Should consoles cost $500+ ?

[Jizz_Beard_thePirate]

Yes and no. If the console is at the start of the generation and it is the only one you can buy, then heck no. We saw both with the ps3 and even the x1 @ launch that it had a negative impact on the sales.

If its this iterative formula where u have a console that is priced at $300 and $500+ then maybe. I have already said my concerns about optimization with framerate and if third party devs really do screw over the $300 console owners with laughable framerates, then I really don't like the idea of having multiple consoles at multiple price points. Cause if my fears do come true, it means that developing for multiple consoles puts enough strain on the devs that the old console owners get screwed. I am not talking about graphics btw, but about framerate since we already see many games chugging on the ps4/x1.

With PC, its a less of an issue imo. And the reason is that my old arse PC with upgraded GPU which I bought at the start of the generation can do 1080p 60fps for almost all games. That leaves me quite a headroom to go down as my hardware ages and PC games do have settings you can adjust and mods that can help fix developer's nonsense. And we can already see that with dx12, the cpu is becoming less of a bottleneck and a less of a component to upgrade in order to gain performance for games. And same goes for a lot of the components on the PC.

Consoles do not have that headroom and they will solely rely on the devs to be able to optimize their games for it but with the launch of Neo and Scorpio, devs will have to optimize for 5 platforms with quite a difference in performance. Of course, they can choose to develop for the x1/ps4 as their lead console but I am pretty sure Sony and MS would rather push devs to develop for the newer hardware so they can push the sales.

So TLDR: If Devs don't screw over the weaker consoles, sure, go ahead with different price points but if they do than no thanks.