You're probably right, which is nice. But do you agree with me? I just dont see how consoles can compete if they're costing a lot, and on top of it losing money from each console they sell.
As long as these consoles don't always cost a lot, it probably won't be much of a problem IMO, especially if we do have longer lifecycles. They should be able to sell just as many systems that way, just spread out a little more. A $500 PS3 doesn't look attractive now, but a $250 PS3 in 2009 or so might. I could see companies being more aggressive with price cuts though. We'll probably see frequent (and more) price cuts with these higher prices in order to keep demand going relatively strong.
Maybe, but if you really want a good gaming PC (i.e. some that will be superior to console) you're looking at $3k minimum today. Top of the line, $5K. It'll be a while before console gets to that point, and gaming PC will probably see a spike in price anyways. The biggest difference between console and PC gaming in my opionion is that developers can get more out of a console as they work with it more. Look at the difference in graphics overtime on the PS2 and XBOX, they happen without any upgrades in the hardware because developers learn the hardware and toolkit and how to more effeciently use it. With PC gaming, there is no standard device and toolkit, so games that are developed are not using resources most effeciently. (Warning the following analogy might totally not work) It's kind of like traffic in a city with large groups of people wanting to get from point A to point B. Now the highway is the easiest way directionwise to get there, so everybody uses, and it gets conjested. The only way to improve traffic flow is a: build bigger highways b: Find alternate routes Now in PC gaming with so many combinations of hardware out there, you really aren't sure if the alternate routes you decide to take will actually lead you where you want to go, so you play it safe and stick to the highway and wait for bigger highways to be built. On the other hand, console is like a city with a map, you might not always have the best roads, but you start to learn what is the best way to get from point A to B.
Maybe...but dont you think most if they wait untile 2009 to get a PS3 at $250, a new one expected to launch 2012..dont you think most would say well might as well wait for the new system. And if they see the price is ridiculously high, might not want to buy the new one. So if they said ok well i'll just buy the PS3 and be a console back, kind of eliminates the purpose of Sony or whoever making new consoles doesnt it? If everyone decides well i'll just wait to buy an outdated system from now on. Thoughts?
Really? I dont know maybe i'm just outdated, but I built a computer for right around 1k a year ago and i think its an alright system for gaming. Granted, I dont play very many computer games, but the ones I do play it handles well. I'm sure PC will see spike in prices as well, but really if you think about it, a lot of computers are out dated in like 4-5 yrs anyways..depending on how current you need it to be, and you can build and up to date one relatively cheap, much like mine now. Had a compaq my family bought at a store 5 yrs ago, had windows 98 until just last year built this one. I dont know i'm just kind of speculating with these questions. I mean I have a friend now who has yet to buy any new system, he does have a PS2, has had it since it first came out...he doesnt plan on buying a new system either. Just costs to much in his opinion. He just sticks with his PS2, SNES. If prices are going to continue to sky rocket, dont you think others will soon follow what hes doing?
You can get a PC to play games for about $1K, but if you want a gaming PC, it's going to set you back pretty hard. I'm really more or less out of the loop my self but I think a $2-300 hundred dollar video cards a common these days and top of the line gets close to $7-800. Then you have to make sure that and all your other components mesh well with each other(which usually take more research time than I'm willing to shell out to build a PC). My brother was looking into getting a gaming PC and the things he want (basically what he said is required to play "Supreme Commander" adequately are in the price ranges I quoted above.) I'm not sure about your specs but does your $1k PC run Oblivion better than a 360 a third of it's price, what about in another 2 years and developers get even more familiar with a 360 and starts adding more new games? How much are upgrades gonna cost you to keep up gaming wise? I use to love PC gaming, but I've just didn't like how fast things gets outdated (I was finding my self spending more money than I'd like just to keep up, not to mention constantly having to read threads on hardocp and etc just to make sure I'm getting a correct system). Yes, you can spend money and your PC will be better than console for a little while, but if your intent is to play games, PC gaming gets expensive and time consuming very fast.
Yea I definitely see your point. It can get costly, like I said i'm just speculating, we'll just have to wait and see how things go.
The people that want to pay ~$250 for a console probably stay close to a console back anyway. I think the majority of PS2 sales came after it went from $300 to $200 in 2002, 3 years before this generation of consoles started. If I'm not mistaken, something like 20M slim PS2s have been purchased (maybe even way more than that by now), and those were released in late 2004 IIRC. There are going to be a decent number of people willing to pay $400 or more for a system. The ~6M people that bought a PS3 and/or 360 already will probably be looking to get a new console in 2012-2013. The rest (which includes myself ) will probably look into getting a next-gen system about the same time they get one this time around. Regarding the PC aspect, I more or less agree with wizkid, although I think you can get a nice gaming PC for a little cheaper than what he said. But as he said, you'd probably have to do some updating every other year or so. Oblivion is probably a bad example though. I can't remember exactly how much I spent on the PC I got last year, but it was probably around $1250-$1500 for my PC, and I'm pretty sure it runs Oblivion MUCH better than the 360 did (especially with the mods). This is partly due to the fact that the game is a PC game ported to the consoles by a PC-oriented developer (though they are diversifying). I think even if the two platforms cost the same, I don't think a lot of gamers would easily just give up console gaming for PC gaming. A ton of differences there (no 2K sports games, delayed releases for Halo/GTA/GOW/etc., little support from Japanese developers, etc.).
A good video card runs you 570$ and then you have to get a processor that can get use out of it which can run you all the way to 1K. Then you got the motherboard, casing, new power supply, GIG of RAM, dvd drive, floppy, hard drive. I mean, a lot of us built desktops before that 1st year of college but they can't handle what people mean when they say "gaming". Anyone who had a Voodoo 3 back in the day knows what i mean
Here's a question - if you have a TV with an HDMI port (a single one as is standard), but you have a digital cable box AND a console with HDMI ports, WTF do you do?
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...cs_id=1011002&p_id=3047&seq=1&format=2&style= Something like that might work for switching between HDMI devices (not sure if there is something better and/or cheaper). Not sure how well they work either.
Some pics of the black 360: Spoiler I think an official announcement will be made in the next few days (maybe tomorrow or Wednesday).
I sometimes spoiler tag pictures so that people don't have to scroll through a bunch of pictures they've already seen when viewing this thread. It usually works better with huge images (like 1280x720, or 1920x1080), but I sometimes do it for smaller images too, especially if I have several of them.
Hey guys, guess what Microsoft just announced! http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3158254 I bet you never saw that coming. 1UP has 3 related articles on this: Sony: Every PlayStation Consumer is 'Elite' Elite or Not? 1UP Network Editors on Microsoft's New 360 Better Value? Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's Elite 360 I think they also announced some more stuff related to the video they offer on the XBLM.
I have a question concerning hooking up an internet connection to a 360. As I understand it, there is no WiFi. But say, as in my case, you aren't really capable of running a cable all the way from your router to your XBox. I have a wireless router, and would prefer to utilize that capability for this XBox. Is there some device that can pick up that wireless signal from my router that I can just plug into the XBox 360, or that I can run a short CAT5 cable to it? I guess I was under the impression that all the next-gen consoles had WiFi and I made some promises to my son about XBox Live on his new 360 that I'm afraid I can't live up to.
