Moore's law to the help. Let's suppose the next Playstation will be released 2011/2012. Even if the PS4 costs only 400$ to produce at that time (instead of 800$) as the PS3, it will be an order of magnitude faster than the PS3.

@ darth

I'm just joking, that guy is a serious ass.

Kyros said: I don't think developers will be interested in spending the money required to take advantage of much more advanced hardware. Moore's law to the help. Let's suppose the next Playstation will be released 2011/2012. Even if the PS4 costs only 400$ to produce at that time (instead of 800$) as the PS3, it will be an order of magnitude faster than the PS3.

 

 And will still cost about double to produce a game that takes full advantage of the hardware compared to this generation.

Even if the harware is twice as fast in the future, very few developers will spend the money required to take advantage of it.

LOL more power is never bad. Every developer is welcome to use lower-res textures , worse animations etc. You can make a PS3 game that looks like a Wii game without any problems. That will be even cheaper because you do not need to optimize ANYTHING. Only one factor forces developers to use huge resources for making games movie-like: Other developers. That's a nice thing called "competition". Or in other words: If huge production values wouldn't sell and bring return on investment, developers wouldn't have them. The huge number of games that are released for PS3 and 360 speak for themselves.

If consumers prefer the good-looking games that are expensive to make, smaller developers and niche titles may loose out. But thats not much different for movies. I think the slow hardware is better for developers argument must be one of the most curious reality distortion field arguments coming from Nintendo fans I have ever heard.

I don't know why everyone thinks Nintendo is incapable of making a powerful console. Their last three were the most powerful of their respective generations (GameCube tied with Xbox). They weren't sure how well the Wii would be received, so they wanted to make sure they still made some nice cash if it sold 10 million lifetime.

Believe me, they know that they have alienated some of the more fickle gamers by making a graphically weak system--they will rectify that next generation and STILL make profit per system sold. And don't even try bringing up the DS--it was meant to be a handheld POWERHOUSE until PSP specs were announced.

@Topic: There'll obviously be graphical increases--they'll probably have the current consoles' peak performances as the 'low bar'--but they'll focus on interface more.

I see the fallout from this generation having two equal but different influences on the industry which will lower the emphasis on creating high end graphics; diminishing returns on investment in high end graphics, and the Wii's success without high end graphics.

Now this doesn't mean that the next generation consoles won't have noticeably better graphics than the PS3 or XBox 360 because the hardware costs of producing better graphics in 2011/2012 will be pretty tiny; consider what the latest and greatest GPU and CPU of today will cost in 2011/2012, and how much you could enhance this processor without running into cost or heat problems.

From a developer perspective I think the Wii's success will have a great influence on how developers see things from now on. If you are producing a big budget blockbuster it makes sense to take advantage of the latest and greatest technology because you're almost ensured to recover your cost and the graphics will help sell your game; if you're working on  title which is much smaller it makes more sense to produce crisp and clean graphics that are expressive and not necessarily all that advanced.

 

They ask this question with every generation, and they yet they always find ways to improve on tiny details and call it a massive leap forward. It will happen with this generation too.

No they will get better for the next few generations

They will get better, but the next sales point will be wiimote like controls, if any next gen console come in without this feature depending alone in the graphics it will finish last, the emphasis of the next gen will be interaction over graphics... (Makes sense since the production cost will be lower and the dev cost will be lower too)

Graphically games in this gen will improve no end. When you compare the looks of PS2 games in its first couple of years and the games coming out now its like looking at two different gen systems. The same will happen with the PS3 for sure, whether MS give the 360 time to reach that sort of maturity i don't know but I'm guessing that the next xbox (what ever they wish to call it) is already being planned. The talk I've heard suggests that the next Xbox maybe their last in the world of consoles but maybe that has more to do with the fact that the future of the home PC will end up under the TV than money lost in this console battle.