The Next Gen consoles

[KriessG]

Day 1 both consoles. Only way to be.

[MansizeRooster]

Same here, I'll wait for a few small hardware revisions to tick over before buying.

[KriessG]

Hardware revisions, waiting, what is this!? I still adore my 60 gig US launch PS3, and if a revision comes out that's nicer (360S), I just sell the original / trade / upgrade. Wallop. No missing out of the launch day / window action and fun!

[b00dles]

There's little point in me pretending otherwise, I'll be there day one but at the moment probably microsoft's option, as long as there is some XBL account migration BC stuff.

Otherwise, it might be whatever either Shenmue III or HL3 comes out on. Or if Last Guardian is a launch title for PS4

[deerokus]

I have never bought a console at launch. Closest would be when I got the Gamecub a few months after it came out after it got that price cut fairly early in its life. These days I am even less likely to now that I am a fully-fledged PC gamer.

I know, I'll hand in my gamer credentials

[SMD]

So, launch day, £300 each, the usual roster of one WOW game and a load of crap. Will you buy or wait?

Do we get a peek at the next six months of releases?

[KriessG]

I have never bought a console at launch. Closest would be when I got the Gamecube after it got that price cut fairly early in its life.

I know, I'll hand in my gamer credentials

Taxi is waiting outside mate.

I just love the wonder, the excitement of launch days, it feels like we are long over due new hardware, and now we are getting two within a month possibly, and just before Christmas which is always the best gaming time... excite! Ultra excite!!

Who ever mentioned Shenmue 3... don't tease

[mushashi]

Who ever mentioned Shenmue 3... don't tease

The only thing which would make me buy anybody's Box at launch, otherwise wait for a revision/price drop (and even then it'll probably still break if you buy a Sony one, optical drives, how hard is it to put in a decent one console manufacturers?!?)

[ontwofronts]

I'll be there day one for the next Xbox. I'm going for just the one console next gen after the last two of having all three. My Wii and PS3 haven't been used in ages.

[rgraves]

There's "let's put a screen on the controller" and there's "let's take an iPad and glue this Gamecube pad I cut in half onto it". I think Sony will be going for the former. It'll probably be a little one for managing typical ancillary stuff, like notifications for friends and game invites or playing custom music, without having to bring up an on-screen menu. Which would be awesome.

Fucking hell, I know some people are just anti-Nintendo and everything they do but this is just mental. They have done a lot of things wrong with the Wii U, but I don't think anybody that's actually used one would say the Gamepad is one of them. And I cetainly don't think making the screen smaller (if that indeed turns out to be the case, since this is all just speculation right now and at one point the PS3 was going to be shipping with that banana monstrosity) could be painted as a genius improvement on the idea by Sony led by nothing other than their own R&D.

I'm all for iterating and improving on things, but let's just not make out that 2+2 is somehow a mega amount better than 3+1.

[Spacehost]

Fucking hell, I know some people are just anti-Nintendo and everything they do but this is just mental. They have done a lot of things wrong with the Wii U, but I don't think anybody that's actually used one would say the Gamepad is one of them. And I cetainly don't think making the screen smaller could be painted as a genius improvement by Sony led by nothing other than their own R&D.

I'm all for iterating and improving on things, but let's just not make out that 2+2 is somehow a mega amount better than 3+1.

Don't wet your Mario onesie, I was just saying it's unlikely that Sony will be emulating the WiiU controller (which is a big, play-full-games touchscreen with a controller built around it). Whatever they'll be doing will be a more modest and therefore limited screen (3" max at a guess?) designed for doing OS stuff rather than game-specific things, on a pad not too dissimilar to what we're used to. More like a Dreamcast past but sexed up.

[SMD]

This is gonna sound silly and alien to most of you, but the one thing that could really sell it to me would be if 2K made a new American Football game that was awesome like NFL2k5. All sooped up with new graphics and physics.

Don't EA have an exclusivity deal?

[scottcr]

Why would Sony put a tiny 3" screen on? The wifi play or the vita thing really doesn't work well - if they do something like the WiiU, with a bigger range, it'd be awesome.

The ability to play your big telly game on the gamepad is *really good*. I know some people struggle with that...

[Spacehost]

Why would Sony put a tiny 3" screen on? The wifi play or the vita thing really doesn't work well - if they do something like the WiiU, with a bigger range, it'd be awesome.

The ability to play your big telly game on the gamepad is *really good*. I know some people struggle with that...

There's no way Sony will pull back the curtain at E3 and show a controller with a big 6" touchscreen that you can play full games on. Not happening.

[SMD]

Yeah they did that last year.

