Why Microsoft got into the console business, and details on "Next"Box

[redsamurai]

1) Racist-no
2) Thief-no
3) Liar-no

But at least you aren't resorting to that nerd Star Trek language in this post.

So credit where credit is due.

Nahp, hif-bi tu throks.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Microsoft Insider Claims It Should Refocus on PC - IGN

I completely agree. Microsoft is not Apple, and never will be or should try to be. Ballmer should be coaching high school football, not running the largest software company in the world.

 

[redsamurai]

Microsoft Insider Claims It Should Refocus on PC - IGN

I completely agree. Microsoft is not Apple, and never will be or should try to be. Ballmer should be coaching high school football, not running the largest software company in the world.

way too late for that now. The 720 is stamped and ready to go into production. Gabe saw the opportunity and beat em all to it, he's going to win in the end. Ms and Sony are both done, neither can make money off the hardware and their dreams of locking down the living room just ain't gonna happen. It's over after this round. Especially for MS, making a console that strongarms kids out of used games? You gotta be kidding. Cant' even take your game to a buddies house. Gabe's box is gonna roll the mkt if it's even remotely competitively priced.

 

[mstiles87]

Microsoft Insider Claims It Should Refocus on PC - IGN

I completely agree. Microsoft is not Apple, and never will be or should try to be. Ballmer should be coaching high school football, not running the largest software company in the world.

Problem with his statements about pc gaming which I love is right now it costs around 1k to make a decent gaming machine.

If Microsoft really wanted to make the bucks they would look into affordable gaming laptops cause. No one wants to be tethered to a desktop anymore but if you look at gaming laptops now your looking in the 2k range for a good build. If Microsoft wants to phase out condo,it after the 720. Gaming laptops need to become affordable. But the gaming industry is not pc focused its console focused and unless all of the hardware changes you won't see the developers focus change.

And realistically consoles won't go away cause Nintendo won't ever die. You can't kill it. People thought it was done with the game cube and bam here comes the wii. Which changed how we play and now wii u ,lets you go from console to handheld.

 

[redsamurai]

This is why the Hybrid is coming. Now that they can make these components very small and be easily cooled...you won't need the giant supertowers to let ultra high end components breathe. They hybrids, like what Valve has planned, will receive standardized upgrades. That means not everybody will be allowed to make new parts for the machine, the game developers will know exactly what they're working with. Technology is moving so fast now that a new console would have to be released every 1.5 -2 years to keep up.....can't operate like that. But you can get people to spend $50 to upgrade their machines in that time frame.

Problem with his statements about pc gaming which I love is right now it costs around 1k to make a decent gaming machine.

If Microsoft really wanted to make the bucks they would look into affordable gaming laptops cause. No one wants to be tethered to a desktop anymore but if you look at gaming laptops now your looking in the 2k range for a good build. If Microsoft wants to phase out condo,it after the 720. Gaming laptops need to become affordable. But the gaming industry is not pc focused its console focused and unless all of the hardware changes you won't see the developers focus change.

And realistically consoles won't go away cause Nintendo won't ever die. You can't kill it. People thought it was done with the game cube and bam here comes the wii. Which changed how we play and now wii u ,lets you go from console to handheld.

 

[mstiles87]

This is why the Hybrid is coming. Now that they can make these components very small and be easily cooled...you won't need the giant supertowers to let ultra high end components breathe. They hybrids, like what Valve has planned, will receive standardized upgrades. That means not everybody will be allowed to make new parts for the machine, the game developers will know exactly what they're working with. Technology is moving so fast now that a new console would have to be released every 1.5 -2 years to keep up.....can't operate like that. But you can get people to spend $50 to upgrade their machines in that time frame.

It would be nice but I think we are still far from it

 

[TC2]

Its simply not going to happen.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

This is why the Hybrid is coming. Now that they can make these components very small and be easily cooled...you won't need the giant supertowers to let ultra high end components breathe. They hybrids, like what Valve has planned, will receive standardized upgrades. That means not everybody will be allowed to make new parts for the machine, the game developers will know exactly what they're working with. Technology is moving so fast now that a new console would have to be released every 1.5 -2 years to keep up.....can't operate like that. But you can get people to spend $50 to upgrade their machines in that time frame.

If that's the case though then they might as well just be traditional PC's. The whole point of consoles is to keep the entire user base on the same page, get the same experience.
That simply isn't possible if they go to buy a game and are faced with, "To play this game, you need to upgrade to x version of hardware." People won't take too kindly to it, which is a big part of why consoles are the go-to option over PC in the first place.

There's just no way around it. The bankruptcy of Onlive also proved that high bandwidth hasn't reached critical mass in this country yet to be cheap enough to leave these hassles on the server side of things. It seems every generation people are saying, "This one will be the last" but we'll see. The hardware is initially a huge hit on companies like MS and Sony, but about the time the Slim models come along they start making money on both hardware and software.

The biggest problem imo is rampant, disposable attitudes in consumerism, and people just increasingly not being happy with anything. Look at how much better games look today than when the current consoles launched. Most people would've thought it impossible back then. Meanwhile, Crysis from '07 is still probably the best looking game overall on PC. Yet all most people can say is, we needed new hardware years ago already. Devs like Rockstar still think there is a lot of power in the current systems, and GTA V looks like one of the most ambitious games on console or PC. There will always be new hardware coming when it makes enough economical and practical sense.

 

[redsamurai]

no you'll still be able to play the game, just not on ultra high settings. If developers are coding for two different power parameters, it's nothing for them to scale the game. The problem with current PC tech is that there's a shit ton of CPU's/GPU's, multiple's of card vendors for the GPU's, and all with different memory schemes. That's not how the steambox is going to upgrade and Newell's said as much.

If that's the case though then they might as well just be traditional PC's. The whole point of consoles is to keep the entire user base on the same page, get the same experience.
That simply isn't possible if they go to buy a game and are faced with, "To play this game, you need to upgrade to x version of hardware." People won't take too kindly to it, which is a big part of why consoles are the go-to option over PC in the first place.

There's just no way around it. The bankruptcy of Onlive also proved that high bandwidth hasn't reached critical mass in this country yet to be cheap enough to leave these hassles on the server side of things. It seems every generation people are saying, "This one will be the last" but we'll see. The hardware is initially a huge hit on companies like MS and Sony, but about the time the Slim models come along they start making money on both hardware and software.

The biggest problem imo is rampant, disposable attitudes in consumerism, and people just increasingly not being happy with anything. Look at how much better games look today than when the current consoles launched. Most people would've thought it impossible back then. Meanwhile, Crysis from '07 is still probably the best looking game overall on PC. Yet all most people can say is, we needed new hardware years ago already. Devs like Rockstar still think there is a lot of power in the current systems, and GTA V looks like one of the most ambitious games on console or PC. There will always be new hardware coming when it makes enough economical and practical sense.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

It'll be interesting to see how it pans out.