Next Gen Announcement coming?

[scott]

That's an interesting read for sure. And I can admit to doing something along those lines when I was doing game news. Its part of the reason I stopped doing it. Even going off of press sites and info straight from legit press releases it seemed hard to make sure everything you were writing about was 100% correct.

Eventually the amount of time and effort needed to make sure everything was legit, it got to be too much for me. So now I leave the news to the big boys. But from working on that kinda stuff, its made me slightly skeptical of what I read now a days.

[insektmute]

Also, do you really think Sony and MS are dumb enough to limit their customer base to Western Europe, the US, and several parts of Asia where consistently speedy internet is readily available to the majority of consumers? Can you imagine downloading a 20GB file on anything slower than a T1? Shit, God of War 3 is 60gb and MGS4 is 33.2. I would assume we'll see bigger games in the future. This is all hype and has very little merit. It's called common sense.

Generally speaking, I agree with everything you said 1000%. Our online infrastructure in NA is a joke right now, and I'm not sure any EU or Asian countries would necessarily fare drastically better... my *only* concern is if Sony or MS adopt a stream-as-you-download concept, which I believe Sony's acquisition of Gaikai is intended to accomplish. This might affect playability, but enough to stop them from trying? I'm not certain on that.

More realistically though, it'll probably be physical media but with stream-as-you-download support for digital releases, or something similar. Guess we'll see :p

[darko]

Our online infrastructure in NA is a joke right now, and I'm not sure any EU or Asian countries would necessarily fare drastically better... my *only* concern is if Sony or MS adopt a stream-as-you-download concept, which I believe Sony's acquisition of Gaikai is intended to accomplish.

I kind of think that's something they're looking at doing, but I can't see it happening for entire games yet. Maybe some PSN or XBL stuff, smaller Indie games, etc. Even at that, what happens when you've been downloading a 60gb file for a couple of hours and your internet hiccups? Do you lose everything? We also haven't even brought up potential issues with the games actually installing correctly, etc, etc, etc (a lot of people had issues installing Ni No Kuni, for example).

[sin2beta]

Our online infrastructure in NA is a joke right now, and I'm not sure any EU or Asian countries would necessarily fare drastically better... my *only* concern is if Sony or MS adopt a stream-as-you-download concept, which I believe Sony's acquisition of Gaikai is intended to accomplish.

I kind of think that's something they're looking at doing, but I can't see it happening for entire games yet. Maybe some PSN or XBL stuff, smaller Indie games, etc. Even at that, what happens when you've been downloading a 60gb file for a couple of hours and your internet hiccups? Do you lose everything? We also haven't even brought up potential issues with the games actually installing correctly, etc, etc, etc (a lot of people had issues installing Ni No Kuni, for example).

That is my thinking on why we will not see these drastic changes next gen. There are just too many things that don't work well enough now. There are too many attempts that have gone wrong. Same with no used game support. They won't do a massive changeover to this. There are too many unknowns on the console side. Just consider if there was a no preowned game rule on RROD XBoxes or YLOD PS3 systems last gen. It would have been a nightmare. The companies are not ready for this to be mandated.

Now they might provide a system application to do this for developers and allow them to choose. I thin some want it (EA does this with their origin service) and some will use it (or at least try). But I do not think it will be adopted by many. And this is even if microsoft or sony does this.

[insektmute]

I kind of think that's something they're looking at doing, but I can't see it happening for entire games yet. Maybe some PSN or XBL stuff, smaller Indie games, etc. Even at that, what happens when you've been downloading a 60gb file for a couple of hours and your internet hiccups? Do you lose everything? We also haven't even brought up potential issues with the games actually installing correctly, etc, etc, etc (a lot of people had issues installing Ni No Kuni, for example).

That seems the most likely option right now. As for the hiccup aspect though, most online connections are capable of resuming downloads from where you've left off, though it's also possible it could work like a torrent, where they have x number of seeds running from Sony/MS/whatever, and all concurrent downloads balance their bandwidth between peer/seed roles. Still, it's all speculative, and definitely not a practical consideration for larger games.

It's especially damning when you consider that PSN and XBLA both still hiccup regularly just handling relatively light network traffic in games, even several years after their creation. I really don't see either company capably putting together the kind of massive infrastructure needed to support literally millions of simultaneous 50GB+ connections 24/7.

[sin2beta]

LawnboysPost1975 posted an interesting take on this. I think it is worth a watch and a thought.

[desocietas]

http://kotaku.com/5985356/source-the-ps4-will-be-out-this-november-and-youll-be-able-to-control-it-with-your-phone

Guess we'll see what they say tomorrow...

[sin2beta]

Should we make predictions on what happens tomorrow.

Actual prediction - I'm betting PS4 becomes official with a tentative date. November. It's always November. MSRP - 500 USD (I don't think this will be announced though) No other info. Wait until E3. But give something for the investors to be happy about.

Fearful Prediction - Vita is now available in white.

[burningdoom]

Considering the economy and competition from cheaper alternatives like Smart Phones and Ouya, it seems $500 would be a VERY high asking price.

