The Eighth Generation of Gaming

[HighWiredSith]

So now that Microsoft has hired an army of developers and engineers to start working in earnest on the next generation X-Box and Sony has pretty much done the same as well as Nintendo - what do you speculate will be the new thing when these 8th generation consoles hit the market? We know the obvious - wireless n integration, larger hard drives, integrated motion control, etc. Will the new consoles simply be another leap in graphics technology (is that even possible?) or more along the lines of something more revolutionary. I think all three gaming companies are holding the success of the Wii up as the new benchmark - this concept that something revolutionary trumps better graphics and more gadgets. Sony got burned by offering too much in their console. The ramped up price trumped the enhanced graphics and the on-board blu-ray player and Sony found themselves in an unusual place - dead last. Microsoft's rush to be the first gen7 console was a near red ring o death disaster in its own right. I think both companies have learned from past mistakes and have studied Nintendo closely these past few years.

 

I still think the 3D fad will fade away and yet it seems the logical next step toward total game immersion, the day when we play a game and literally step into the gaming world, a total 360 degree, three dimensional, seemingly physical interaction. I doubt that's going to happen in generation 8 or 9 or 10 even, but it seems inevitable.

[ineedfourberfs]

Other than improving the media used, ie getting away from DVD's/Blurays... Obvious tech advances in regards to computing power and graphics processing and speed... Dunno.

 

I think Sony and Xbox will look to have more wii-ish features, but never at the expense of the more than casual gamer the respective consoles cater for.

 

I hope motion control and 3d are -not- huge parts of it. I like sitting on my ass and playing with a controller. If I wanted to kick a ball to control FIFA, I'd just go play in the park.

[HighWiredSith]

I think the trend toward media-less gaming may be a big deal in 3-4 years, when these consoles are released. Face it, the biggest drawback in terms of longevity are the fragile nature of DVD's and with fixed disk technology the bottleneck in terms of processing speed is going to be between the processor the the DVD drive. In order to speed up processing to support even higher end graphics I can't help but think future systems are going to have to take removable media out of the mix. We're seeing the exact same trend in movies and music now - this move away from disks toward purely digital media. How many video stores have closed in your hometown in the last four years?

 

The real future is strictly on-line purchasing and strictly digital download. It's faster, it saves money, and unfortunately, it give the corporations far greater control over their products. Yep, no more buying used games or swapping games with your buddy.

[SinisterDeath]

Problem with digital-distribution model is, it only works if EVERYONE has at least a 5MB connection, including the rural areas.

 

Unfortunateley this isn't true. And won't be for a while, not until we can either enchance and make 'cell-data' plans infinitely cheaper to compare with cable, or increase our infrastruture nation wide.

 

A system that ONLY has digitial distribution, without a means to actually use it will quite simply, fail in the US.

Japan can get away with it, seeing as how the average connection speed is a 100MBit, and you probably can't walk 5 feet without stealing someones internet...

[ineedfourberfs]

Could you forsee USB memory stick distribution methods?

 

Online will definately be the future, but in Aus. our internet generally NOT super-duper, unless you actually seek our the higher bitrate connections. Most lay-people have a pretty terrible connection when it comes to doing things like multi-gig downloads for games and such.

 

An interim method could be the move towards installed games. Though then the difference then between consoles and computers is getting narrower, and isn't the whole point of consoles to just throw a disc/whatever in and play?

 

Interesting.

[SinisterDeath]

USB can be slower than optical drives.

Basically, USB 1.0 max speed of 12MBit/s, and a 1x dvd drive has 10MBit/s..

 

Drive speed Data rate ~Write time (min)[21] 
(Mbit/s) (MB/s) (MiB/s) SL DL 
1× 10.80 1.35 1.29 61 107 
2× 21.60 2.70 2.57 31 54 
2.4× 25.92 3.24 3.09 25 45 
2.6× 28.08 3.51 3.35 23 41 
4× 43.20 5.40 5.15 15 27 
6× 64.80 8.10 7.72 10 18 
8× 86.40 10.80 10.30 8 13 
10× 108.00 13.50 12.87 6 11 
12× 129.60 16.20 15.45 5 9 
16× 172.80 21.60 20.60 4 7 
18× 194.40 24.30 23.17 3 6 
20× 216.00 27.00 25.75 3 5 
22× 237.60 29.70 28.32 3 5 
24× 259.20 32.40 30.90 3 4 

 

 

Note, Mbps = Mbit/s, or megabits per second

MB/s = megabytes per second.

 

Now USB 2.0 May have higher read/write than a 24x dvd drive, (or compared to blu-ray' which is still currently slower speeds)

 

Capacity wise, DVD's are dirt cheap compared to Flash Drives.

Blu-ray isn't quite as cheap, but has 10x the capacity. (25GB a layer, 4 layers, = 100GBs.)

 

So getting away from any type of physical media, specially in the US is going to kill the product.

What would be INTELIGENT, is to offer BOTH, Physical And Digital Distribution methods on the same platform.

Then those who Can use Digital Distribution, Can, and those who Can't go with the physical.

Digital Distribution, obvioulsy allowing people to get the game sooner.

They could even attempt to sell them a full day-ahead of the disc versions to promote it.

[Mongoose]

Have they even scratched the surface of the capacity of Blu-rays? I think they'll still be around.

I mean as it is, I never buy full games through DD, unless they are massively discounted or only a couple GB in size.

