to the PS3 or 360. The problem with this is that the Wii is still going strong, so anything that renders the Wii obsolete may very well go the path of the PS2, which is still being sold in leiu of BC for the PS3. It's also likely that such an even won't be happening for quite a while. Just my personal view, of course.
Personally, until someone invents a functional and easy to develop VA system, I don't think there'l ever be a need for a new console as far as Sony and Microsoft are concerned. As for Nintendo, far as I can see, they have two options: 1) Design an upgrade to the Nintendo Wii that allows for HD games to be played (Not a new console, just an upgrade), or 2) actually design a completely new console that can perform on a level equivalent to the PS3 or 360. The problem with this is that the Wii is still going strong, so anything that renders the Wii obsolete may very well go the path of the PS2, which is still being sold in leiu of BC for the PS3. It's also likely that such an even won't be happening for quite a while. Just my personal view, of course.
A Full HD TV maybe? Seeing as we still don't have proper full HD games. What do I mean by that? 1080p native resolution (not 720p upscaled) and at least 2x anti-aliasing (ideally 4x). Some 'current gen' games aren't even truly 720p. Games such as Halo 3, GTA 4 (on PS3), PGR 3 and Perfect Dark Zero run at resolutions from 600-640p and simply upscale to 720 or 1080.
Playing newer games such as Mass Effect 2 on 360, chugging framerates are very noticeable at times, and this goes to show that the hardware is already approaching the limits of what it can do. Similarly, when I play new games on my 1080p display there is very noticeable aliasing, which essentially means I'm not getting full value of having a 1080p display, because if I'm close enough to see the added detail, I can also see the jaggies.
So yeah, the EA exec implying that current consoles are looking as good as is possible on current displays/TVs is just straight BS.
People believe a lot of hype about the 'SPE' processors in the PS3, but the reality is that the PS3 has what is essentially a less powerful Nvidia 7800 series GPU, and this really limits what can be done with it, graphically. If the SPEs were to be used in the main render step, devs would have to write some kind of ridiculous hybrid software/hardware rendering cycle, essentially stepping backwards from the direction that real-time rendering has been going for the last 2 decades. There's a reason we don't do rendering in software anymore.Andronicus said:
The reality is that the specs of the PS3 are unbalanced in favour of CPU power, meaning that while you can create some unique CPU heavy games such as LittleBigPlanet, the graphics really are a bottleneck, and that isn't going to change with the current hardware.
That's not to say that the 360's graphical hardware isn't also showing its age, because it really is. The (sad?) thing is that the way that computer tech has developed, its more and more difficult for console manufacturers to turn a profit on hardware, so they have less incentive to bring out new hardware.
Good to hear. If you want cutting edge, invest in a gaming monolith (PC). The guy at the computer store has this one for lan parties that has a camouflaged graphics card. Yeah, it's big enough to fit an awesome pattern lol. I like that I won't have to buy a new one anytime soon, since I still need a PS3 and a 360 to call my own...