Hot on the heels of Nintendo’s Wii U announcement at E3 2011, Videogamer.com is reporting that a “high-ranking industry source” at Crytek has leaked the news that Microsoft will announce their Xbox 360 successor next year at E3.
Whether or not the source can be trusted (every rumor comes from a “high-ranking person” these days) we can’t deny that Sony and Microsoft are finally turning their eyes towards the future, perhaps even more so now that Nintendo beat them to the punch. Speculating on whether or not this is a real leak is probably a waste of time; it’s more likely than not that this is just an attempt to get some hits. What’s more fun and productive is guessing what Microsoft and Sony’s next gen consoles will be like.
The Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4 (or whatever they end up calling them) will no doubt feature beefed up graphical capabilities, but how far will they go? The article sates that Microsoft will include DirectX 11 in the new system, which seems pretty reasonable to me, considering how far along technologically we’ve come since the Xbox 360’s launch. What about Sony, though? What problems from this generation do you want them to fix? Sound off!
Source – Videogamer.com
Trick question; whatever one of them comes up with the other will rip-off.
But really I don’t expect anything outside of the usual graphical upgrade and new games from their respective exclusive properties (Halo, Uncharted etc.)
Does that XBOX look like an alien spaceship?
Anyway, upgrading the hardware, while impressive, would be putting the cart before the horse. There were a few issues that needed to be hammered out in this generation at launch that I’d rather not see repeated.
1. Smoother online interfaces:
XBOX Live handled like NetScape 1.0 trying to run with all the add-ons of the current generation.
PSOnline was super smooth, but super simple (and as we recently learned: super hackable).
Nintendo… what online support?
2. More games at launch:
Whatever platform is delivered needs to be handed over to game developers sooner. Those companies need to be given time to familiarize themselves with the systems. Otherwise, we’ll see a repeat of PS3’s early years where there were only a few good games out, and it was selling on future potential. Granted, they built on that potential very well, but we were still left in the dark for a year with only MGS4 to keep us company.
3. A properly finished product:
No red rings of death. Microsoft is going to have to really step up this time and deliver a final product that doesn’t crash 30 minutes after picking it up from BestBuy.
Online Security for Sony!
Actually beyond console issues i would like to stop having to deal with Microsoft points to buy DLC and such. And no critical issues like Red Rings would be very nice
Frankly, we should not be having this debate. This generation just started. The 360 and PS3 still have life in them and developers are accustomed to building games for the platforms. Believe me, it was a pain to make new games for this gen when it started, and developers don’t want to go through that again by next year. Graphics whores be damned, the PS3 and 360 have just started to live up to their true processing and graphical powers. Even if they’re a bit outdated, ALL ELECTRONICS ARE. They look good enough, stop crying about not being able to play Crysis 1 on the 360. Graphics are good enough, no amount of tweaking will seriously make them look any better.
It’s too costly for developers, publishers, and consumers to have MORE consoles to worry about, and this generation is just getting good. We’ll be playing on the 360 and PS3 for at least the next 4 years.
[quote comment=”16810″]This generation just started.[/quote]
While it may feel that way and I wish it were true, this generation is well “over the hill”
Im perfectly happy with my consoles. However, one thing Id like to do is put my controller on top of it and have it charge…that is the FUTURE
We NEED some new consoles. If wikipedia is to be believed both the 360 and PS3 have 512 MB of RAM, for a similarly priced computer, you can get at retail prices for $300 we can get a processor, video card, and RAM of much higher capabilities. However only recently have developers (DICE) been pushing their software past the consoles limitations; why do you think all the demos you saw of BF3 at E3 were on PC? At this point in development the consoles are pushed to their limits (how many discs did L.A. Noire have?). If new consoles are proposed with even moderately improved hardware it would allow both PC and console gamers to have huge advancements in graphics and game play possibilities.
I’m with Darklight. Taking a punch of PC parts that were awesome 3 years ago, making them smaller and putting them in a sexy box isn’t enough. I think most people hoping for a graphical powerhouse are mostly PC gamers. Why not instead show some really unique things (see: NOT motion control) that would make a guy like me consider buying your machine instead of exclusive games that aren’t even available at launch!?
What do I want from Sony and Microsoft’s next gen systems?
I want them to come out in 5 or 6 years. That’s it.
Well, Sony could beef up PSN, but the 5 to 6 years is the primary target I wish for them to achieve.
Haha Nintendo did not “Beat them to the punch” in my opinion. They threw out some sort of hybrid bastard stepchild between the next gen and now. I dont think the Wii U is in any way next gen.
As for what I want to see in the 720, its pretty much what follows. I want it to support 3D. Hopefully we will have good glasses less 3D or 3D more like the movies. I think it HAS to support 3D though. I want to see graphics more comparable to the PCs we are seeing today. Not the super high end ones maybe, but we can see another great leap in design. I want ACTIVE HDMI support. This would allow for ETHERNET to run through the HDMI cord as well. Id also like to try and see them do something with bluetooth (or the other new wireless tech thats coming out) and their headsets. Id love to see wireless voice capabilities where I can just wear a headset, no cords attached. I think we are finally at the point we can hit totally wireless. On the software side I think its time we see either cloud storage or we see something along the lines of what STEAM does in tearms of their games. I want to be able to just log into my live account and be able to play any of the games I own. To me games should be kept on the HDD anyway. With the removal of the removable HDD with the 360 Slim, I think they need to combat the fact I cant really carry games around anymore by default.
WIth the PS4, throw in whats above for the 720 as well. Id love to see playstation change their interface, which given the Vita they probably will. Thats kind of all I can think of for the PS4.
I really hope they push the tech envelope with this next generation. With what machines are capable of now, I think its time we really see some amazing things from a gaming system.
this is what I think will happen not what I want to happen.
exclusive to Sony:
the PS4 will have two online models, the free one will get you basic multiplayer but nothing more. The Paid online model will get you, Access to early demo’s, free stuff, cross play with PSVita which means that for certain titles you can play on your PS4 and then switch to the PSVita. On top of this you will get a further integrated steam feature which will allow you to get copies of steam games on your PS4 for certain titles.
there will also be a cloud gaming set up which for a few downloadable games. This will work like onlive and will be like a beta that they will work on throughout the life cycle of the system.
it will ship with an advanced copy of Move. Sony will announce that the PS4 will work with any appropriately labeled Sony tablet, meaning you can use the tablet as a controller, for example using it to navigate an RTS where the tablet is a top down view of the world map that you can use to better select units, navigate etc… you will also be able to use the PSVita as a controller for the PS4 much like the new Nintendo controller.
exclusive to Xbox:
Microsoft will upgrade there online and integrate both Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live (GfWL), they will do all that they can to compete with Steam especially because it is now on the PS4. This means that for a few exclusive titles you will get the PC version of the game when you purchase it for the Xbox.
Kinect will be integrated into the console and the camera will be better but the games for it will still suck.
there will be extensive stats and features that you can use to track your gamer score and performance on games and you will get exclusive stuff for competing in weekly games and puzzles (this will cross over to the PC through GfWL as well as the windows phone which Microsoft will heavily advertise because of its integration with the Xbox.)
Exlusive to both consoles.
With the death of classic TV becoming a reality, and with more and more people going with a media PC to watch there favorite shows on, both Microsoft and Sony will make deals with most of the major television companies so that we will get AMC, HBO, and other major networks on the Xbox and PS4. this will only be available for a monthly fee that will be included in the Xbox Gold or PlayStation Plus account.
Both systems will be 3D compatible. both will have some sort of mobile app.