Xbox One, PS4, Wii U could be the last generation of gaming hardware
- Thread starter menace-uk-
- Start date
But you need hardware to run software. if not whats next. There is generic boxes, & MS, Sony & some other people just provide services?
I've said it before, i would gladly pay $100 for the xbox os + yearly gold and build my own gaming htpc for my living room.
I've read comments from people at Sony, MS and some 3rd party devs saying they don't believe these will be the last consoles. We'll see how it plays out but I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one more generation of consoles after this one.
This was proposed in the Xbox 720/Yukon leaked slides.
There are still many challenges for streaming games rendered in 'the cloud'. Economies of scale for the hardware infrastructure, like how many servers/PCs do you need to be able to cope with peak demand but also not overshoot so hardware is dormant is a tough nut to crack. The latency and bandwidth issues are still a limitation that directly affects how the game plays.
Can I imagine playing a fighting game or a fast twitch shooter with the latency that was experienced with OnLive?
Certainly not, but if the experience was ever indistinguishable from a locally rendered game then I would be satisfied.
Building game consoles is a horrible business to be in. The real money is made on the software and services, the profit margins on console hardware is tiny until the later years of its life. I'm sure Microsoft and Sony would be glad if they never had to invest in building a 'high end' (yes, I know PCs are more powerful but the amount of tech for the price in consoles is still impressive) console ever again.
There are still many challenges for streaming games rendered in 'the cloud'. Economies of scale for the hardware infrastructure, like how many servers/PCs do you need to be able to cope with peak demand but also not overshoot so hardware is dormant is a tough nut to crack. The latency and bandwidth issues are still a limitation that directly affects how the game plays.
Can I imagine playing a fighting game or a fast twitch shooter with the latency that was experienced with OnLive?
Certainly not, but if the experience was ever indistinguishable from a locally rendered game then I would be satisfied.
Building game consoles is a horrible business to be in. The real money is made on the software and services, the profit margins on console hardware is tiny until the later years of its life. I'm sure Microsoft and Sony would be glad if they never had to invest in building a 'high end' (yes, I know PCs are more powerful but the amount of tech for the price in consoles is still impressive) console ever again.
They were saying this about the PS4 and the X1 before either console had launched and now the combined sales of the two are over 10 million. Both had their respective best launches ever, and the X1 will be releasing in another 20 countries later this year. I have no doubt that there is strong future in cloud services for gaming but I given the great sales for the next gen consoles so far, I'd bet we will be seeing more from Sony and Microsoft in this area yet.
Well when I see articles like this I just assume they mean consoles in the traditional sense, and I can see some logic there. Assuming these consoles have a rough 10 year life-cycle I think enough will change between now and then, that next-gen is very very different from what we're used too. Tablets are getting very very close to console like power. The attitudes of hardware makers have shifted from cutting-edge tech to more profitable off the shelf components. Business models have shifted from being heavy loss leaders to breaking even or profitable day one.
Two of the three hardware companies are seemingly fully invested in cloud based services. One of them will be doing streaming(I assume MS will too at some point). MS is doing computational tasks even as demanding as Ray-tracing- experimental right now. All this could easily lead to service based gaming via the cloud.
The software landscape is also in what seems like a shift from traditional AAA games to more F2P models, and I think this shift will grow as this gen moves on, to the point where we will see very few AAA traditional games.
I just wouldn't be surprised if the next xbox was Surface pro 5 or Playstation a Sony Bravia.
So basically this would be a full on cloud platform? MS/Sony/Whoever would have their servers and just upgrade them over time, and you'd connect to it and stream games. I'd be all for it, but I think we're still a ways out. A LOT can happen in 6-8 years though.
There will always be a need for more hardware, but that doesn't necessarily mean we as gamers need to actually have the hardware at our house.
By the end of this generation though, I think people could be ready. The world will be a different place by then.
Kind of but it was a half-way house solution between digital and physical media and that's why it was never going to be accepted.
There is built in expectation with a physical DVD/Blu-ray/game disc that once bought you have a freedom to do what you like with it. The original proposal was to take away that right and with it potential value if the consumer wanted to sell or trade it. The expectation around purely digital media is different, digital video/music files and games on consoles have always come with DRM. XBLA and PSN game downloads have been successful and have DRM built in for obvious reasons but are an accepted means of purchasing games.
Microsoft's original approach eroded established consumer rights of the use of a physical media product and that's why it was so reviled.
And yet people continuously and frivously buying new hardware every year just because it is the "new toy."
Unless US broadband infrastructure has a major surge and we all end up will ultra fast connections in the next 5-7 years, dedicated boxes will still be needed.
There are a lot of reasons this likely wont happen, particularly with the recent death of net neutrality here.
There are a lot of reasons this likely wont happen, particularly with the recent death of net neutrality here.