what will the next gen systems be like?

Thrakk

Eventually when the world is ready for next gen systems like a PS4, what sort of specs or innovation do you predict for the next playstation, microsoft and nintendo consoles?

Rockgod99

Now that all of these consoles are pushing for 3d and motion control we wont see another next gen console for around 5-10 years.

Who knows what kind of tech we will have by then.

StarlightJun

I wish they can make something that reads my mind so I can be really lazy when i am playing! JK

HYPERI0N

I forsee the following next gen names.

 

Xii

Pii

And the Wii 2

 

From some rumours the next wii wil have high def graphics with a innovative motion controll system involving a wiimote and numchuck.

Its pretty funny seeing the competators of the Wii doing such a u-turn in design policy. i.e. the Wii mottion idea is a "gimmick" and will fast losec its appeal.

Shinami

From what I know of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft's camp.

 

This Generation has been one of experimentation. Consoles are more PC like, but not full PCs today. The last generation was really a horrible one for consoles from a technological standpoint. Many changes occured between 2002 - 2003 overall which pretty much displaced and sealed the fate of the previous generation in big ways. The current generation I view it as testing the waters and trying to make a transition.

 

Consoles are becoming more PC-Like, but Console Gaming used to have some minimalist flavors out there...It used to be you could make a 640x480 or 320x240 game stretched and you were fine. Today, everything is HD and technology has been improved to great detail. Consoles are at a point they will have to adapt and absorb PC-Like technology in order to advance into better games. Consoles have reached a deadly limitation and now their budgets for making games have to scale as high as highest end PC game development out there.

 

The next generation consoles I believe that while they will be a lot stronger, they will exist in a world much more suited to them. More stability to reach a point of being able to just develop for them and have a much better title selection as well. This will come from specifications but programs designed to make gaming development less of  a hassle. Below is my list for consoles as generalization with what I know in computers and technology.

 

1) Video Cards/Video Processors:

 

Definately Physics Engines are becoming more and more powerful, but they are a drain on resources too. Anything to optimize use of  physics engine and integrated saves a lot. Statistically today, A video cards that does not have a Physics Engine Supported as part of technology forces a CPU and GPU to be a LOT Stronger to process the game without it and causes performance hits. I am seeing more integration, but discreet solutions would be well and a mid-life system update would be good...Like right now the current console generation just needs more powerful video processing to be good, but that would introduce thermal problems.

 

2) CPUs

 

Processing Performance does not equal speed. ALU and FPU performance is what is important. The more calculations and optimizations to make calculation easier, the faster with the least wear on the processor a task can be accomplished. The CELL technology in the PS3 has the drawback that is a very old generation and CELL itself relies more on bruteforcing. See, the instruction set makes the determination of things...Cell itself has the drawback that one can never load everything to full and measure the result accurately..I find that it is better to rely more on something with efficiency instead of having to run so much in parallel. The reason Cell fails on consoles is because the applications are not heavily multithreaded, and without this level of threading, it doesn't matter how many CELL cores one has, the program wont be evenly distributed. Amdhal's Law states the part of a program that is sped up by multiple processors is the section of the program written to be ran in parallel..We have problems writing programs for 4 cores, what makes people think we can optimize writing a program for a Playstation 3 that would efficiently use their total Cell? Bad idea, extremely expensive, companies have to make them more efficient.

 

3) Backwards Compatability and phasing problems.

 

The major problem in console gaming is backwards compatability and phasing. Usually a console game gets phased out and it becomes nearly unavailable...However the opposite happens..It gets phased out, along with backwards compatability and then in order to play them again you need to buy the old console or pay money through some online site to download games to play on console. Japanese are masters of getting people to pay more and more money for the same game.  Its true that PC gaming can have its problems but the reason people REMEMBER CONSOLE GAMES is because so many console emulators exist and with each new Windows OS, a new compatability layer is added. Yesterday on Windows 7 I played a game from Windows 95 set to Win95 Compatability Mode....Its a shame that backwards compatability is destroyed in consoles when people do not want to have to keep so many consoles plugged in just to play that one game. When people speak of OLD CONSOLE GAMES these days..They are being EMULATED on PC...which is why they no longer are console games...Because you cant find them on Console anymore and PC is the only remaining source to play them (unless your 10+ year old console exists)

 

4) Interface:

 

A stronger support for HDMI, Networking and other things is important...I am sure the next generation console will iron out things. Right now consoles were just testing interfaces and making things compatible. Not every single HDTV works on a Console. Not every single HDD works with a console either. It is frustrating. The same problems PC had with DLL HELL many years ago in PC world is what consoles are having. I've walked through walmart and heard of people rain their problems on how a certain device doesnt work on a console advertised to do so. I am sure next generation that will be fixed.

 

5) Cost and Quality

 

They need to release a product that works. Don't charge $600+ on launch day for a console when people will have to spend money on a decent game and extra controllers along with taxes to bring the total cost to around $800 - $900. I can build a PC for $900 that would take me far. To teach consoles a lesson, I did that and thanks to that I have not had to spend a DIME on current generation consoles. So many people jumped into PC gaming when they saw how Consoles had a higher FAILURE RATE this generation around than PCs did, specially with SONY DOWNGRADING their Playstation 3 functionality and calling things an update...or 360s with their failure rate..

 

Finally, I would love to be able to play everything off a harddrive or SSD instead of dealing with CDs and DVDs. Its annoying. An SNES had a 3.58mhz processor. a PS2 had a 300mhz processor. Playing a game like FF4 when it was rereleased for Playstation....actually played SLOWER!!!! on a PS2. Why? Because it was being ran from the CD while all SNES games were cartridged based games that had a dedicated board and once connected to a board from the top...it was HARDWARE connected to HARDWARE as an ADD-IN card that used the full system BUS. A proof that processor speed means NOTHING if bottlenecks are everywhere. PS3 screwed itself by reading of Blu-RAY which is slow as hell that they had to COPY the same information to certain section of the disk to actually read it faster. The next generation has to do away with such bottlenecks and if it did, they would truly be on a higher scale than PCs as right now the slowest thing on a PC is still the Hard Drive and now your monitor.

Unknown

Nintendo has leaked info about it's new system on the drawing board, the Wiivangelion. It seems neat, the controller is actually a small cylinder that you sit inside called a 'plug,' although I'm not sure I'm comfortable stripping down to my underwear to be suspended in the liquid inside it (early testers claim it tastes like blood). The control system is flawless, though. Once you get used to the electrodes on your head and the little control levers you barely even miss gamepads. Two-player is still flawed, the system just can't handle the thought waves of two people at once, least of all if one thinks in Japanese and the other thinks in German. Overall, I think it's well worth risking the potential annihilation of mankind to use this kind of technology.

Swafdawg23

i pray its not all 3d and motion controls.. i like playing games how they are now