I'm not sure if you're aware of this (maybe where the idea is coming from), but Sony is doing exactly this (except with PS games of course). They bought out Gaikai a while back (OnLive competitor), and their goal is to basically stream PS games to any device (starting with PS4 as the first "client"). The service is supposed to launch in 2014. As for MS, I believed they've experimented with doing the same. I got the impression that they're a little behind in their tech, and I think even then, I'm not sure they are as interested in putting forth the resources to do this. But if it becomes feasible, I would imagine they might follow Sony's lead.
I knew they had Gaikai for their cloud, but I didn't know about the ease for apps with PS4. I also wasn't following it as close because I don't have a PS3 or PS3 games. So backward compatibility isn't an issue for me should I get a PS4. But, if like you say, MS will be following Sony's lead on this, then I'll watch and see how it comes out. I know with MS anyone who can program a Window's app can program an app for XB1, so I just presumed it would be easier for those types of apps to come out on XB1.
Wait, are you talking about native emulator apps? I don't see that happening, nor would MS endorse it most likely. I haven't followed how closely they police their stores, but I doubt they'd let that fly on their official store. On top of that, I think the architectural differences would make it difficult to emulate, especially as an "app." If anyone is going to do that, it would have to be MS I think. I guess a streaming client app is possible. Maybe even a Gaikai one.
What I figured is that MS could add the feature of making it backwards compatible at a later date without too much difficulty. I mentioned the DOS emulators as something that is used on PC's and wondered simultaneously as to whether something like that would work on the 360. I didn't think a third party would necessarily do an emulator app, but that if someone came up with it, MS would purchase it or put out their own. Like I said, it's a long shot, and pure speculation at this point. I just don't like the idea of having to keep an old system like the 360 if I had a new one because I would still want to play the old games. The wife also would hate the additional clutter. Either way neither system will have it launch. It's just another thing, I'll have to keep an eye out for in the future.
Emulation is tough, especially with systems like these (definitely not something they could easily add later on). With DOS and PC gaming in general, you generally have the same architecture, plus most games were not really written "directly" to the hardware (note that the games that did, like Rollercoaster Tycoon, DO have problems running on newer machines). It helps having an environment like that, but there is nothing inherent to the Xbox One that will really make it much easier to do than any other machine. MS will just have to write a software emulator, and see if they can get some games to work on it. Maybe only some, maybe most, maybe even all of them. Kind of like what they did with XB1 games for the 360 (and kind of what Sony did with some PS3 models). I guess you could have supercomputers that could more easily emulate 360 games (hence the new power of the cloud), but it would seem easier to just go with game streaming at that point IMO. I think there's a good shot we'll get a bunch of "Full HD Remakes" of popular 360/PS3 on PS4/XBO (likely even using some generalized tools from Sony/MS to help with the transition). Full on software emulation of games would be nice, but it generally seems to be more trouble that it is worth from the standpoint of MS/Sony (especially with different architectures). For Sony, they seem to think it is easier to just stream the game rather than write some sort of emulator that the PS4 (or some other system) could run. FWIW, I think it is a shame they aren't backwards compatible. I understand the design decisions used for this generation of consoles, and going that route makes BC tough (if not impossible). But I think Sony/MS should have done a little more to help out the early adopters. edit: I'm not sure of what the engineering difficulties would be, but I'd probably pay $50-$75 for a "plug in hardware emulator" for these systems. Basically something with the 360's (or PS3's) CPU+GPU+whatever else might make emulation tough. I recall some patents Sony put out hinting at this, but I'm guessing they'll never bother with something like that.
Yeah, I wondered about the possibility of doing remakes of older games for the new systems. I just figured some sort of emulator type app would be easier. I don't know how much would have to go into remaking a bunch of the old games. If they did remake old games to be played on the new systems I could see a package coming out with the new releases that would include some of the old games in a series. If they did that I would probably get the newer system sooner.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/E2Vlsqft27I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I want to play my beloved Fight Night Round Two!! SO much better than any of the later versions! I have to drag out the old XBox if I want to play it, and THAT is a huge pain.
