Hey, Remember When Power Was The #1 Concern For New Consoles?
See Full Image"8-bit? Really? Isn't the Atari only 2? Wow." "What...16-bit? Double what we have now?! No way! Seriously?"
Yes, and pretty much all the way up until this generation: Power was the most-discussed feature of any new video game console. But as systems have become more and more like PCs and the digital age has expanded in a frightening attempt to strangle us in our sleep with a diabolical combination of apps and Facebook photos, power suddenly seems to be secondary.
The latest rash of PS4-related rumors - which analyst Michael Pachter has already denounced, saying Kotaku's source was "a monkey" - has involved a great many items for general gamer discussion. Now, that did include a look at the console's potential power but that hardly dominated the aforementioned discussion; no, most arguments involved the lack of backwards compatibility and the idea that the PS4 wouldn't play used games. And that's only the tip of the iceberg, of course; the console is bound to be awfully diverse, even more so than the PS3...which is, in and of itself, pretty darn close to a PC already.
Things have gotten complicated, haven't they? On the one hand, it's good that the next generation of console fanboy arguments won't necessarily be focused on power and graphics. After all, that's been getting old for a while. On the other hand, it's interesting to see how features have become a primary concern for most any electronic gadget, simply due to that gadget's versatility. Backwards compatibility? Hell, nobody in my class expected the Super Nintendo to play Nintendo cartridges. That'd be just...silly. And the $60 we paid then - which of course is what we pay now, although everyone wants to gloss over that fact - wasn't easy to deal with.
Granted, the power of the new consoles will come more into the spotlight when we start reading about the detailed specs, and when new games are shown. That's inevitable. But maybe for the first time in the industry's history, consumers won't put power or hardware potential or even the games themselves at the top of their priority lists. If these machines really are PCs for our living rooms, there will be a lot more to consider...the only thing that bothers me is that it tends to override the games themselves, the very reason we got into this hobby in the first place.
I'm dreading the day I hear- "Oh, I don't care what games are coming out for it, the machine can do this." You know, like it's the iPad 7 or something.
Tags: ps4, playstation 4, new playstation, game consoles
3/30/2012 10:41:38 AM Ben Dutka
Put this on your webpage or blog:
Email this to a friend
Follow PSX Extreme on Twitter
Comments (41 posts)
Highlander
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 11:40:11 AM
1 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 3:48:05 PM
2 up, 0 down
Highlander
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 3:53:20 PM
Last edited by Highlander on 3/30/2012 3:57:09 PM
0 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 4:15:02 PM
I think MS's whole drive to unify tablets, phones, xbox, and PC's with KINECT shoved down your throat will be a nightmare for them. It's hard enough for them keeping Windows functional(oxymoron) across many different manufactures, I cant imagine what sort of headaches are instore for them by creating a one size fits all OS for near every electronic device. If they had more control over the hardware on the market I suspect something like that could be possible.
I run VMware virtualization on my PC as it is while surfing the net. I feel safer using a linux-distro like Ubuntu.
2 up, 1 down
Beamboom
Saturday, March 31, 2012 @ 3:46:04 AM
But why use a VM to surf the net?
Last edited by Beamboom on 3/31/2012 3:48:28 AM
0 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 1:42:40 PM
My family uses a Mac Mini with OSX
Last edited by Temjin001 on 4/1/2012 1:44:56 PM
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 11:38:02 AM
Reply
I think that going into the next generation of hardware the concerns will be things such as;
Real 1080p60 for all games
1080p in 3D
Online play
Media Streaming
Security (transactions)
Consumers are *not* about to throw down 1000s more on a new raft of hideously expensive super-HD screens, 1080p is barely making it into broadcast yet, and games are scraping the 720p resolution and rarely exceeding it.
1080p60 and 1080p 3D are the sweetspot for home video quality. there is an analysis of viewing distance and screen resolution that makes a pretty convincing case for 1080p being the maximum effective resolution in the home video sphere.
