Next generation consoles. What to expect

[Dos_Box]

After talking to my wife last week about how, now that the children were old enough, it may be time to look at 'perhaps' getting a Wii.

Now, I'm not sure if she was heading me off at the pass here, but she said, 'What's the point?'. An began to expand her comment. With Kinect and other optical movement recognition devices coming out as add-ons for various console, what will the next generation of consoles have in them? And when will the arrive?

I'm actually a bit excited by this as for the first time in many years I can get a new console when on its initial release. So does anybody know what the major companies have planned?

Edited November 22, 2010 by Dos_Box

[andy_nic]

Microsoft Xbox 360 is going to be around at least till 2015 last comment Microsoft said that I read somewhere and Nintendo said somewhere that their wii is still popular so they aren't really looking to move on yet

[kevbaz]

i doubt theres anything thats going to be out any time soon, looking atleat 5 years i rekon, all the major compaines are improving their existing consoles and bringing out fantastic bits of kit like kinect

 

id say Nintendo will have to be first to move it up a gear

[edutech4schools]

I read in a forum that MS are not only keeping the 360 for a good few years but might bring out a new console in 2012/13 to run alongside the 360. but it was just a forum.

[JJonas]

Kinect is intended to be a mid-life release and both Microsoft and Sony have said they expect a 10 year life for their consoles.

[Arthur]

I'm looking forward to the next generation of consoles because it will mean PC games will suck less.

[seanlaz]

10 year life-span, music to my ears. i thought they'd have a PS4/Xbox720 out within 24 months....

[MK-2]

10 year life-span, music to my ears. i thought they'd have a PS4/Xbox720 out within 24 months....

 

You're a fool if you buy the Xbox720......wait for the Xbox1080p instead

[jamesb]

I suspect Nintendo will be the next to bring something out, but I've absolutely no idea what it'll be. I wouldn't have seen the Wii's motion control coming, and it wouldn't surprise me if they bring in something else new to differentiate themselves.

 

Maybe those thought control helmets?

[tmcd35]

Okay, the 'whem will it arrive?' question has been answered, but what will they have in them?

 

 

We can go for the obvious stuff - Multicore Cell processors (or other PowerPC variants) in all three with whatever is cutting edge from either AMD or nVidia in the GPU department. I recon a Physics processor or a dedicated Physics core in the GPU or CPU is the next big thing as far as visuals go.

 

I think Wireless n will be the defacto standard, although gigabit ethernet will also be standard (are they gigabit or 100mb at the moment?).

 

But the biggest change will be no Optical Drive. So expect uber-large (1Tb+) SSD hard drives to download your gaming content on to.

 

Motion sensors will be supplied as the standard controllers.

 

And finally Sony will be bought out by Apple so expect the PS4 to come installed with iOS 9.

[3s-gtech]

Internet rumour mills do indeed point to a 'Wii-HD' being the next move, it's a strong brand and I expect Nintendo will look to draw more of the 'hardcore' crowd with a machine that will play ports of games from the other formats, while remaining casual-friendly.

[Pete10141748]

Xbox360 and PS3 are going to be around for some time yet, MS and Sony have taken the clever route and chosen to keep their console updated by improving the software running on it instead of asking you to buy new hardware every 12 months (anyone remember the first Xbox360 software update from the old-style Blades to the new-style scrolling boxes? Was like having an almost new console!)

 

Graphics-wise only Nintendo need to up their game and get their "Wii v2" to do HD (or close to it) as it is so poor by comparison (when in the cinema yesterday my girlfriend remarked on seeing the trailer for "Epic Mickey" on how poor the graphics looked). The fact that the Xbox360 and PS3 play DVD (&bluray for PS3), output HDMI, have large hard drives to download/install games and so on, there's no real 'need' for entirely new hardware right now imo; accessories like the Kinect or the PS3 'Wand' are the way to go for a few years yet.

