True. Either the Wii U or the Nextbox will be the common denominator for multiplats, not the PS4 if it releases that late.

I still hope for a weak Wii U though because if it's indeed only 3 times faster than a 360 and the Nextbox is 10 times faster we could see multiplats skip the Wii like we did in this gen.

You're hoping for a scenario where multiplats don't really exist. Or, better, where they're all based on much weaker hardware.

I think you need to temper your hopes a bit, before I find a way to extend your avatar's welcome.

With the jump made by the PS3 and 360, they set the bar very high. Look at what they had to sacrifice for that. If you want a jump that large again , get acquainted with   expensive, large consoles that run  hot.

" This is what happened last time, so this is what will happen this time" isn't how it works.

Just look at the size, price and power consumptions of current high-end GPUs.

Indications point to next gen consoles being designed around efficiency and a tight power envelope.

We'd be lucky to get the equivalent of a GTx  580 in a 2013 console and that's a 1.5 teraflops GPU. The picture says it requires 2.5 TFLOPs to run Samaritan at 1080p 30fps which is almost two GTX 580s and means when Epic said it could be optimised to run on one GTX 580, they meant in 720p.

So, contrary to what I said in the OP, I don't expect any next gen consoles to run Samaritan at 1080p. I can see PS4 and 720 easily running it 720p and Wii U managing it at sub-HD with reduced effects.

Just to throw something out there, this Samaritan Demo ran on 3 (Yes, 3!) GTX 580's, none of the next-gen consoles are gonna have that.

Haha, you're funny. I miss my yellow dog though.

But what do you mean Im hoping for a scenario where multiplats dont exist? This gen the cutoff point for multiplatforms was somewhere between the Wii's power and the X360's power. Who knows where developers decide to make that cut. If it turns out that both the X360 and PS4 are 4 times faster than the Wii U and have some crucial features for breathtaking graphics that the Wii U can't handle, and this in combination with a totally different demographics on the Nintendo, I wouldn't be surprised if guys like Crytek, Rockstar, Valve and Bethesda would decide not to make a Wii U version of their biggest games.

Do you remember how much powerful the Xbox and Gamecube were than the PS2? How noticeable it was on the multiplats, how htey coudl do so many things the PS2 couldn't?

From what we know? Last time I checked, there was no  rumour of 720 being based on a 7970. I do remember a rumour being based on the 7000 series though. That series comes with a wide range of GPUs. I also remember a rumour that  current 720 kits were 6x 360 and MS were targetting 8x.

With the 7000 series rumour, a realistic person would assume one of the mid-end GPUs, like a 7770/7850 . A person with an unrealistic expectation would just assume the highest end card while ignoring price , size and power consumption.

Millenium said: Just to throw something out there, this Samaritan Demo ran on 3 (Yes, 3!) GTX 580's, none of the next-gen consoles are gonna have that.

No they're not but Cliffy B said the demo could be optimized to run on two GTX 580s. Now the Nextbox and PS4 won't have that either but those 580s are running on a PC and John Carmack always talks about how amazing it is to be able to "program directly to the metal" on consoles.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/08/get-with-the-programmer-carmack-speaks/

He uses the words "significantly more powerful" to describe how much you gain from programming on consoles "directly to the metal" instead of having some interface on the PC swallowing resources. That "significantly more powerful" must mean something. Not 20% or 30% but probably something like 50%. So if the GPU in the Nextbox being equivalent to a Radeon 7970, which is already 20% faster than one GTX 580, can be utilized by this direct apporach in programming to be 50% faster then you would end up with rendering power in the Nextbox that matches those two Samarithan GTX580s.

The Wii didn't get ports because the hardware was very-old architecture. Games couldn't be ported to it because it would require being built from the ground up, like with COD.

Wii U is using modern hardware, so even in your scenario where PS4 and 720 are 4 times more powerful, games can still be ported to it because it will support the same featureset as the others. The games will just have to be downscaled with reduced assets/effects/resolution.

Not sure why you have this weird desire to see one of the consoles skipped for multiplats, though. How does it positively affect you?

I'm just going to assume it has something to do with your avatar or extreme fanboyism.

No I dont remember it for sure. But I think the Xbox was roughly twice as fast as the PS2, correct?. So what does that teach us? It teaches us tyhat developers won't cutoff multiplatforms for a console that is only twice as slow.

But it remains to be seen (hopefully) what developers will do if two consoles are 4 times faster than one family oriented console.