In any event, I don't believe that we will see a new wave of super HD screens while the world is still trying to get to grips with 1080p.
We know that an all digital future can't happen yet. The infrastructure might exist to support such a thing in select metro areas and countries, but it's not ubiquitous. So all digital simply isn't going to fly.
So we come back to the targets. 1080p resolution at 60 fps and 1080p resolution in full 3D. Even if the hardware in the next consoles is theoretically capable of rendering at higher than 1080p resolutions, the presentation to gamers will be in 1080p60. Expect all that extra power in the GPU to be used for filtering and anti-aliasing to improve the final image.
I expect that the CPUs in the next systems will continue to add cores because multi-processing is the way forward. more threads, more cores, more work done in parallel. Developers should have taken note with the PS2 and PS3, the number of cores increases, the ability to perform certain kinds of computation in parallel is a huge advantage. It's not by coincidence that parallel processing is what makes a super-computer super. Game designers that complained about trying to work in parallel on today's hardware will have to get with the program, because as ever more detailed environments and models are created, there will be far, far more need for parallel processing in games to handle the physics. GPUs already have gone this way, the upcoming consoles will take it even further.
The power will be there, but it's less important to talk about the power of the device than it is to talk about what it can output. To me, the discussion should be about the target resolutions and frame rates.
6 up, 1 down
Oxvial
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 11:57:38 AM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 12:00:23 PM
3 up, 1 down
rogers71
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 12:06:37 PM
Reply
2 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 12:12:58 PM
75-80 was the norm for that game =)
1 up, 0 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 12:34:21 PM
6 up, 2 down
telly
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 2:04:05 PM
1 up, 0 down
slugga_status
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 2:10:43 PM
Killer Instinct Gold was $80 for me. Still have it til this day.
0 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 3:00:12 PM
0 up, 0 down
Palpatations911
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 3:57:01 PM
Good times, good times.
0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 4:25:10 PM
Fulgore ftw.
0 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 5:35:40 PM
Instead of ULTRA COMBOOOOOooooooo! like the arcade
0 up, 0 down
Lord carlos
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 12:47:41 PM
Reply
I wonder what that would look like.
1 up, 2 down
AcHiLLiA
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 1:02:57 PM
Reply
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 3/30/2012 1:08:02 PM
0 up, 0 down
Laguna
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 1:25:35 PM
Reply
I think the whole existence of the ps3 sort of nullified power for me.
With ps3 games sometimes only looking slightly better than 360, it comes down for me if the games look nice enough and if they are FUN.
Its why I just bought Dead Or alive Ultimate 2, 3 and 4 for the 360.
They look very nice for old titles, and the gameplay is solid and fun! That's all that matters.
Its also why I like Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 and 2. It isn't the most jaw dropping game, but it runs smoothly and has a great framerate. It looks sharp and vibrant and the combat is fluid.
1 up, 1 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 1:59:41 PM
You can add me as a PSN friend if you like (my ID is the same as my name here). Also, I'm moving over the weekend down the road, so I'll be offline with my PS3 for a few days.
Also, the DOA's do look quite nice on 360, so too does NG Black. Not many say this, but Xbox games running on 360 are tremendously enhanced with 4xMSAA, drasitcally smoothing out the edges, something very apparant on HDTV's like mine. Then of course there's those Xbox games that run poorly on 360, like NG's FMV and DOA3's snow stage
0 up, 0 down
PC_Max
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 1:39:57 PM
Reply
Don't need smellovision either if thats another way to make games more immersive. :)
Perfect the hardware, but start focussing on game quality (stories), applications if thats what people would like to see and online services, which is where things have been going with the current generation.
Keep Playing!
1 up, 0 down
airwedge1
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 1:57:36 PM
Reply
0 up, 1 down
UbiEaActisuck
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 2:10:12 PM
4 up, 0 down
gumbi
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 2:11:25 PM
Besides, the most important thing to note here is that for gamers who buy used games, this will likely have little effect on your bottom line. Instead of paying $50 for a used game at GameStop, you'll pay $35-40 for it, and then purchase a $10-$15 license from the publisher to play it. You still pay $50 for it, AND you own it forever! even if you sell the disc.
