I'd actually been wondering for a while if Sony were going to side with Nintendo on the power front next generation.

Basically, this gen we had PS3 > 360 (but only slightly) >>> Wii. Nearly all multi-plats were developed for the HD twins.

Next gen, what if it was Xbox >>> PS4 > Wii-U. Where would the third parties go then? Would they go straight to the most powerful, or would the hang back with PS4/Wii-U provided there was sufficient market share there?

Or would, in fact, Xbox even go that much more powerful? What if all 3 consoles were just a minor increment more powerful than the HD twins? Wii-U would join the HD race; Sony would clean up and make a more approachable and multi-tasking console; Microsoft might be able to put some power aside for Kinect.

Idk. Will be interesting to see how it plays out anyway.

I'm glad other people are realising that. Its what i've been saying ever since the Wii U was first unveiled. The graphical difference between the 3 cant be huge, otherwise they cant compete in price.

And the scenario you described with the Xbox out of the loop, could happen aswell with the Playstation Orbis out of the loop if it turned out too powerful. Sont doesnt have money for that battle, so Sony has to stick to Nintendo. Its the only chance they have to compete with price and still be more powerful than the WiiU. Wether that power is significant or not is something were gonna see.

Microsoft aims at the same croud Nintendo does (the living room), so its garanteed they will ship with kinect for that end. The difference here is, microsoft can also make a powerful system with that and sell it at a huge loss cause umm... they have the money for that.

An article based on forum comments. That's a new low, don't you think?

@kresnik: That's something that I've also been thinking, 2 consoles with relatively the same power and another one being substantially more powerful than the others.

If that's the case I think that devs would develop for all 3 consoles (or only 2?), with the more powerful console having the better looking version, being more fps with same graphics or better graphics/higher resolution with same fps. Only 1st party games would take advantage of the extra power.

Exactly, but assuming the version on the better console will be better is a strech. Its not what we've seen with the PS3 this gen. Sometimes yes, sometimes not. The games would be developing from scratch to one of the 2 lower consoles (maybe Wii U) and then ported to the other ones with minor upgrades or not.

This makes it look like micrsoft would take a huge loss for nothing, and i believe they are smart enough not to do not and their system will be similar in power to the other 2. Alas, Nintendo made the master move by launching first.

Yes and no.

The PS3 seems to be stronger than the rest, but the difference is small enough to make it irrelevant in multiplat games.

The case Kresnik pointed was with one console being noticeably more powerful than the rest. Say Xbox compared to Dreamcast. In that case the extra power could be used resulting in visible improvements.

But of course there is also a downside. The extra work to make use of the extra power could also mean higher priced games, $70 vs $65 for example. Would you buy the, allegedly, more expensive console with the higher priced games or the cheaper competition with the almost same looking but a bit cheaper games?

I know what I would buy.

Kresnik, as usual, has wisely pointed out what will be the defining question of the next generation: how far apart will the 8th generation consoles be in terms of horsepower, and, more importantly, how will they be grouped? Because if A and B have roughly the same specs, and C is either significantly underpowered or significantly overpowered, I firmly believe C will struggle.

i'm likely to buy sony simply because they make the games i want to play..  but i'll be disappointed if it isn't a significanly powerful upgrade.  i want to see new, better, more advanced gameplay just like i saw from the previous gen to current.  there needs to be a contrast in generations to motivate me to buy.

sony give me a 800$ console with SSD and a huge fan to deal with the high heat... power is never enough...

If Sony pretend to use just the A10 APU in PS4 than it is better to continue with PS3.

I don't want a so weak hardware.

From the discussions in the rumores specs of Orbis and SuperChunk's thread, even with the rumored hardware we should be able to get at least 3 times more power. And that comes from the numbers of the PC parts.

Knowing that in a console the developers can get more power from the hardware, specially the graphics chip, that 3 times could end being 4 or maybe even 5 (hardly, but who knows?).

It's not like with the A10 and that GPU it will be weak, it just won't be as powerful as some though. Just imagine what Naughty Dog will be able to do with 3 or 4 times more power!