Be Excellent To Each Other

So after a discussion with Bamba in the Skyrim thread, I thought it might be an idea to create a separate one to talk about all of the super exciting stuff that may or may not be happening over the next couple of years in vidyergames.

What are we expecting from the next generation of consoles? When are they going to arrive? Who's ready for them? Could you happily carry on for another five years of Xbox 360/PS3?

As I was saying in the Skyrim thread, I'm 100% ready for a new Xbox. It seems most of the games are sequels now and are pretty much treading over old ground. Whilst I do think we've had some great games this year (including some of the sequels), I think it's definitely about time a new console came out and the cycle was reset.

I'm expecting the new Xbox in Winter 2012/early 2013 with an announcement at the next E3. Sony won't let them get the same head start again and will release soon after. WiiU? I'm still unconvinced. Need to see more. I'll be getting the new Xbox on launch day provided it's fully backwards compatible. I also think that MS have been sitting on a new Xbox that is more or less "ready to go" for a while, and the only reason it hasn't surfaced yet is because of the lack of solid info on the WiiU, nothing from Sony and Kinect's unprecedented popularity. They're sitting on a next-gen console right now and as time passes, manufacturing costs are tumbling, which I think might be reflected in a relatively reasonable launch price for the console.

The system will launch with the new dashboard (that we should've got today), and all of the features it provides. It'll be essentially identical interface-wise to the 360, just with more power and hard drive space. I'd be surprised if they even bother to change the controller.

Dependent on what Sony come up with and more details on WiiU, MS might make some increases to the system's grunt as necessary, but I genuinely think they've had the finished article ready for about a year, possibly with the initial intention of trumping everyone and releasing around about now. That's my crazy theory any way...

I think any new console gives the publishers the excuse to go over that old ground once again, just with more shiny bits. Nintendo are the worst offenders for this by basically releasing some of their old games with very few additions, but you'll still see lots of sequels and rehashes. I'd be quite happy with the no new consoles for a good while to come yet, but I'm rather falling out of love with gaming.

I'ld like it to be a while. As soon as a new console is released then we have to sit through a good year or so of identical-game-but-prettier. Like you say identikit game sequels are starting to grate. This is the part of a games consoles life when the real innovation happens. Skyward Sword, Dark Souls, Bastion arr rxamples that spring to mind. Fresh(er) ideas.

That said I don't think Sony can afford a new console yet, and I think the WiiU will max out around the Ps3 level, so I think Microsoft will wait a few years, it's to suck out extra profit.

Well yeah. Point is, I'd much rather have more powerful hardware running more impressive things in the next Assassin's Creed game than another re-skin of Assassin's Creed II in a new city. Plus, you always get new IP with new consoles. It's the best time to stake your claim in that generation. Epic are dropping Gears and will be coming up with something new, for example. Although as I understand it, Gears will continue as a Microsoft-developed thing like Halo.

this spawns excitedness...

http://www.t3.com/features/xbox-720-rumours-how-will-the-new-xbox-look

but at the same time im not sure I want to be pushed into next gen yet. I mean, when it comes out I will have to get it, no question but I dont really want it yet. I guess I dont want to move on without having extracted everything 360 has to offer in all its fullness. If a new console came out tomorrow and i got it, well for me it would be like playing through an elder scrolls game but not doing any of the side missions so Microsoft, please let me enjoy 360 for a while longer, while everyone else still has one!

I'm not so sure about this being the innovation stage. I think we've had that. People are forgetting that this has been the longest "current" generation ever. The 360 came out in 2005. Admittedly the previous generation was technically six years as well because the Dreamcast released so early, but this one is heading into its seventh year without any sort of announcement about the next yet. Trilogies have been rounded off. Sure, a few great games will continue to make it through the net, but like I say, I honestly think we've passed the really fruitful stage of this generation. Developers are surely switching their attentions to the next generation at this point. The current hardware is seriously dated. Even Dark Souls could've done with being on new hardware. It chugs along in Blighttown!

I'd also argue that proper innovation has happened throughout this generation thanks to XBLA. I'm not so worried about there being a "shit period" for the first year or so of next-gen whilst the current consoles get some truly innovative stuff. The next generation is going to be more like upgrading your PC rather than the huge leap from PS2/Xbox to PS3/360, and as such I don't think developers are going to struggle as much during that first year to deliver an experience on par with the best of what is available on current-gen.

What's HDTV adoption like now? I think that's what's lengthing the generation out. It's like I got a new console this year when we finally got one. I suspect it is still far lower than one would think.

No idea, only personal experience and speculation. It's nothing for them to shot a SCART adaptor in the box, though. But you can't buy a TV that isn't "HD" these days, and the bottom rung is seriously cheap. Most people who give a shit will have one by now I'd imagine.

I've already got the Onlive console, cheers.

*Looks at pile of games I've barely touched*

Couple of year's time will do me. Skint anyway. Fuck the Wii-U and bollocks to Sony. TBH 18 months till the next XBox and I'll be quite pleased.

I have tried this on my PC and the lag was really noticeable, I think it was FEAR I tried and it was unpleasant at best but fairly unplayable most of the time. I don't know why that was, but I'm not convinced by it as yet. Seeing a TV programme on the iPlayer suddenly stop and start buffering is maddening enough but to see all my games start breaking up before my eyes if some sort of transient network issues crop up would be horrible. I dunno, perhaps when we get a fibre connection it'll work ok, I think this is currently planned for late July twenty never.

Indeed, I've found OnLive to be far from ready. And my connection is supposed to be above average, apparently.

