So yeah, as anyone who reads gaming news at all knows, rumors for both systems are all over the place now. Sony's supposed to have an event later this month that hopefully will announce the PS4, which is supposedly pretty powerful, and has a controller similar to all of Sony's others, but with a few design changes and maybe a touch thing, like that stuff on the back of the Vita. Supposedly it'll play used games too.
The Xbox 3, or 720, or whatever you want to call it, though... the rumors now say that it might have a required always-on internet connection, will either restrict or completely block used games, and probably won't be as powerful as PS4, either. Um... why does Microsoft think that this is actually a good idea, again? They came so far with the 360 in vastly increasing their userbase and marketshare, but if these rumors are true it could backfire badly... or not, but I don't know, I do think that always-on and no-used-games would hurt them. Or at least, I'd hope it would!
(Both, of course, will be much more powerful than the WiiU.)
Of course, the rumors could be wrong. For instance, Sony could implement some kind of anti-used-games system similar to Microsoft's... wouldn't THAT be fun.
Those rumors were flying around for the 360 and PS3 before they launched too. I suspect MS and Sony themselves "leaked" the info intentionally to gauge acceptance of the idea. No one wanted it back then, but maybe now it'll fly a little better? So far, no, doesn't seem like it.
That's one thing you can say about the Wii U anyway, games are YOURS, not "licensed". (Well, except online purchases... One day maybe a digital store "standard" will be developed, one that requires all vendors making use of the standard to give users their first sale rights.) I have to say this, whether they actually implement this or not. The current "war on used game sales" is simply misguided and dumb. If you are losing money, it isn't because used games are "eating" your sales, it's because no one is buying your game to begin with. Used games, at maximum potential, can only steal as many sales as you have actually made. As a result, used games are only a "threat" when your game becomes incredibly successful, and if your game is incredibly successful, then used game sales won't hurt you. It is a self defeating prophecy, and more to the point, it is how EVERY OTHER BUSINESS IN THE WORLD operates. Imagine if this applied to services too, and getting your plumbing repaired meant the plumber gets a cut should you ever sell your house to someone, and that next person to someone else, and so on ad infinitum. Get over yourselves game developers. You have no more right to abolish the doctrine of first sale than anyone ever has in the history of the open market.
Other than that, it is interesting that both systems are rumored to have 8 GB of RAM. That actually means the Wii U's 4 GB of RAM is competitive with both, at only half instead of the pittance it had in the Wii. Either way, every new generation will have an overflowing ridiculous amount of RAM compared to pretty much every past console generation, usually built to run on some vapor of a ghost of the RAM PCs of their time were using. Heck, modern PCs built for gaming (unless you are an enthusiast building your own machine) still sell with between 4 and 8 GB of RAM themselves. The graphics hardware has always been one step forward and two steps back, but seeing the RAM suddenly playing catchup is a unique situation. I await what the next gen consoles will be able to accomplish with all that RAM, aside from easier PC ports.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:Those rumors were flying around for the 360 and PS3 before they launched too. I suspect MS and Sony themselves "leaked" the info intentionally to gauge acceptance of the idea. No one wanted it back then, but maybe now it'll fly a little better? So far, no, doesn't seem like it.
I very, VERY much hope that this is true, but the MS rumors sound worryingly solid...
Quote:That's one thing you can say about the Wii U anyway, games are YOURS, not "licensed". (Well, except online purchases... One day maybe a digital store "standard" will be developed, one that requires all vendors making use of the standard to give users their first sale rights.)
Good point, it's definitely a positive about the system.
Quote:I have to say this, whether they actually implement this or not. The current "war on used game sales" is simply misguided and dumb. If you are losing money, it isn't because used games are "eating" your sales, it's because no one is buying your game to begin with. Used games, at maximum potential, can only steal as many sales as you have actually made. As a result, used games are only a "threat" when your game becomes incredibly successful, and if your game is incredibly successful, then used game sales won't hurt you. It is a self defeating prophecy, and more to the point, it is how EVERY OTHER BUSINESS IN THE WORLD operates. Imagine if this applied to services too, and getting your plumbing repaired meant the plumber gets a cut should you ever sell your house to someone, and that next person to someone else, and so on ad infinitum. Get over yourselves game developers. You have no more right to abolish the doctrine of first sale than anyone ever has in the history of the open market.
Yeah, they can't make enough money because their budgets are bloated and not enough people want to buy the games, so... instead of trying to solve the problem, they blame the consumers. Of course. It's a bad road, and it's definitely not one which will lead to a good outcome for anyone. All that will result is more unhappiness and problems on both sides.
Quote:Other than that, it is interesting that both systems are rumored to have 8 GB of RAM. That actually means the Wii U's 4 GB of RAM is competitive with both, at only half instead of the pittance it had in the Wii. Either way, every new generation will have an overflowing ridiculous amount of RAM compared to pretty much every past console generation, usually built to run on some vapor of a ghost of the RAM PCs of their time were using. Heck, modern PCs built for gaming (unless you are an enthusiast building your own machine) still sell with between 4 and 8 GB of RAM themselves. The graphics hardware has always been one step forward and two steps back, but seeing the RAM suddenly playing catchup is a unique situation. I await what the next gen consoles will be able to accomplish with all that RAM, aside from easier PC ports.
My computer will probably be outdated by next year... the CPU in particular; the video card should be fine for some time, but a 2.6Ghz dual-core? Nearing low end now... and I can't upgrade it very far unless I replaced the whole motherboard, either. Core2 only.