[DocG]

The last time Sony blatantly copied Nintendo, we got Move.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I'd rather see Sony and/or Microsoft use the money on more powerful hardware (CPU/GPU/RAM) than stuff like screens in controllers and the like. The TV <> controller mirroring is useless for me as I've got dedicated gaming TVs anyway, and so far the Wii U hasn't shown any application of the second screen that would be a game changer for me. I'd rather see a box filled to the brim with sizzling high powered hardware that allows developers to create bigger and ever more awesome looking games over the next 4-5 years.

[Spacehost]

"Yo dawg, we heard you liked PlayStations, so we made your PlayStation the controller for your PlayStation so you can has no games while you has no games."

The last time Sony blatantly copied Nintendo, we got Move.

... which actually didn't totally suck. Shame it was only used for Wii ports and the odd augmented-reality party game.

[DocG]

I really like the Move hardware, but the software support (as a launch-day purchaser) has been terrible. That reverse Jenga stacking game remains aces however.

[scottcr]

I'd rather see Sony and/or Microsoft use the money on more powerful hardware (CPU/GPU/RAM) than stuff like screens in controllers and the like. The TV <> controller mirroring is useless for me as I've got dedicated gaming TVs anyway, and so far the Wii U hasn't shown any application of the second screen that would be a game changer for me. I'd rather see a box filled to the brim with sizzling high powered hardware that allows developers to create bigger and ever more awesome looking games over the next 4-5 years.

I want that too... AND a screen for gamepad playing. It's great for same room multiplayer CoD and Sonic for example

[Ferine]

There are definite applications for a screen in a controller, but given the costs involved I wonder if a touch sensitive surface would be a better option for a machine not built around the concept like the WiiU. It would still allow new options such as multi-touch gestures, easy cursor movement and the like, but it wouldn't distract you from the TV itself.

Back to specs once again, Digital Foundry have just published an article primarily about the Orbis. I'm still reading it myself.

[Barny]

Want want want. We'll be happy with what we get dammit. I've learned that from Nintendo.

[b00dles]

Slightly OT but I'm beginning to really hate the internet for the amount of waffle that gets posted around these sorts of times because of page hits and all that. At least in days of yore, you'd wait for the next issue of your magazine for details and they'd all be (semi) checked rather than 'some other bloke in a forum said'

Conversely, I do like all these nuggets of info and at least that one Aimless posted had what seemed a bit more genuine info. The slightly unnecessary comparison videos (again, I can understand why and they do couch all of them with 'without OS etc) also slightly annoy me and is the kind of thing that's probably already starting format arguments in some places.

Sorry, this post is probably a bit but you know.

[Mallet]

There are definite applications for a screen in a controller, but given the costs involved I wonder if a touch sensitive surface would be a better option for a machine not built around the concept like the WiiU. It would still allow new options such as multi-touch gestures, easy cursor movement and the like, but it wouldn't distract you from the TV itself.

Back to specs once again, Digital Foundry have just published an article primarily about the Orbis. I'm still reading it myself.

Bloody hell! that article claims the OS for the next xbox uses 3GB of ram, Windows is really bloated from a gaming stance but even it doesn't need that much. Why would it need so much?

[SMD]

Because it would run the OS while you're running the game, so you'd be (in theory) able to use all the OS functions without quitting out.

[scottcr]

Do the digital foundry guys actually play and enjoy and games???

[Cthulhu Steev]

Scott hates tech.

[SMD]

Scott hates tech.

He's actually John Connor at the end of Terminator Salvation.

[scottcr]

I used to know a guy who basically spent his evenings maximising his frame rate on the PC racer 'screamer'. He never actually PLAYED the thing. Just observed the frame rate and then tweaked his config and memory settings an bought extra kit to get the frame rate up.

People like that confuse me

[Ferine]

Do the digital foundry guys actually play and enjoy and games???

No. Being knowledgeable about one subject completely precludes your ability to enjoy any other aspects of life.

I'd say one of the most interesting parts of that DF article is the following:

• Orbis has 4GB of fast DDR5 RAM, with 512MB reserved for the OS.
  
• Durango has 8GB of slower DDR3, with 3GB (!) reserved for the OS.
  
• It's suggested that 2 of Durango's 8 CPU cores will also be dedicated to OS functions.
  

Such choices, if true, would suggest that Sony is more interested in creating a dedicated gaming machine whilst Microsoft is aiming for more of a living room PC. I know, shocking, right?

The wildcard are the "secret sauce" hardware modules, which could conceivably augment the machines' capabilities quite a lot. Personally I'm a bit wary of such suggestions, but that might just be due to all the dud, flap-based rumours we've endured in the past.