Xbox 720 Will Be Six Times as Powerful as Current Gen

[C0RR0SIVE]

The thing is, Microsoft and Sony fixes the stuff by blowing up parts of circuits during a firmware update. Most hacks on consoles exploit such circuitry in order to operate. But, the issue isn't piracy, it is how they want to eliminate it.

 

[35g700]

I'd much rather see Microsoft and Sony focus on making a console that only plays games. Consoles were cheaper, more reliable and all around much better back when the sole purpose of them was to play games. The other stuff is nice but I'd rather have a less costly console that only plays games over one that's more expensive and streams netflix or plays DVDs.

IMO it would be nice to see them go back to some sort of flash based storage technology for distributing games. Today a 32GB flash storage device goes for about $25 on newegg, and a 16GB one goes for around $10. Game distributors can get them for far cheaper than what newegg sells them for and over time they will drop in price, plus you're not limited to a set size like you are with optical media.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Optical media has proved to be an issue, even the Xbox consoles in an update specified a "fix" so older consoles could read a little bit more data from the newer games as the image was slightly larger. If games started to use flash based storage, it would do many things, one, allow people to save to the game cartridge once again, two, bring prices of flash media even lower, three, faster read times. But, I don't see them doing it, unless they come up with a system that is difficult to connect to the PC. Cartridge consoles usually have pirated games up the day of release if not sooner, I don't think Microsoft or Sony would enjoy someone just plugging a cartridge up and downloading the game data. So we would be back to proprietary data storage, though, it would be worth it.

Could have sworn I read an article somewhere that piracy (consoles) is in large part because no one feels the desire to pay $60 for a plastic disc and get almost nothing these days in terms of game play-ability.

But yea, rumors of the PS3 are pointing to them using a rather similar GPU as the Xbox360, I think what will make the machine is storage options, and raw processing capabilities, along with making it simple for developers to move to a new console. The downfall of the PS3 at start was the CELL processor never being taken advantage of entirely, and sony even locking cores to specific functions.


If Sony and Microsoft wanna keep these consoles with high prices and games with high prices, while making the console a full "entertainment" system, they NEED to get to work on codec and network support for these consoles. It is sad when the community has to build transcoding software so these consoles can easily browse a full media library that is composed of hundreds of different types of video. I treat my 360 as an HTPC at most, I rarely game on it, only purchased it for halo, and later on after discovering PS3 Media Server turned it into a simple HTPC, but limited codec support made that alone difficult.

 

[PP Mguire]

How did I not see this thread get reply's?

Anyhow, my response will simply be a facepalm. Seems nobody on these forums know how to read or they simply want to read in to what they want and reply in such a way to totally obscure the point.

Here is the deal. Consoles were made for GAMES. Nintendo Entertainment System only played GAMES. It was cheap, efficient, and the systems that came after it simply worked and were fun. Consoles today are aimed at media purposes with gaming as a side to get more sales end of story. I said I wasn't hating because I'm not. I'm simply stating the truth. The people who want to buy said consoles thus giving the developers money based on MEDIA ruin it for the GAMERS who want to play GAMES. Why you ask? Because they develop the console, its hardware, and the software around media purposes such as movie playback and TV streaming for the people who want a BD player that does games too. What this does is make the consoles bloated, slow (with their stupid dashboards and such), and break down easier.

But PP Mguire, you don't like consoles or console gaming. Why do you care so much? Because it is FACT that since the introduction and mass popularity of the 360 and PS3 that the quality PC gaming as a whole has dropped tremendously. I used to play quality games made specifically for the PC up until around 2006/2007. Now I play **** console ports and I'm considering selling my computer because there simply isn't a point to keep up in gaming due to mass rehashes of the same BS like CoD. There is no point keeping up with the latest in hardware technology because there is only ONE game that lags me because it isn't a console port (and I don't even like it). Go figure. I may look into PC gaming again when the newer consoles come up granted their hardware may be up to snuff to tax PC hardware. With the way things are looking, I doubt it. Maybe if we can get away from DX9 things may be worth taking a look at.

So in conclusion, I couldn't care any less whether you people like to watch movies on your game box. Just like nobody cares that I don't own a TV and only watch TV on my PC. What I care about is the simple lack of caring from developers about gaming as a whole because of how it effects my PC gaming. What makes more money? A game box only certain people buy, or a media box every one will buy cause it gets rid of 4 different units in the entertainment center? The media box of course.

Hopefully what I'm saying can get across here instead of people thinking I'm simply bashing a media console or its users.