Resident_Hazard said:
Well, Nintendo and Microsoft did both totally axe their last-gen machines when the Wii and X360 launched.
Frankly, I don't want to even hear anything until 2011 at the soonest. I'd rather not have a new generation until late 2012 at the soonest. I'd much rather wait until 2013 or even 2014. The millions and millions of dollars lost in the transition to this generation showed that the industry wasn't ready to move on this time, and I think that they should all play it safe next time. Frankly, all three consoles are selling pretty well--especially the "under powered" Wii and DS. They're building massive new fanbases. No doubt Nintendo and MS will surpass previous generations by leaps and bounds. MS will likely topple original Xbox sales by the time the holidays are done, if not a little bit after. They only need to sell one and a half million more to do it. Nintendo has already out-sold the GameCube and N64. One of the many reasons the PS3 did so poorly so early on is that they spent 6 years building a massive installed userbase, and many of those people bought a PS2 only a couple years ago and weren't ready to move on. I think the industry as a whole needs to wait. Actually exhaust all options with the current machines for once. There hasn't been a completely tapped console since the PS1. I'd like to see every possibility exhausted out of the Wii, Xbox360, and Playstation 3 before we move on to yet another generation. All three machines have secrets in store for us to see and developers to discover. Far more than ever before. I want nearly a year of "everything's been done already" before a new generation comes out. Then we'll know we're ready. |
Three years is a long long time in the computer business. 6 years is practically a generation in human terms. Playing it safe won't net the consumer new experiences any faster and I would personally hate to wait that long knowing the possibilities in User-interface which await the next generation. Both of the HD-twins are powerful enough to last for a very long time and they will find markets for software emerging in different areas of the world as development and human economic conditions improve the world over.
Theres no reason for anyone to stop producing games for the current consoles even when a new generation rolls around. I don't think there will be a drop off in high end games targetting these systems for at least another couple of years. Well not unless there is a console produced in the next generation which wins over the hearts and minds of consumers quickly and then you could say the market is expanding again.
The days of eking every last drop of power out of a console are over. There aren't enough of the old school coders left who are both willing and able to make the plunge to really eke that power out. Most coding is done just calling functions which have been written by other people, the % of code which is actually custom made for a console is dropping and next generation there will be even less. Its up to the tools developers themselves not the game developers to really work on the algorythems that will improve performance. The game developers will just make a function call and if it works better with the new SDK, GREAT!
Tease.