[scott]

Considering the economy and competition from cheaper alternatives like Smart Phones and Ouya, it seems $500 would be a VERY high asking price.

$500 was a very high asking price back when the PS3 launched too, ha.

[burningdoom]

Considering the economy and competition from cheaper alternatives like Smart Phones and Ouya, it seems $500 would be a VERY high asking price.

$500 was a very high asking price back when the PS3 launched too, ha.

Agreed. But the cheaper and easier option of mobile gaming wasn't nearly as popular and competitive as it is this time around.

[sin2beta]

Considering the economy and competition from cheaper alternatives like Smart Phones and Ouya, it seems $500 would be a VERY high asking price.

I agree it is very high. But it is Sony and the current PS3 is not that much cheaper. You are looking at just shy of 300 dollars for a PS3. And this is in the PS3's twilight years. Considering this, even 400 seems too low for me.

Hopefully it won't be 500, but I bet it will be.

[insektmute]

Considering the economy and competition from cheaper alternatives like Smart Phones and Ouya, it seems $500 would be a VERY high asking price.

I keep seeing this kind of argument from different circles, but I still firmly believe that the market for gaming on phones and tablets is completely different than the market for dedicated consoles. It's like the hardcore vs. casual debate - the Wii sold primarily to a casual audience, but they didn't come through and buy enough games to satisfy third-parties. By contrast, the PS3 and 360 attracted millions of hardcore gamers, but failed to capture a casual audience. Different prices, different goals, different audiences. Personally, I've yet to meet a single gamer who takes smartphone and tablet games seriously - the closest example I can think of is a guy I know who bought one of the Final Fantasy games for his phone to kill time at work.

As for Ouya, people keep trying to talk it up, but it's still a flash in the pan product held up only by what people want it to become, not what it actually is, which is a casual gaming wasteland that offers nothing to a hardcore audience that's more interested in games than empty rhetoric.

The only thing Sony has to do is offer compelling hardware at a price that people can swallow (and $400-500 really isn't too bad, considering a PS3 is $250-300), and not break too strongly from the things that people like(d) about PlayStation so far. Whether they accomplish that is up in the air for now, but they're playing on a different field than Ouya, Android, and iOS.

[htimreimer]

Considering the economy and competition from cheaper alternatives like Smart Phones and Ouya, it seems $500 would be a VERY high asking price.

I keep seeing this kind of argument from different circles, but I still firmly believe that the market for gaming on phones and tablets is completely different than the market for dedicated consoles. It's like the hardcore vs. casual debate - the Wii sold primarily to a casual audience, but they didn't come through and buy enough games to satisfy third-parties. By contrast, the PS3 and 360 attracted millions of hardcore gamers, but failed to capture a casual audience. Different prices, different goals, different audiences. Personally, I've yet to meet a single gamer who takes smartphone and tablet games seriously - the closest example I can think of is a guy I know who bought one of the Final Fantasy games for his phone to kill time at work.

As for Ouya, people keep trying to talk it up, but it's still a flash in the pan product held up only by what people want it to become, not what it actually is, which is a casual gaming wasteland that offers nothing to a hardcore audience that's more interested in games than empty rhetoric.

The only thing Sony has to do is offer compelling hardware at a price that people can swallow (and $400-500 really isn't too bad, considering a PS3 is $250-300), and not break too strongly from the things that people like(d) about PlayStation so far. Whether they accomplish that is up in the air for now, but they're playing on a different field than Ouya, Android, and iOS.

finally, someone i can agree with, someone thats not telling me that smartphone and tablet gaming are killing the dedicated consoles market and how the ouya is gonna reform the consoles market

think you insektmute

[disgaeniac]

Considering the economy and competition from cheaper alternatives like Smart Phones and Ouya, it seems $500 would be a VERY high asking price.

I keep seeing this kind of argument from different circles, but I still firmly believe that the market for gaming on phones and tablets is completely different than the market for dedicated consoles. It's like the hardcore vs. casual debate - the Wii sold primarily to a casual audience, but they didn't come through and buy enough games to satisfy third-parties. By contrast, the PS3 and 360 attracted millions of hardcore gamers, but failed to capture a casual audience. Different prices, different goals, different audiences. Personally, I've yet to meet a single gamer who takes smartphone and tablet games seriously - the closest example I can think of is a guy I know who bought one of the Final Fantasy games for his phone to kill time at work.

As for Ouya, people keep trying to talk it up, but it's still a flash in the pan product held up only by what people want it to become, not what it actually is, which is a casual gaming wasteland that offers nothing to a hardcore audience that's more interested in games than empty rhetoric.

The only thing Sony has to do is offer compelling hardware at a price that people can swallow (and $400-500 really isn't too bad, considering a PS3 is $250-300), and not break too strongly from the things that people like(d) about PlayStation so far. Whether they accomplish that is up in the air for now, but they're playing on a different field than Ouya, Android, and iOS.

finally, someone i can agree with, someone thats not telling me that smartphone and tablet gaming are killing the dedicated consoles market and how the ouya is gonna reform the consoles market

think you insektmute

I also agree  w/ the 2 of you 100% on this