 

Sony are even keeping their PS2 around for another couple of years yet too as they have said that they still get a great market for it, so they certainly aren't going to be releasing a PS4 anytime soon, and MS releasing the Kinect is a good indicator that they are not just going to scrap the whole thing in a year for something else as like JJonas said, it's intended as a kind of mid-life revamp for the hardware.

[kevbaz]

i wonder if anyones original PS3 or 360 will actually live seamlessly for 10years? my ps3 decided to stop working this weekend and is stuck on trying to install an update which it always fails! was working fine before... but its out of warrenty and im not paying for it to be fixed! my origional xbox rrod and could never be fixed! my 2nd i recently sold when i bought the new 360 'slim'

[andy_nic]

I’m on my 3rd Xbox 360, first died because of the power going on and off 3 times, sold the second to pay for an xbox360S because I wanted wireless and bigger HD was the cheaper option also saves a plug socket for the Kinect too.

[localzuk]

So I've gotta wait another 5 years before I buy an Xbox 360 then. Joy...

[Theblacksheep]

i wonder if anyones original PS3 or 360 will actually live seamlessly for 10years? my ps3 decided to stop working this weekend and is stuck on trying to install an update which it always fails! was working fine before... but its out of warrenty and im not paying for it to be fixed! my origional xbox rrod and could never be fixed! my 2nd i recently sold when i bought the new 360 'slim'

 

Have you tried recovery mode to reflash firmware? The other way is swapping the HDs out and letting it reformat. You've only got a software failure and most of the time you can recover these (you may lose lots).

 

PS3 = 4 years this month.

 

Has anyone got their first/second year 360 and is it still working?

I dont know anyone that has had less than 4 replacements!

 

 

 

PS4/XBOX3 will still be a bit off yet. MS will blink first imho.

[DAZZD88]

PS4/XBOX3 will still be a bit off yet. MS will blink first imho.

 

Agreed. I dare say they will also release an inferior games console but the console will survive due to the strength of its games. IMO that's what happened when the 360 was released. They clearly could have built a much better machine if they'd included wireless, free online gaming (I know it's notpartof the machine but so what), HD drives (I know they released HD-DVD drives for the 360 but they died off and then did nothing to replace them) etc... There were so many things Microsoft did wrong, which had they done right they'd have killed the PS3 off.

[Arthur]

So expect uber-large (1TB+) SSD hard drives to download your gaming content on to.

That's very optimistic don't you think? Even by 2014, SSDs will be nowhere near cheap enough to put a 1TB+ drive in a console that is expected to sell for less than £500. I know they initially make a loss on each console, but not that much of a loss.

 

But the biggest change will be no optical drive.

I reckon both of Microsoft's and Sony's next gen consoles will definitely have Blu-Ray drives. People aren't going to download 5-10GB+ games when ISPs in the UK have such ridiculously low bandwidth caps. For example, BT Internet give customers a "whopping 40GB" on thier £17.99 package, but that would quickly be used up after downloading several games.

[seanlaz]

You're a fool if you buy the Xbox720......wait for the Xbox1080p instead

 

 

 

I suspect Nintendo will be the next to bring something out, but I've absolutely no idea what it'll be. I wouldn't have seen the Wii's motion control coming, and it wouldn't surprise me if they bring in something else new to differentiate themselves.

 

Maybe those thought control helmets?

 

Are Nintendo considering a HD environment does anyone know? I remember when I had a Wii (context) I thought the max 540 output was no where near good enough coming from PS3/Xbox environment.

 

I suppose that would be an easy re-issue of the console.

[jamesb]

Are Nintendo considering a HD environment does anyone know? I remember when I had a Wii (context) I thought the max 540 output was no where near good enough coming from PS3/Xbox environment.

 

I suppose that would be an easy re-issue of the console.

 

It would be an easy one, but also a bit of a waste. Lets be honest - the Wii is never going to compete on graphics with either of the powerhouses, and very few people play the Wii for photorealistic graphics as they might other consoles. You'd also need to (probably) go back and rewrite the existing library of games to take advantage of any new graphics capabilities.

 

I'd be very surprised if they did a re-issue with shiny new graphics, and suspect they're much more likely to just bring out something new and different.