 

I just never feel like tying up my internet connection all day d/ling some 20 GB monster when there's a store less than half an hour away.

However if by going DD they can knock the price back into the Cdn$40-50 range (as opposed to the current $60-70) that would be a huge selling point for me.

 

As for motion controls, I doubt they'll make them mandatory, but I hope they're around and continue to improve.

There are some games I like to play in my recliner with a controller, but for sports games I'd rather stand up and flail around.

[SinisterDeath]

Doubtful actually, DD will stay within the same price range, and why not? They get more $$ from it, no middlemen (gamestop) competing for profits.

 

Only a few games have filled a single layer BD.

Uncharted 2

MGS4

FF13

 

most haven't even gone dual layer 50GB.

read/write is a bit slower, but thats why they 'install', and you could argue they could do that with the usb-flash drives to, or memory stick readers, but I don't know if that would actually work as good until prices go down alot more..

 

I got a 4GB one now, and that was $20, Most games now are 8GB+ range. (which is why transition from dvd to blu-ray is important, as a dvd is 9GBs max...)

We'll have to see 25GB USB Flash drives for under $10 before that becomes a viable option, and then you'll have to deal with people whining becuase it has a 10 minute install. :P

[Mongoose]

Doubtful actually, DD will stay within the same price range, and why not? They get more $$ from it, no middlemen (gamestop) competing for profits.

 

 

True, but price is a sore point for many gamers. At the very least, I would hope that, like with Steam, games get released at full price but get fairly regularily discounted. There is some precedent for releasing games at a lower price if they think it will sell more copies. I remember in the last console generation, EA used to release its NHL games here for $29.99 brand new, both ostensibly to compete with 2K, and because here NHL flies off the shelves way faster than Madden or Fight Night. Still, you're right that they would probably keep initial prices the same no matter how much DD saved them.

 

Still, I doubt discs will go away in the next gen. They'll probably want to wait for net connections and/or solid states to improve before they commit to it.

[Silver]

Well since we're talking about future tech, why not say the consoles will support USB 3.0? They support transfer rates of 625 MB/s. With speeds as high as that, the USB wouldn't be the bottleneck. And if the consoles are streamlined, you wouldn't be required to install.

 

Another good thing about USB distribution, no wear and tear as you see with optical drives.

[SinisterDeath]

True, but how much would a USB 3.0 cost comparetively to a dvd/blu-ray in say, 4 years?

What would the cost of a 12GB Flash drive be, in 4 years?

24GB? 50GB?

 

I think, it would be easy for them to simply use dvd/blu-ray in the next gen, Include usb 2.0 highspeed (or 3.0 if prices are low enough it won't increase the over-all price) And then, you now have the possibility, of both disc-based games, and usb flash drive based games.

 

You include old tech, with new tech, so the follow up can completely eliminate the old tech, keep the 'new tech' and possibly, add something above usb 3.0 to it (DD).

[Red2111]

you knwo what i'd liek to see. more memory. what i mean is the ability for a game to be loaded onto the hard drive and no need to continually switch disks to play the game.

 

so you pop in the game once, have the content loaded onto the consoles hard drive and play from there with no woory about still needing to pop in the disk for future playing. keeps the disks in great condition, less chance of breaking or scratching them, and no need for searching for a lost game when you wan tto play it. also, it's easy to just delete it.

 

 

yeah, thats what i'd like

[SinisterDeath]

you knwo what i'd liek to see. more memory. what i mean is the ability for a game to be loaded onto the hard drive and no need to continually switch disks to play the game.

 

so you pop in the game once, have the content loaded onto the consoles hard drive and play from there with no woory about still needing to pop in the disk for future playing. keeps the disks in great condition, less chance of breaking or scratching them, and no need for searching for a lost game when you wan tto play it. also, it's easy to just delete it.

 

 

yeah, thats what i'd like

 

Well, as you know, game companies are notorious about there wanting copyright protection on everything, and requiring the 'disc' in to play, is one of the easiest/oldest methods of doing it..

 

That said, there are games out there now that have done this (PS3).

however, the PS3 failed at it, simply becuase, and not becuase there disc-speeds are to slow, but the 'bus' or whatever it is the HDD is attached to, has a SPEED limit, so upgrading from a standard HDD to an SSD (far faster Read/Write than standard HDD) has absolutely no benefit at all due to the limited bus speed. (most believe sony did it so otehrs with better 'hardware (hdd)' wouldnt' 'load' any faster than anyone, which is bullucks imo, as its not that hard to 'pause' gameplay until everyones 'loaded' in...

 

On the other hand, by definition, everything that is digitally distributed, would be on the hard-drive, disc free, and it shouldn't be to hard to apply that from disc-to install. (as its already been done after all)

 

Course, usign teh disc may wear and tear on the disc, and the disc drive, using the HDD constantly, puts more wear and tear on the HDD. And you know how console makers love to skimp out on parts on the HDD/Disc drives/Discs. ;)

[Red2111]

well i guess when it comes to that, wear on the HDD versus wear on the disk. i'd much rather just purchase another $60 game rather then having to re-buy the console or gettign a new HDD and havign to reload, re play all games and losing all my saved data

 

 

[Krakalakachkn]

I'm probably about to make an extremely controversial statement (especially considering where I am (figuratively)), but I wish there would be no new generation of gaming systems. I honestly believe they are an extreme waste of time, a detriment to society, and I wish I'd never gotten one.

 

 

But BOY are they fun!