Yeah, they are. But I don't really see them as a threat to either of these two consoles. I mean, the idea behind what I was talking about with Android being on there would be more for multimedia side of the PS4, rather than actual gaming on Android. To me the current Playstation OS seems a bit boring. I just think with Android, the possibilites are endless for things, especially since Android is already a mobile OS. A sort of Windows RT or something could work out nicely on Xbox, especially since the Microsoft App Store has launched with Windows 8. It just goes hand-in-hand with computers and smartphones. I heard about a rumor that Microsoft was going in the direction of Skype as its primary solution for all things Xbox Live chatting, including parties (which isn't a surprise since they've already integrated Live Messenger and Skype together). That opens up ability to chat between Xbox and Computers/Smartphones on a bigger scale than it already is. I'm right with you on the PS4/Android stuff. It would be smart on Sony's part, but I can't see it happening.
This kind of reminds of an interesting point about these newer consoles... With this generation of consoles, we finally got "updateable " operating systems (maybe Xbox 1 had it, can't remember, though I don't recall it being a big deal). Of the two consoles, MS did a much better job of providing a good experience at launch with the 360 (PS3 OS was a mess at launch), but both consoles offer a much better experience today than they did on day 1. For the most part, this hadn't really been done in the console space, so Sony and MS had to kind of figure out things on the fly. With Durango and Orbis, they'll be able to take the lessons they've learned with 360/PS3, and do things even better this next generation. I don't know what to expect, but I am looking forward to some better OS functionality with these new consoles. The rumored reserved RAM alone seems to hint at some intriguing possibilities (again, IIRC current-gen systems only reserve around 30MB, and look at what they're capable of doing).
You're crazy if you think people aren't ready for new consoles. As for the "weak" sales of Wii U; I blame their marketing. They haven't been able to "sell" the difference on their console, and they haven't had the games out to back it up yet. As for a $400 PS4 -- I think they're making a mistake unless they're including 2 games. People will absolutely buy a new generation of consoles, and if you had a high end PC you'd know just how far behind the current generation is.
speak of the devil..... http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027595/ouya-game-console-confirms-yearly-updates.html Ouya game console confirms yearly updates If you’re excited about Ouya but skittish about getting in on the ground floor, you might just want to wait it out until next year. Julie Uhrman, Ouya’s CEO, confirmed to Engadget that the $100 Android-based game console will be replaced by new hardware on an annual basis. “We’ll take advantage of faster, better processors, take advantage of prices falling. So if we can get more than 8GB of Flash in our box, we will,” Uhrman said. The first-generation Ouya, which will arrive in stores in June, has an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor inside. Uhrman didn’t talk specifics for future hardware, but Nvidia’s Tegra 4 chip would be an obvious candidate for the next version.
No, the Wii U sales suck because the people who spend the most on video games are 12-35 year old males... and they don't want gimmicky, playful crap. I don't think consoles are going to be around much longer, they are already hybrid devices as in console/set-top boxes. There is a huge market for them still and there will be, but the infrastructure for them will eventually just be online terminals or dummy boxes for content distributed from the web (like the Steam Box). Game makers and game studios are eventually going to stop making console games due to the increased licensing fees, sooner or later it will be more work for very little extra revenue. As for all of the stupid rumors flying around about the new Xbox on sites like the Verge, don't waste your time. That entire building is on complete lock down on Microsoft's campus. This is the same building that kept the Surface under wraps. Everything you hear and read are people simply talking out of their asses.
Depends on what rumors you're talking about (I'm definitely VERY skeptical about some of these rumors), but this isn't really comparable to the Surface. They could keep that info contained to one building. They can't keep Durango info contained the same way. If they want developers to have games ready for it later this year, that info (and working prototypes of hardware/software) will need to be out there (actually, they needed to be out there 12+ months ago, but you get the idea). I can see certain things like pricing, OS/services functionality, etc., being kept under wraps, but specs and certain other things are very difficult to keep secret if you're actually working with developers.
When they publicly announce it, it will be at least six months before it launches, leaving plenty of time for many developers. The back-end code will be minimally changed, the hardware will be the big change. Also, Microsoft is one of the largest publishers for Xbox games (see Halo franchise), so their own in-house teams will be working on the console launching games. No company in the world gives their developers more tools to succeed than Microsoft.
