Be Excellent To Each Other

That's known BS.

Yeah, apart from the cheap-ass bit of kit part...

Stick to your PC though!

As my TV is 1080p -- and likely to stay that way for a long time -- and as my eye can't see anything better than 1080p or 60Hz anyway, that'd be fine by me.

And once we're all using Gaikai/OnLive, it won't matter diddly anyway.

Sony and Microsoft clearly think it will.

Sony and Microsoft clearly think it will.

No, Sony and Microsoft clearly think there's a market for some stuff to be delivered that way; that's not the same thing as them thinking that everyone's going to switch over to that delivery method any time soon.

The quote was "Never have to buy new hardware again". That suggests they're anticipating the upcoming XBox being the last Xbox.

Microsoft's patent for a "Scalable Multimedia Computer System Architecture With QOS [Quality Of Service] Guarantees" describes a design for a game system that is capable of "allowing platform services to scale over time." Those "platform services" include pretty much everything the hardware does besides directly running games—everything from maintaining the basic operating system, handling network traffic, and interpreting inputs to potentially streaming content to nearby tablets or recording TV shows.

A standard console configuration might explicitly devote one entire CPU/GPU combo to handling those basic platform functions, while other processors are dedicated to the game-playing "application" functions. But Microsoft's patent describes a new "communication fabric" framework that would let the system allocate computing resources more flexibly between platform and application tasks concurrently, while also ensuring that the game-playing portion doesn't dip below a certain quality threshold. So the operating system would be able to use as much processing power as it wants, as long as it doesn't interfere with the performance of a game that's running at the same time.

That's important, because it would also let Microsoft design multiple hardware configurations of the same basic game system, all of which run the same games, but some of which allow for additional "platform" features that use the extra hardware power. The patent even hints at this kind of configuration diversity. While "lower cost embodiments" of the system might be forced to share a single GPU between the platform and application systems (theoretically limiting the power of the platform aspects), the patent suggests that subsequent versions of the hardware could provide "more platform services... due to hardware improvements." In other words, as computing standards increase, newer versions of the system would be equipped to provide additional functions, while still running games designed for earlier versions of the hardware.

Interesting. A PC, then.

I exaggerate obviously, but one of the selling points of a console over a PC is the 'buy any game and it'll just work' nature of the ecosystem. Having a scalable platform would have it's own benefits obviously but MaliA might not give a fuck about all that when he's in a shop just trying to work out whether he can even play Manshooter XIV or not.

This is going to cause confusion further down the line...

"How do I know if I can play this game?"
"Well, you need to have at least a mark IV Xbox 720."
"How do I know if I've got one of those?"
"If your console is silver with with square bits on the front or is beige but game with pink controllers then you're probably alright. There was a special version of the mark II though that was silver with pink controllers and rectangular bits on the front though so if you've got that then you're fucked."
"Well, that's nice and clear."

I exaggerate obviously, but one of the selling points of a console over a PC is the 'buy any game and it'll just work' nature of the ecosystem. Having a scalable platform would have it's own benefits obviously but your man-in-the-street might not give a fuck about all that when he's in a shop just trying to work out whether he can even play Manshooter XIV or not.

I actually read that article.

multiple hardware configurations of the same basic game system, all of which run the same games, but some of which allow for additional "platform" features

unlike the 360, which stops downloads if you're running a game

Seriously, which part of
are people having trouble understanding?

Incorrect. It stops downloads if you're playing online - if you're in single player it'll continue to download in the background.

I read that article differently. I understood it to say that Manshooter XIV will run on every XBox 720, but depending on what hardware version you've got, the device might be able to, for example, download other games in the background (unlike the 360, which stops downloads if you're running a game). So the games experience would be consistent, but the 'ancillary OS tasks' that can run at the same time might vary.

Multiple hardware configurations: Do I have A,B and C, or A,C and D? Which one have I bought? Do all games un the same? Ambiguity on "platform features". Does this mean better graphics, sounds, bigger levels in the games it runs?

FeeX.

All of these details so far make me wary of getting one. If it requires an always on internet, it won't work on my boat, and if there are several versions, then it's pointless getting one on day one as it'll be superceded by others 12 months later and I'll end up being cunted like I ma on the PC as I won't spend £1k a year buying stuff to play the latest games. I'll have to get some friends and play board games in a cottage one weekend a year or something

The article was all about the idea of separating the games from the platform features. So the games experience is consistent, the platform features are not. Platform features are not the games. Platform features probably extends to certain things that run on top of games, eg parties and voice chat.

multiple hardware configurations of the same basic game system, all of which run the same games, but some of which allow for additional "platform" features