Next gen, 10 year cycle not even 1080p at launch?

[JEMC]

IsawYoshi said:

zarx said:

last gen many games struggled to keep 30FPS with 720p or less. This time round we are launching with lots of 1080p 60FPS games with large advances in other areas. Honestly sub 1080p at 60FPS in what has a good chance of being one of the more technically expressive launch titles isn't too much to worry about. Console optimisation is all about trade-offs (FPS, Image quality, effects, scale, level of detail) of course the PS4 and XBone don't exactly have super high end hardware but the fact that resolution is being traded off in one game isn't a big deal.

I'm not sure what to say about the whole situation really. It is after all just a launch game, and we all know how games look late in the cycles compared to early. However, when a standard PC from 2008 could run games at 1080p in almost every cases, then why can't a console, that is dedicated to gaming, that is supposed to last for 10 years, manage that? As Rich says, where are we going to be in three years? And in 6, are we going to feel that they have pretty much maxed out the systems? After all, the PS4 is a lot easier to develop for than the PS3.

First of all, Battlefield 4 isn't out yet so we don't know how it will run in a "standard PC from 2008". And then, I doubt a mid-high PC from 2008 can run Battlefield 3 at 1080p with everything on high at 60 fps, even less Battlefield 4.

Look, 2008 was the year Nvidia and AMD launched the GTX2x0 and HD4xx0 series, and this is how they perform in Battlefield 3 at High settings:

source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html

(The GTX295 is a dual GPU card)

Neither the GTX285 nor the HD4870 are close to 60fps and it will be even worse in Battlefield 4. The console versions will run at 60fps and will use some of the Ultra effects (that's why they won't reach 1080p), so the difference in image quality will be a lot more noticeable that the smaller resolution. 

Consoles will be fine for the next 3-4 years. After that... well, have Sony or MSoft said that their consoles will last 10 years this time? What if this gen "only" lasts 5-6 years like they used to do? Will that be such a problem?