Yeah? I'm a 29 year old male, and play a FPS at a competitive level about 3-4 hours a day. I also bought a Wii U. There's a difference between playing this thing and seeing it on TV; Nintendoland is one of the best pack in games I've ever played (and I've owned almost every major console with the exception of the playstation line). I think Nintendo has actually learned from their mistakes with hardcore gamers (they majorly pissed me off with the Wii, so much that I sold mine and had no intentions of getting a Wii U). Consoles take time to mature these days, and I do think in the long term the Wii U will be a success. It already is, it just isn't outselling the Wii, which was at the time revolutionary. People just need to have reasonable expectations.
6 months is far from enough time for developers to get a game ready for release by the end of the year (especially a next-gen game). Even just a port. Could possibly get it done if they only had ~6 months with final devkits (i.e., basically something identical to the final system, except maybe with more RAM, ethernet ports, etc.). But they'd need to have had alpha and "almost final" devkits long before that so they could get the basics of their game up and running (hopefully keeping in mind the final specs, even if final hardware isn't available). I don't think any recent, major console has rolled out like that. I'm fairly sure that some (3rd party) developers have near final devkits for Durango right now (MS would likely want something to show when they are ready to reveal the system), and that they've probably had early versions of Durango devkits for ~12 months or so (maybe more...ideally). MS actually isn't that large of a 1st party publisher (in relation to the other 2), though you're right that they do make several of the more popular games. That said, they just released major titles from these franchises (Halo, Forza, etc.), and I really doubt those would be there at launch this year (will be lucky to see demos from these teams at the unveiling). Even if a few of these were there at launch, the majority of launch games will (or should) be 3rd party games.
All multi-console selling franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield could churn out a port of their PC version to desktop in a matter of months. EA did so with Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360. The console biggest launch games have and always will be Microsoft titles. They are the Publisher for Gears of War, Halo, Forza, Fable and many others... all which are platform selling titles. With Xbox 360 they had 21 games at launch. Project Gotham Racing and Perfect Dark Zero were two (MS published), and that was without digital distribution, which the next Xbox surely will have. I don't think people understand how easy it will be to port a PC game to Xbox and vice-versa. The Xbox succeeded out of the gate and the Playstation struggled because of their difference in development ecosystems. I have no doubt that the new Xbox is going to share the same Kernel as Windows Phone and Windows 8. That is the direction of Microsoft, a unified developer and user experience across all platforms. I'm betting HTML5+JavaScript apps will be coming to Xbox Live as well, and Xbox for Windows 8 will allow for many games to be played on the PC or Xbox. Xbox is a brand and an ecosystem now, it's far from a console. Either way, Next Xbox + Halo 5 (or Halo game) = End of Story
I don't think there's any evidence that Activision (EA doesn't publish COD) was able to get COD2 ported while only having a few months of access to info/hardware from MS about the 360. COD2 was playable on the 360 in May 2005, ~6 months before its release, and presumably they had a few months head-start (at least) to get the demo prepared (I'm sure they had COD2 running on devkits 6-12 months prior to this, but just assuming the least amount of time). And even in this scenario, the launch was rushed, and ideally you'd give developers more time with devkits. Not the case with the 360 (at least in NA). COD2 was best seller, followed by Madden and NFS. I believe COD2 might have been the best reviewed game too, although I might be remembering wrong. Also had Kameo, but not a big deal to this conversation. I'd think the Durango launch would be similar to the 360 launch. ~20 games, mostly 3rd party games (lots of development teams for those games). And possibly a good chance that a 3rd party game will be the best seller (especially with Halo, Forza, and Gears already being release on 360 just prior to launch). Not sure if you mean with Durango or the platform in general. It is easier than other platforms (usually), but not THAT easy. Witcher 2 released on PC in May 2011, a 360 version announced in June 2011, and the 360 version went gold during the end of March 2012. And that's with a talented developer who have had 360 hardware/tools for a long time. And as NBA2K (and other titles) have shown, it certainly doesn't appear super easy to port 360 games to the PC (even now when PCs have WAY more hardware power, so it shouldn't be as difficult to get "acceptable" performance on mainstream machines). I don't doubt that MS will make some great tools for Durango, and going with more traditional hardware will help with development (and allow for apps using HTML5+JS, or even other frameworks). But it still takes a lot of work to make a console game that takes advantage of specific hardware (can't just put out something that runs at 480p and @ 22 FPS). Just to reiterate my overall point, 3rd party developers have access to Durango hardware, specs, tools, etc., and have had access for quite a while. Not only does this match what pretty much every other console has done (including the two previous Xbox platforms), it also just makes the most sense.
