Which is really nice since I play in between classes on weekdays and it really is longer than you think between booting up the system, booting up the game, loading your game, and waiting for the world to load.  Also I don't want to leave my PS4 on in an apartment that will probably be pretty hot once spring rolls around (generally wouldn't want to leave it on long with a launch system because even the 10% YLOD had me worried let alone 50% RROD)

Can developers afford to utilize all the extra ram? Is the progress of console hardware outpacing the feasible potential of developers and possibly resulting in leaving a lot of untapped horsepower? It seems there have been a boatload of stories of developers downsizing in recent years because of failures to reach target sales. Target sales that may just not be sustained by the market because of the outrageous cost to produce these games requires several millions of units need to be sold to turn profit.

People that say AI will advance a lot are full of shit. Civilization can't even improve on its AI which shouldn't be that hard for a turn based strategy game. I hope they improve physics because the Crysis 1 video that shows a turtle walking on two legs makes it look like shit.

Ram is easy to waste and use. However, just remember Ram itself doesn't do any type of processing.
Think of it as a super ultra fast flash drive that holds information that the CPU, GPU and other I/O stuff grab when they need it.

The thing with this current Generation though is comparatively, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 had relatively high-end graphics processors compared to what was available on the PC at the time.
This time around they're running with only a Radeon 7850, which is mid-range stuff. - Better than the Radeon 6670/7670 rumours that flew around at one stage that I was dreading, but I would have loved for them to have dropped something even faster into the box.

As for the CPU that's going into the PS4, it's a slow heap of crap. - Something I would use in a HTPC under my television or in a Tablet or a Netbook.
Then again the Xbox 360's CPU and the Playstation 3's CPU aren't exactly speed demons either and there are simple reasons for that, one is power budgets, second is cost which is also in direct relation to the fabrication process and transister counts.

Just remember that whenever Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo "claim" something in regards to what their consoles can do, take it with a pinch of salt, they're advertising to get you to buy the machines, they're not super computers or even equivalent to a high-end PC.
Heck most developers will probably abuse the Unreal Engine anyway again, rather than push image quality.

Exactly what award one wins for not being "lazy"?  Is there some sort of golden cookie they give out?  There is a reality of tight deadlines and need to get things out to the market inside tight windows.  In light of this, why wouldn't  there be said "laziness"?  And I find it interesting that "lazy" is thrown around a bunch by people who don't work in the industry and don't kow what is involved.

How about replacing the word lazy with easy money grab or putting your B team to work on a console or not investing that much money or setting that much time to develop a game for a console (Madden Wii U developed in less than 6 months) or how about copy and paste a leading game in a genre or how about setting unrealistic goals for a title that would not sell that much then pulling any future support or how about the video game industry is just one giant pile of immature shit most of the times.

Next-gen consoles will be much eaiser to develop for. This will make multiplatform development cheaper and even lead to more games being put on PC/Steam.

Thanks for posting this. I stayed out of this thread because I didn't want to tell people *again* that they don't know what RAM actually is for but I totally agree with you :)

Again, in short, RAM is to reduce computing units io-wait. Simple as that. All can be inferred to such a simple statement.

You mean everything that is not a AAA flagship title?  That is the norm, and what you describe I would agree with, but fit it under greed far more than laziness.  What is really not lazy is writing in assembler and max optimizing things, which is not able to be afforded these days, because it really doesn't make for much of a difference.

The reality is there aren't many Bioshock Infinites out there at all.  Rest is what suits think will sell, and then get it to market as quickly as possible, hoping it doesn't crash and burn.

Gross incompetency and sheer stupidity is what you lay at the feet of management.  Laziness is what you fault coders for.  But people don't pay for coders to not be lazy.

I don't think the GPUs of PS4/720 will be able to push all that data at once. So I think the Ram will influence tons of things not directly related to graphics. Skyrim for example imagine no loadtimes imagine breaking through the windows of a house and soldiers on the streets running around infront of the house while you look out the broken window. Imagine more variation in textures.

More different types of Intelligence NPCs could have a more individualized AI. Depending on character race . More NPCs at once everything now can have more depth. Game design was mostly limited to 512-1gb Ram in the past. With 6-7gb Ram Developers now can change everything if they want to. Games now can start to try things that were previously not possible.