| Mr Puggsly said: I've used New 3DS as an example that it can be done. Lets be honest, the New 3DS audience doesn't really care about graphics and performance as much the 8th gen console gamers. So there is less incentive to use New 3DS specs. Nintendo and Capcom are the few developers that push 3DS specs. While many developers push X1 and PS4 specs. Not all developers have to use the new specs, but I'm sure many would. Especially if it could be done simply. Many don't know but a lot of games used the N64 expansion likely because it was easy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expansion_Pak Frankly, its possible instead of doing a price cut they could instead put a considerably more powerful CPU and/or GPU in newer models. As long as the new specs are there and easy for developers to use them, they will be used. At the very least it would be interesting experiment. |
The percentage of console gamers that care enough about graphics to upgrade the console for that is very small too. Even among the hardcore enthusiasts that visit sites like these, 67% is still fine with 720p and probably more don't care whether their multiplats run slightly worse on XBox One.
A price cut will do more for the user base than an upgraded model. Bigger userbase more games with bigger budgets.
An upgraded model is not the same as a $50 expansion pack, and even for that price the amount of games that used it is actually quite low, about 16%. I skipped the games that required it back then, never used it.
Games are a lot more complex nowadays, no longer running fully from memory and limited by a lot more factors all working together. Even if you increase CPU/GPU/RAM and memory bandwidth, you're still stuck with streaming the data fast enough to keep up. Pretty much you'll need a whole new balanced machine and convince developers that the extra work somehow pays off.