Key developers are always brought in ahead of general announcement. However, their work probably stays within Studio B on the Microsoft Campus, aka Fort Knox. Either way, extreme NDAs will be in place. I think Microsoft will leave nothing to chance. They'll release a tier 1 title of their own at launch. The point is, the next Xbox will share a kernel with Windows 8 and Windows Phone... right now the Xbox 360 has it's own proprietary tool set and kernel. As an example, you can port a Windows 8 App, to a Windows Store App with a few lines of code. Sure you'll have to edit how it looks and performs, but the initial functionality takes 1/10th of the time it used to. The same will go for Xbox whatever. Also, we have no idea why it took them so long to port Witcher, it could have been staffing reasons, funding, etc. I don't buy a lot of the "leaks" I've seen on Durango, just like I didn't buy the 7" Xbox tablet. I have a feeling an SDK will be generally available for Visual Studio, and since it is a shared kernel you could run an emulator on your Windows 8 PC to emulate the game within the next Xbox environment... bypassing the need for a developer console (for most people). See my point above, I think you'll be able to develop and test for the next Xbox from a Windows 8 PC with Visual Studio 2012 and a simple SDK. There's no reason not to do it that way considering the next Xbox is a PC in a different form factor. I also think they'll create a self-published system like they have for Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, where they take 30% of the pie for providing you a platform and distribution model. Their Branding of Xbox Music and Xbox Movies/TV leads me to these conclusions. They are looking to make Xbox a brand, and Xbox as a content delivery system... and what better way to deliver content than to crowd-source content for a 30% chunk? They already have that delivery system in place with Windows Phone and Windows 8. Absolutely no reason to not do it for Xbox.
Games have been an issue with Nintendo for a decade. Their lack of 3rd party titles, and their core characters featuring rehashed storylines makes for a weak series of games. With Skyward Sword being launched 12 months before WiiU, we are looking at a while before we even see their 2nd biggest character hitting the console.
Interesting that there is quite a bit of smoke with both the Orbis and Durango on preventing used games. I don't expect either console to launch with this feature turned on, but that doesn't mean that a future OS update won't allow that to change at a later date. Gamestop is freaking after their stock price dropped, and I think they have an idea that Microsoft or Sony are seriously looking at this option. Gamers would instantly flock to the other console if one blocked the ability to play used games and the other didn't if all things were equal. But what if publishers agreed to a $5-20 discount per game for a console that allowed games to only be played by the original owner? It would likely lead to larger firsthand sales and more revenue so I could see something along those lines playing out. Gamers would pause if they couldn't play used games or sell their existing games but could get their new games for a discounted price. Which console would they pick? If enough go with the cheaper games\no used route, I would expect both consoles to be on the same no used game path shortly. More likely than an outright ban on used games, at least initially, would be targeted games being prohibited from being played on more than one system. I could see EA or Activision working out a deal with either one or both consoles to block used games from their catalog by agreeing to a price cut. I'm curious to see how this plays out, but I see it an inevitable to help boost profits.
They're remaking Wind Waker in HD; personally I've never played it and I'm excited about it. I know it's a rehash which kind of co-signs your point, but it does take time to make a good game. I've been playing through Skyward Sword and it's frankly amazing (I wish the graphics were better, but that's neither here nor there). I still feel like there's a place for Nintendo.
Yeah, Windwaker is the only non-gameboy Zelda I don't own. The weird graphics just turned me off immediately while playing the demo on the Collector's disc. Made it seem childish.
That's one reason I didn't play other than not having a gamecube, but a lot of people say it's one of the best games ever. It looks amazing in HD, I'll be picking it up.
