Patcher: "This is the Last Console Generation"

[Procrastinato]

Khuutra said:

Procrastinato said:

I agree with him, actually. Games are about money. Upping the bar makes almost no sense until pretty far in the future, relatively speaking.

There will be one more generation, but it won't be for a while, and it'll only be an incremental improvement. After that, it'll take an electronics revolution -- and I'm not talking nanotech, either.

Computational power will only get greater at the cost of more money, for some time.  That's contrary to the whole idea of a game console.

Not so. Computational power is not nearly as important as the interfaces we use to play games.

Hmm I don't get the "not so", since your statement doesn't contradict mine.  I was referring to a console generation in the same manner that Pachter was -- a technological generation.

I believe you are implying that new lines of consoles will come out -- not much more powerful than the current gen, but with better interfaces and developer tools.  I totally agree on that front.

Do they really qualify as "next gen", in the traditional sense, though?  If Nintendo announces a "Wii HD" at E3 this year, with a 1.5 GHz CPU and 400 MHz GPU, 128MB main memory, 64MB video memory, etc... does that qualify as the beginning of the next generation, in your book?  Or is it just more of the same, with a new face?  How about Sony releasing a PS4, say in 2012, that is basically identical to the PS3, except with all 8 SPUs enabled, a 850MHz RSX with some architectural improvments, and maybe 512/512MB of memory, all in a slim new box.  Is that "next gen"?