Next Gen Announcement coming?

[sin2beta]

sin2beta touches on something interesting, which is that in becoming so similar to low-end PCs, I wonder if consoles are losing some of what makes them unique and justifies their purpose. Previous consoles have all had components that made them stand out in some way, like custom sound chips, or RISC-based processors designed by MIPS, Hitachi, and IBM, but now it's mainly shifted toward AMD, Direct X, and... basically stuff I can order from Newegg.

This has no impact on users, and probably makes development a lot easier, but something about that kind of homogeneity bothers me a little.

It's been that way since the first XBox. It was one of that systems main criticisms at its launch. Gone are the days of scaled down arcade parts. And long gone are the beautiful simple circuitry of the 2600/ColecoVision/Intellivision era. The XBox strategy just makes the most sense financially, developmentally, and as an end-user.

Personally, I thought the PS3 and 360 were essentially the same system. It just comes down to what controller or online service you like more. Most games were available on PC as well. This next gen should not be different. If you hook a PC to your TV with steam, you will get about the same experience as a PS4 or 720 user.

Sega's farewell song "Sega GaGa" touches on this a little bit with the rise of the "Drone Corporation". Prophetic?

Despite all the hate that the "gimmicky" aspects of Nintendo uses, Nintendo is the last company to keep its console feel, in my opinion at least. This is due to the hardware influencing the game so much. It's quite beautiful in its implementation if I say so.

[insektmute]

It's been that way since the first XBox. It was one of that systems main criticisms at its launch. Gone are the days of scaled down arcade parts. And long gone are the beautiful simple circuitry of the 2600/ColecoVision/Intellivision era. The XBox strategy just makes the most sense financially, developmentally, and as an end-user.

Personally, I thought the PS3 and 360 were essentially the same system. It just comes down to what controller or online service you like more. Most games were available on PC as well. This next gen should not be different. If you hook a PC to your TV with steam, you will get about the same experience as a PS4 or 720 user.

Sega's farewell song "Sega GaGa" touches on this a little bit with the rise of the "Drone Corporation". Prophetic?

Despite all the hate that the "gimmicky" aspects of Nintendo uses, Nintendo is the last company to keep its console feel, in my opinion at least. This is due to the hardware influencing the game so much. It's quite beautiful in its implementation if I say so.

Trufax. I agree that it makes the most sense to everyone involved, but out of nostalgia or just liking hardware with personality, it's unfortunate all the same. I remember when I was a kid and reading about the N64 in Nintendo Power, and being just totally captivated by an article describing some of the SGI elements used, and how developers were building games using these (for the time) really state-of-the-art workstations. Just feels like a little of that magic is lost, even though I'm generally the sort of person that loves digging into computer hardware.

Who knows, maybe companies like EA will eventually get their "one console to rule them all" dream to come true?

I don't entirely agree on Nintendo, but I do think they've done a really good job of maintaining a sense of consistency and identity over the years, particularly with their handhelds. I do have to give some credit on the 3DS, though - I was pretty pessimistic about the 3D effect beforehand, but now that I have one (arrived last night!), I'm actually really impressed! Time will tell if I leave it on all the time, but it's still really cool

[sin2beta]

I'm hearing April 26th for Microsoft.

[htimreimer]

this guy brings up some good points about the video game industry, take a look