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. 

It would be nice if graphics options were configurable like they are for PC. If you don't want higher resolution or faster frame rate, for the sake of ray tracing then you should have that choice. If you prefer instead 4k/60 fps at the expense of ray tracing, then have that option too.

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.  

I remember seeing some modular designed PC years ago, one that literally had each part encased in a small plastic style box, that could easily slot into the main base system, which made it look like a modular PC. I thought that design alone was something that consoles could have gone with, because then it would have opened up new avenues for customers to experiment with. Instead all we have atm is the ability to swap out a drive, and use a K+M for some games.

They should release a console on the side for that much, because then it actually gives you the option of what you personally want to go for. Currently in the open hw market we have a myriad of parts to choose, ranging from low to medium and high end expenses, which is good, because then you have choices to make, rather than say only 1-2 choices, with both not yielding all that great returns. 

The thing is, a console can be affordable to some, but then you then have to account for the other two consoles as well as their "refresher" systems. Add all those up and it goes above the price of a 1k custom rig, and then you've got the online subs to pay for access to online, and that adds up as well, while with PC you just pay your regular internet bill and have your custom rig, which you wouldn't need to constantly upgrade (provided you're not stupid with decision making).

4k60fps sounds great on paper, as well as it being a reality. It's not some fabled concept that's non obtainable, it's that the big 3 don't care for it, because they know they'll have to reach into their coffers a bit deeper, but that's on them, not the customer. Also in terms of optimisation, it's more about taking things back a bit, rather than working some black magic. 

Playing the same game from 4k to 6k isn't going to be making much of a difference, and staying at 30fps is definitely not going to look great for another 10+yrs either. There's a reason why we're seeing more support for 4k monitors with higher than 60hz refresh rates now, rather than monitor manufacturers deciding to just stick with 4k 60hz monitors for years on end.

RT will eventually reach a point where it becomes baseline, just like how certain tech was once an option used by the few, that has now become baseline. It'll happen with time, just not at it's current state.

I dunno man, but to me modular consoles sound like a bad idea as developers will no longer be able to push the base console to its limits. It would be exactly like pc where you can crank up certain graphics settings that take a huge hit on the performance with a relatively little increase in visual fidelity. 4k and 120fps is, of course ,awesome. But ask yourself this: What will look better a remastered Last of Us designed for the ps3 but running in 4k and 60fps or TLOU 2 running in 1080p/ 30fps but designed from the ground up for current gen consoles?

Personally I would rather see it as it is now. The highest visual fidelity possible on the base next gen consoles at 1080p or 1440p at a locked 30fps. And pro versions of the consoles that will do native 4k or play them on pc at 8k and 360fps, off course. 

Are...are you building HAL? 

I'm sorry Chazore, I can't let you do that.

I don't think the purpose of the SSD or if there will be hdd support is a rumor anymore. MArk Cerny talked pretty detailed about it and is calling the ssd a game changer and the key to the next generation. 

"Cerny claims that it has a raw bandwidth higher than any SSD available for PCs. That’s not all. “The raw read speed is important,“ Cerny says, “but so are the details of the I/O [input-output] mechanisms and the software stack that we put on top of them. I got a PlayStation 4 Pro and then I put in a SSD that cost as much as the PlayStation 4 Pro—it might be one-third faster." As opposed to 19 times faster for the next-gen console, judging from the fast-travel demo."

It's true that the N64 also had almost zero loading times but this next gen SSD's are obviously meant for vastly more complex open world game design. It's up to the developers what they'll do with it, but I'm guessing games like a new BF, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Halo etc. gonna look pretty awesome.