On a similar note, I expect that the next gen will arrive around the time we get super fast broadband for the majority of the population.

I'm sure MS have got their target boxes sorted out by now and are well into engineering the devkits and retail boxes, but there's no way they'll rush it out this time around.

Plus, whatever the plans might have been, I reckon we'll not see a new console launched until the Thai flooding is a memory, especially with the push - particularly from MS (and probably from the publishers/developers now) - towards digital delivery, which will need bigger hard disks and faster, less limited broadband. They can't announce the hard drive specs or the price until the industry is back to normal.

One of the big questions will be: primarily disc-based game distribution, primarily download, or a hybrid? I suspect it'll be the latter. There's not enough fast broadband world-wide to move away from discs entirely yet.

Mayhaps they're waiting to see what comes of HP's recent memristor promises for next year, too - if it works like they say the competition in solid state storage is going to be fierce.

I expect hybrid, but I would very much hope that the option for getting everything digitally is in there. And that the pricing is sensible.

Or have the steam-type thing of being able to put a physical disk in, install it, then never need the disk again.

Here's hoping for an internal disk in the Terabyte range, eh?

They're going to be plastic with some lights, quite expensive and with poor titles at first.

I don't think we're at the stage where they're waiting for fast broadband to happen. It's going to be identical to this gen distribution-wise, only with bigger hard drives and Blu Ray disks.

I wonder if there will be some fantastic next gen faceplates available. That would be sick.

The trouble with their current Download offerings is that they start pretty much at list price and then only gradually drop. I'd happily buy some games that way at the right price but there's no way I'd want to see the back of physical purchases any time soon.

As for the consoles themselves, I don't think they are going to be all that different from what we currently have, just a more powerful version. The hardware will be beefy enough to do 1080p @ 60hz but there's no incentive to go beyond that (unlike PCs) as the target audience will mostly be using TVs for display so costs can be kept down (or profits up). The controllers won't change much at all and there will be "waggle" options available from day 1.

I'm not sure I'll be a day one purchaser or not as the software for the first 12 months is often pretty unremarkable. That said I have more disposable income than I did in 2005 so I'll be more easily swayed.

I'm not sure how it'll go really. I buy about 80% of my games pretty much on a rental basis, i.e. intending to trade them back in again. I assume that whatever they do they'll be looking to reduce the second hand market. Hopefully they'll offer rentals as I have no more need or desire to permanently own most games than I do films I watch.

Note that I said "world-wide". They're not building a console exclusively for the wealthy wired-up nations where decent broadband is plentiful. Even in Britain, there's plenty of folks on capped ADSL who would find 20 GB+ downloads hard work.

No, I mean, I don't think they're bothered about people having fast broadband yet because it'll still be disk based primarily. Waiting for a broadband revolution isn't going to hold back this release, I meant! Maybe the generation after the next but not this one.

The suggestion was that MS and co were holding back next gen until everyone has super fast broadband. I don't think they care because distribution will still be disk based primarily.

I think its unlikely that a global luanch of a new console would be specifically tied to the quality of UK Broadband connections.

We need a spherical console.

The spherical console is the controller.

...and possibly the table.

It'd be great for bowling games.

Official: The next gen consoles will be the table.

That'll be great for board games.

That's not really the point though, is it*? I honestly believe the little box under my TV represents the future of gaming, and, until the HDMI lead goes out of date, it's pretty much future-proof. You're all going on about whether games will come as downloads or on physical media, and when you don't actually have to have them in your house in any form at all.
It's not perfect - it's not even close to being perfect - but that doesn't make a blind bit of difference - it's a new generation of gaming console.

[edit]* Please read this in a questioning manner, and not in the "all up in your face" manner that it can also be taken as. Ta!

Grim... -- you're right, but I don't think OnLive is setting the world on fire, sales-wise. A least yet. I'm not convinced it'll have a great impact on the next generation of consoles.

I think Grim...'s point isn't that the next generation of 360/PS3 etc will be like an OnLive console, it's that OnLive already is a next generation console.

One that looks like the previous generation of consoles.

It's way smaller, actually.

I was being a bit facetious, but I meant graphics-wise.

MS have already made the vast majority of their desktop software downloadable - the days of a filing cabinet full of MSDN/Select CDs and DVDs are long gone. I would imagine the scaling up of that infrastructure wouldn't be all that big a job. Steam is showing downloads can be done (not sure what the numbers are in comparison to consoles).

Discs won't go in the next gen, but I definitely think that distribution will be primarily broadband. Add a couple of days early release on XBLA Gold and it could pay for itself.

I know

I'll wager it'll be a more gradual shift than that. I still don't see the download prices being realistic compared to the street prices (perhaps for new games but not those which drop in the few weeks after release), Microsoft will need to keep retailers happy for a good while yet.

It is, but my point is it isn't the next gen -- it's at best an early preview of the generation after that.

I think the only way you'll sort this out is to quibble for a few pages over the semantics of what is meant by a generation of consoles and when exactly each generation is deemed to have started.

We need a Generation Game.

I'd trust the guy that owns them all.

I like your style.

/gets timelinin'

You also own Jesus cables.

Truly Next Gen cables.

And I'd suggest you start here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games which has us in the late 7th Generation / starting of the 8th Generation for consoles (but sidesteps a lot of the arguments by having computers as something totally different and lumps them pretty much all together - oh and Chinny would be outraged that Amstrad is only mentioned twice on the whole page)

I bought some iPod headphones last night for £35. They're not very good, are they?