PS4 being more powerful means diddly do. The PS3 was vastly better than the 360, power wise, but the developers designed their games on Xbox, and ported them over to the PS3. Take COD Ghosts for instance. 1080p on PS4 vs 720P on Xbox One. So you think "Wow, it's a lot better on PS4"....Except the fact that there are numerous reports of the frame rate being terrible, and multiple stutters and problems with the PS4 version. So the Xbox version will actually be better. It comes down to, what it came down to last time. Which system will multi platform games be designed on. If its PS4, the Xbox One will suffer. If its Xbox One, the PS4 will suffer. Frankly, It will be so close 99.9% of people won't be able to notice. The issues I see is no bluetooth, and no 3D. That hurts. With that said, I'm still getting the Xbox One because I cant stand the PS4 controller
It sounds like the CoD framerate is bad on both platforms (Jeremy Conrad seemed to imply so IIRC). PS4 has been called out specifically because there is an embargo on the XBO version, but I think it is likely both versions have problems. If I'm not mistaken, even the PC version (on crazy high-end systems) has framerate problems. It isn't impossible, but it seems more likely that all versions of the game are a little rough on the framerate. The PS4 vs XBO situation is much different than the PS3 vs 360 situation from a technical standpoint. The PS3 was more powerful overall, but it was weaker in certain areas. And for the majority of games, these weak spots tended to be the bottlenecks (the PS3's strengths were rarely utilized in games, except in PS3 exclusives, and even that took a lot of work/time from PS3 devs). 360 had a better GPU and a better RAM setup (could possibly argue some CPU advantages too). Also a better scaler. MS has overclocked the CPU some, so technically it has the better CPU I guess (though it is unclear to me how this breaks down after you take away reserved system resourced). For the most part, everything else is better on the PS4. And I mean everything. Since they are the same architecture (more or less), you don't really have situations like in generations past where one design is better at some things, and the other design is better at other things (e.g., Xbox 1 was substantially better than PS2, but PS2's exotic architecture actually allowed it to "outdo" the Xbox at some things...hell, it could sort of outdo the PS3 in some things, which is partly why it was so difficult to emulate). XBO does have the ESRAM, the aforementioned CPU clock advantage, and maybe a few other minor advantages. But for the most part, any game that is designed to take advantage of it will likely perform better on PS4 (this usually wasn't the case when you were porting 360 games). Long story short, you can't really use the 360 and PS3 situation for these new consoles, outside of maybe some general point about how devs might prefer parity with their multiplatform games. That actually doesn't seem that true, but I could see some devs using the XBO as the lowest common denominator.
QuestionSlightly off topic) I'm going to trade in my 360 tomorrow and I can't find the AV cord. Does Gamestop require it?
no and yes, i traded in my PS3 and forgot my av/hdmi cable and they said we are going to have to take $12 off the trade in value.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Yxb3k9rptcM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> This is pretty cool.
Exactly. That's why I can't find it... Thanks for the info. I'll go by Gamestop and ask today and see what they say. Hopefully they'll accept a HDMI cord instead.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-dead-rising-3 Unfortunate. The game looked promising. Framerate isn't everything of course, but I'm not trying to play games sub 20 fps in this day and age. Why spend all the money for a top tier video card or console then?
I can easily see how a lot of people would be really enthusiastic about having a device that allows them to throw on ESPN while they're playing something. But for myself, I already have 2 HDTVs side-by-side. It's pretty great to watch Netflix while gaming. The Xbox One is certainly a cheaper way to achieve that though, even if your "2nd screen" is very small. Still, cool feature. If you could pull up a GameFAQs FAQ in IE while playing and have the text actually be readable from 10 feet away, that would be cool too.