I don't know, to me this business model just makes the most sense. Especially for the owners of the IP being licensed.
2 up, 0 down
Highlander
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 2:33:16 PM
4 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 4:26:23 PM
2 up, 0 down
PC_Max
Saturday, March 31, 2012 @ 8:21:59 AM
Think of it like your drivers license, its not a right but a privelege. Yep, you can do what you want when you get it, but if you start breaking the rules and get caught..... bye bye license... possible fine or jail term. Thats extreme but you get the idea.
When I buy a game I buy with the notiion of keeping it because I want to play over and over. Possibly play it in the future again. Heck, I occasionally pop in a PS1 or PS2 game now and again because the games I kept still have great play value, regardless of poor graphics.
Getting off topic. :)
Keep Playing!
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Saturday, March 31, 2012 @ 9:45:35 PM
0 up, 0 down
CaptRon
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 2:40:42 PM
Reply
4 up, 2 down
Highlander
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 3:56:32 PM
Apart from my work environment, if Sony did two things with the PS3 (and it's successor), I'd never need a PC.
Improve the web browser to the standard of Firefox/Opera and give me a real email client.
5 up, 2 down
SaiyanSempai
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 7:27:12 PM
(Battlefield on PC was beautiful, but not hundreds of times more beautiful...)
Couple with that the driver issues that will always exist and I say "ptew!" to PC gaming. haha!
Seriously, for the price of one high end graphics card I got a PS3 that has lasted me almost 6 years and is still relevant and pumping out impressive visuals. You won't find me going back to PC gaming ever again.
0 up, 2 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 7:48:08 PM
0 up, 0 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 8:40:51 PM
2 up, 1 down
Geobaldi
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 10:11:24 PM
1 up, 0 down
Highlander
Saturday, March 31, 2012 @ 9:48:57 PM
for a PC graphics card to be 100s of times more powerful than the PS3 to exist, someone would have had to create a GPU capable of anything from 50,000 GFLOPs to 100,000 GFLOPS (or more depending on how many hundreds of times you think you remember).
Basically that would make that GPU the most powerful super computer on the face of the earth today. So, you know, that article was either BS, or your memory is extremely foggy.
1 up, 1 down
___________
Saturday, March 31, 2012 @ 4:50:29 AM
Reply
people cant really talk about specs because its hard to imagine what would be possible with them.
its easy to talk about no used game sales or locking games to one PSN account things like that.
power always has been and always will be the biggest attraction to new systems.
yea theres other features, but there icing on the cake not the cake itself!
the wiiU for instance.
yes it will be the first ninty device to have propper online store and online gaming.
yes it will be the first to have a screen in its controller.
but there not why people will buy it, people will buy it because they have been begging for a HD console from ninty for years!
who doesnt want to play zelda or metroid in HD!?
i freaking shat my pants when i saw the tech demo they showed at E3 for zelda!
nothing has ever amazed me like that, just thinking of it now skyward sword with those graphics......
just take my money, take it now!!!!!!!!!!!
0 up, 1 down
Highlander
Saturday, March 31, 2012 @ 9:50:18 PM
1 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Reply
Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 11:33:41 AM
I also agree about shifting a console's identity away from power. I think concerns over processor archectures and the like is largely a mute point these days with the majority of consumers. I garuntee we'll hear no such long winded talks about the techinical specifics of fillrates, dot products, and any other techno-head jargon that populated much of the PS3's and 360's E3 presentations years ago.
The industry is clearly approaching a technical ceiling in a production to profitability ratio, so conditioning an audience to demand more and more power that in turn inflates dev costs just doesn't seem like the landscape any business wants to engage these days. Basically, with the next-gen, I think we'll have all the power we can hope to get within reason, no matter the chipsets manufacturers rest on. It's a new landscape out there for us long time console gamers going forward. We're having to think and consider variables that go way beyond bits and game ratings.