You could addapt the AI routines outside of the "bubble", and scale them down to work well on a PS3/X360.
Radiant AI in Oblivion did the exact same thing in 2006. Bethsada stated in multiple developer interviews that they scaled RAI in such a way that AI routines were constantly going on throughout the progression of a given game at all places in the world. However, the routines were pretty basic when they were outisde of a given area, and more complex as you got there - to save CPU power on both the consoles, as well as the X360.
Crysis can do the same thing.
I think the main issue is that when you have games that have ultra-advanced games, sales will be horrible, because no one can afford the technology for the games. I remember Falcon 4.0 back in 1998. It was a game that "recommended" a 400mhz processor, when everyone barely had 200mhz's. I don't think it sold very well back then, but the mod community continued to help the game, and make it better well after Atari dumped the game.
Eventually, Atari sold the source code to some smart entrepreneur for $50,000. Guess what he did? Took all the mod packs (upto SP3), and intergrated them into 1 huge box set just a few years ago, since Falcon 4.0 was able to run perfectly on the systems by then (04 or 05).
Guess what happened? Falcon 4.0 sold out on Amazon, and Wal-Mart, and everywhere else that had it. The guy made millions. Crysis could be the same way. However, when you have devs put that much money into proprietary game design, you can lose alot of cash. Hopefully the Crysis ports to X360/PS3 (when they happen) will keep it afloat until proper sales come Crysis/UT3's ways.
But I think it's also proof of where the PC market is headed: primarily to MMOs and others. Consoles have vastly caught up to PCs in terms of capability, expecially thanks to Microsoft, and now guys like me rarely buy PC games (whereas I have 200 games from 1995-2001) because my X360 can support the games without the requirements.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
