Chazore said:
Well at this point we really should, because these aren't the same companies from the 80/90's anymore. They have the clout, the resources and the connections to make 4k 60 a reality, it's just that they don't want to overspend, let alone a little off the top for their millions of adoring fans/customers. Last gen Sony overspent, and their CPU was mostly seen as rather "alien" to most devs, save for some of their first party, but now we're past that, as modern hw nowadays isn't full on custom like the Cell CPU was, or consoles during gens prior to this one. We've got hw out there that's available to millions, so I'm not sure why it has to be trimmed down significantly. Why trim back what is already out there?, for the sake of the masses?, no, it's for the sake of their already overstuffed coffers. Look at Nintendo for example, they always tend to not spend as much on their hw compared to the other two, and even if it sells like crap, they manage to make bank back. Nintendo gave up on the reach for higher end hw since the GC days, because they saw what a lesser unit could do (PS2) as well as how much it sold, and now they are living in their own bubble, with no desire to feel or be forced back into that ring again. Meanwhile the other two are trying to play PC, and we know they can do that song & dance, it's that they choose not to bother with the whole dance routine. Mate, people buy the latest iphone, the latest Apple anything, and those go for well over $800, both the masses and those working in designer industries, and Apple just rakes it on in. There are cars out there that go for far much more than the average low end car does, and yet plenty of people still buy those. Plenty of people shell out for tickets to a con, with less chances of being able to play test those demos. Plenty of people pay for first class for holidays, or even to go to those cons. A console costing £800 is the least of your worries, because it, like many an entertainment product, is a luxury. If you cannot afford said luxury you simply save for it, or stick with what you've got. Look at me, I'm saving for a better CPU next year, waiting for the upcoming models, rather than going for something from last yr or the year before. I've the patience to wait and save, or even wait for prices to come down, and well, since this world has sales in just about every medium, so can the masses, and they do (Black friday, Cyber monday, boxing day sales etc, all which garner the masses to spend, spend, spend). A modern gaming PC isn't defined by a single spec, and I'm sure Pem has told you this already. There are modern specs out there like mine that simply outrank/out-power these fabled specs from next gen systems. I'm not interested in RT of any sort, because I know that tech is still in it's infancy. I'll have interest within the next 6 years, when it's reached maturity and widely adopted/perfectly (and I cannot stress that enough, to a T) executed. 4k 30 was being used in marketing for this gen, so 4k60 can be the goal for next gen, rather than 1080p 30 for 2-3 gens in a row, because let's not have consoles repeat that process 2-3 times in a row again, but with 4k/30, because that's stagnant and irksome for someone like me, who wishes for that side to pick up the pace. |
I hear you and I would also love to see Sony and MS release a $999 console. But the problem is that the masses probably aren't going to spend that kind of money on it and without a massive install base, there would be a lot less support from developers.
The beauty of consoles is that they are affordable, sell like 100m units and developers can optimize their games completely for the hardware that's in those things. 4k 60fps might sound great on paper but it would basically mean we would be playing the same games as this gen in 4k instead of raising the bar in overall visual fidelity.
Since most people sit 8ft away from their tv, they would hardly be able to tell the difference between 1080p and 4k. That's why I'm hoping that the games will be optimized for 30fps (60fps for certain genres), 1080p and build from the ground up around Ray Tracing support. If people would just be able to turn off something like Ray Tracing, developers wouldn't be able to fully make use of it anymore and make it an essential part of the gameplay experience. Instead, Ray Tracing would just be like it's on pc right now. A shiny feature that doesn't really add anything to the games.
