3Qs: What sort of specs do you think next gen consoles will be working with?...

Thrakk

How long do you think it will be before we have next gen consoles by big developers?

PS4, X-Box 720, Nintendo Qii  (I'm just throwing around made up names here)

 

what sort of specs do you think next gen consoles will be working with?

what sort of innovation would you like?

eburn

I think it'll be late 2012 before we hear anything on this front.

I believe Nintendo will be the first out of the gate this time. There's buzz they're developing something in the high range of contemporary numbers in a gaming machine. I don't think they'll launch anything new tho' until they can figure out how to keep it around the 249.99 range in production.

Sony also has a 10 channel processing chip design shelfed for whatever reason. The excuse is infrastructure for assymbly would have to change dramatically for it to be mass produced.

I also see actual media for the next gen going bye-bye.

The internet cloud is coming and with contemporary computing equipment getting to be around the same price as a console I think that sort of hybrid is where we'll stand in the future.

ForceQuit

Since Microsoft and Sony both are aiming for a 'real' 10 year lifespan this time around, it'll probably be 2015 until their machines come out.

I don't believe physical media will go away entirely, but there may be a hybrid model.

The real innovation will be in its network services.

Hardware wise I believe its still too early to tell, but I've heard some developers mention RAM will be at least 2GB possibly 4GB.

risenbones

Guess it depends on a few things.

 

From a Sony point of veiw the last couple of consoles have been used as a launching pad to push their idea of what kind of media we should be watching movies on.  DVD player, Blu-ray player was the sub plot behind their last 2 consoles so I guess the next Sony will be based around whatever movie player format they come up with next.

 

The next Nintendo will most likely be a refinement of the control system if they can find a way to make it less gimicky and more intuitive over existing popular game genres.  That or they find another control method no-ones thought of yet.

 

X-box is the one I'm not entirly sure about.  As in I'm not sure about what Microsofts hardware goals are apart from wanting a piece of the console software pie.  No doubt it will be something similar to the playstation but with whatevers next in the HD-DVD drive line up to compete with whatever Sony makes.

 

The common stuff will be things like greater online connectivity (probably to pave the way to tighter DRM hidden behind social features), bigger hard drive storage,  more system Ram, Beefier graphic capabilities.  Depending on when they decide to go with a new console launch probably something on par with a highend mid ranged new PC whenever it's announced.