Epic: Consoles must be 'bleeding edge' in next-generation

[PeanutButterMunky]

@ sega coming back.

I still love my Dreamcast. :]

[Nitey]

At this point I think it's incredibly hard/risky for anyone to try and get into the console market. Maybe Samsung could give it a good go, as I'm sure they would price extremely competitively while delivering good hardware

With Microsoft having a very strong showing this gen, the pie is split nicely unlike previous generations where one would dominate and the others wouldn't fair so well. That usually meant there was always room for someone if they wanted to give it a go, but I don't think that's the case now

I would love a SEGA return. Though, that will never happen

[BoyBettaKnow]

I still love my Dreamcast. :]

the Dreamcast is one of my favourite consoles of all time. Up there with the GameCube for me!

More companies getting into the market can only be a good thing for us as gamers though it'd be a bad thing for my wallet.

I'd love for a surprise console manufacture to say they are gonna' be jumping into the fray.

[itachi73378]

8gig would be awesome but what would the price then be?!

8 gigs is like $50 or even cheaper. Mass production will cost sony like $30 for 8 gig RAM by the time it launches next year.

[malys]

Apple frankly I could care less about, their business philosophy is very closed minded using closed systems. One of the biggest parts of making a new console is getting developers to support it. Look at the Dreamcast it was a much better system at handling 2d graphics than the psone, but Sony had the software backing and the ability to push 3d on their games so they win.

It's still too early to call on the next Gen consoles, it's still too early to tell what technologies they will use. Saying they want 8gb of RAM is nice but depending on what type of processor and memory is used 8 would not make sense if they stick with Cell architecture which I don't think they will. With the Vita specs and a lot of what Sony execs have been saying, they appear to be going towards more of a PC architecture with high power and low power profiles.

They barely recovered from making an expensive hard to program for console the last time around I don't think they make that mistake again. The cell is still a great chip the problem is ease of use and cost. Even if they do go elsewhere for the cpu/gpu, smaller chips with specialized cores still appear to be the best solution at this time, but AMD and Nvidia will have offering that cost less than the cell. You will lose a little power but gain a lot more ease of use and less power consumption.

They've also developed a really great engine with Nvidia that they are using for their next tier MMO's, it would be a waste if Frostlight was not in use on their console as well. We've seen how cross platform play just doesn't work with so much different architecture.

As far as interface goes let's hope they expand on their buddying up of late with Steam and Google. More Steam integration and features combined with more functionality with droid devices and tv interactivity.

[Blacksite]

@ sega coming back.

Although it's unlikely to see Sega getting back into the hardware market with another home console, if I had to choose between Sega or Apple, I'd definitely go with a follow-up to the Sega Dreamcast.

[jj03]

i wouldn't a console from apple..not a sniff. i would buy from sega again rather than buy from ms.

The dude abides....

[Wasib]

The gamer in me wants a very very powerful next-generation of consoles.

But the reality states that with expensive to manufacture tablets and kinect sensors being included with the next-generation systems; dream-like graphical power aspirations will have to be constrained by the console manufacturers.

Unless the next-generation can be delayed to a point where console manufacturers can remove the optical disk drive (by going through digital distribution) and remove the hard disk drive (by moving data storage to the cloud). This would reduce the unit cost and give that little bit more leg-room for better CPU's and GPU's.

Removing the optical disk drive and hard disk drive would also allow the unit to be shrunk in size and weight and also less fans and heatsinks would need to be utilized. Failure rates could also be reduced. Again less cost.

Also by waiting, say to 2014, next-generation CPU's and GPU's will have, perhaps, fallen further in price.

Microsoft could pull this off; the 360 is selling at record levels, the brand is super-strong with effective advertising and there are at least two more price-cuts left in the system.

[Dave-The-Rave]

The jump between these generations is gonna be pretty damn small..which is why I'll probably be waiting for a price drop.