[GrumbleDook]

New console? erm ... still happily playing stuff on my original Playstation, the PS2 and the Wii ... WoW is on PC and Mac ... Do I really need anything else? Oh ... I could dig out the Gameboy I suppose?

 

Unless there is a killer game for a console I wouldn't change. For me it is WiiSports and WiiFit, or any of the old Final Fantasy stuff on PS/PS2.

[seanlaz]

It would be an easy one, but also a bit of a waste. Lets be honest - the Wii is never going to compete on graphics with either of the powerhouses, and very few people play the Wii for photorealistic graphics as they might other consoles. You'd also need to (probably) go back and rewrite the existing library of games to take advantage of any new graphics capabilities.

 

I'd be very surprised if they did a re-issue with shiny new graphics, and suspect they're much more likely to just bring out something new and different.

 

Agreed, maybe not a straight HD re-issue, but something along those lines which they could use the Redknapp's or the Wright's to convince us to buy a new one

 

Just did a Google and it seems like it's a route Nintendo were tentatively planning back in 2008; a WiiHD for a 2011 release strangely enough - doesn't seem to have been followed up though!

[seanlaz]

Oh ... I could dig out the Gameboy I suppose?

 

Gameboys...i always wanted one growing up...i then had the opportunity to get one around 92, but opted for an Atari Lynx () instead...wasnt the best choice i ever made.

[tmcd35]

That's very optimistic don't you think? Even by 2014, SSDs will be nowhere near cheap enough to put a 1TB+ drive in a console that is expected to sell for less than £500. I know they initially make a loss on each console, but not that much of a loss.

 

really? 5 years is a long time in IT. I'd be shocked if SSD technology doesn't improve, become better, faster, cheaper and a lot more common place in 4 years. Economics of scale and all that.

 

 

I reckon both of Microsoft's and Sony's next gen consoles will definitely have Blu-Ray drives. People aren't going to download 5-10GB+ games when ISPs in the UK have such ridiculously low bandwidth caps. For example, BT Internet give customers a "whopping 40GB" on thier £17.99 package, but that would quickly be used up after downloading several games.

 

I'm not so sure. Again 5years being an eternity in IT and all that. If they do have Optical Drives then they'd be the last generation that do, certainly be cheap enough to implement by then.

 

If you look at the existing online PS3 and XBox stores and look at services like Steam then downloading games is already a very real reality. Split games into levels and chapters and downloading a level to play at a time is one very easy solution. Also we are already seeing the introduction of services such as OnLive streaming games so I think, even if they do still have blu-ray, this will be the major push of the next gen.

 

 

I'm surprised you didn't call me out on the iOS9 on PS4 - now I thought that was far fetched

[Theblacksheep]

Agreed. I dare say they will also release an inferior games console but the console will survive due to the strength of its games. IMO that's what happened when the 360 was released. They clearly could have built a much better machine if they'd included wireless, free online gaming (I know it's notpartof the machine but so what), HD drives (I know they released HD-DVD drives for the 360 but they died off and then did nothing to replace them) etc... There were so many things Microsoft did wrong, which had they done right they'd have killed the PS3 off.

 

I don't think its a case of killing it off, the PS3 was always going to be big, simply with their brand exclusives that Sony own and doing a slightly better job on the hardware and large capacity optical drive. MS done very well to get where they are so fast and how far they stayed ahead.

 

The main trouble it has now is the DVD drive, big titles content is being cut back to fit on a disk (or few). The 'big' titles are only getting bigger in terms of scale of game (not always equal in length of single player mission). I think MS would rather create a new physical format than use bluray, not really wanted by the market moment. In the mean time Kinect will string it out while they improve the R&D to make it a major feature of the next system. This limit on content for 360 could play into Sonys hands a little, theres quite a few 'big' games next year and a GT game is only making its first showing on PS3. Shorten the cycle and MS can mark it as 'won'..... milk the live cashcow and risk not getting out before Sony, the very thing that got them where they are now.