Let's make a console!

[Mikejames]

A guy walks on stage To Present the console . Plugs in console and insert the disc and says :" this is our console , you plug it in , you insert the game , and you play ." , then drops the mic and leave . With the trailer of an new metroid game that boots up .

When did this dream start to feel so far away?

 

[Doom972]

Here's my consoles . Plug in console , put disc in , play game . So simple , yet so effective .

That's a good idea, but only one problem: There's no optical disc technology that would allow for fast enough disc reading speed.

I'm wondering whether that's really true. You can't spin the disk much faster, but you can read from multiple places simultaneously. You could have a drive with say 8 read heads, and it could read data 8 times faster than yours does. You could split a strong laser beam into 64 beams and read 64 times faster. You could (maybe) bounce the laser off a rotating mirror so the beam scans from the outer track to the inner track in a very short time, possibly allowing you to read the whole disk in one revolution.

You could also use the hard drive to cache disk access instead of installing. Rather than make us copy the entire game to the hard drive before we can play it at all, just load what we need and put it on the hard drive for faster access the next time we need it.

I can't say whether or not it's possible, so for the sake of the argument I'll say that it is. It'll still require time and money for R&D which probably isn't worth investing at when a much simpler solution exists.

I do get that consoles aren't PCs, and that you can't count on backwards compatibility or for the console to work for many years after its stops being made and supported - which means you need to have a physical copy of the game. That's why many people believe that this will probably be the last console generation.

 

[Bad Jim]

The "all in one" device wont happen just yet; the hardware isn't cheap enough to just throw it in with a new TV.

It depends on the quality. If you want to add a gaming capability with PS2 quality graphics, you won't increase the cost much at all. If a smart TV needs a decent chunk of RAM and a hard drive anyway, it can probably include PS3 level graphics without a major impact on the price.

Even on these forums you frequently see people saying "why should I buy a gaming PC when consoles are cheaper?" and "what's the point in next gen consoles?". If we gaming enthusiasts don't feel that extra fidelity is worth spending money on, it's likely that the masses will come to the same conclusion, and will refuse to buy the PS4 or the XBoned if they've got PS3 quality gaming built into their TV.

Also, what sells a console is what it can put on the screen, while important details like the RAM and hard drive space required to store what it puts on the screen do not sell the console and are generally the minimum they can get away with. Hence the console gamer is subjected to linear games and frequent loading screens. A smart TV is more likely to need a decent amount of RAM and hard disk space, but not need excessive 3D rendering hardware, resulting better games. Games with larger worlds and more freedom. And everyone will have played them and will compare them with next gen console games.

Lastly of course there is cloud gaming. Stuff like Onlive. It's a bit of a wildcard, but it's likely to happen. You don't really get the game of course, but you can still play it, and you can avoid the cost of whatever hardware is required to run it. And the XBoned is just as bad. Many people don't have the necessary internet connections, but internet connections are always being improved.

AAA games with the blockbuster mentality like Tomb Raider will adopt this model. Publishers will be excited because it's the ultimate DRM, while gamers will not be overly discouraged because they know they were only going to play it once anyway. It's this kind of game where photorealism is most desired, and a game that is designed to run on a cloud server can eliminate loading, never drop fps and look far nicer than anything running on next gen consoles, especially once the next gen starts aging.

People will play the majority of their games on their own hardware, but the ability to play games that look much nicer than is possible on next gen consoles will reduce the desire to own such consoles. While they will still have smart TVs.

 

[Madman123456]

The next thing to do after integrating the ability to play top of the line video games into a TV would be to establish a format on which to develop games for the things. Manufacturers would have to agree on a "chipset" with which to manage the video game part so developers wont have to port the same game over to a million different platforms.

While i think the Hardware for modern video games isn't cheap enough to just throw in with the "basic" models of new TVs it wont be long until it is.

But then companies will run into another very well known problem: it is kinda hard to establish any multimedia device. If you have a device with many functions there will be many things that you will have no use for and you don't want to pay money for that.
The modern consoles where established as video game devices and people later "discovered" that they could use their machine to access netflix.
Which is genius, it keeps the machine in the living room even if the user isn't all that interested in video games. Microsoft and Sony can keep blasting their advertisement at your brain even if you lost your interest in gaming, for which i couldn't even blame you when seeing the state of the industry...

I just feel that People will feel that they're paying money for things that they don't want, even if video gaming hardware would be a rather cheap extra; People would rather buy a more specialized product then a thing that can this and that and that, half of which you need a degree from the university of smartass to get to work properly.

 

[Thanatos5150]

I'm with the "Plug it in, plug in game, play game" crowd.
Maybe instead of using a disc, the game could use some sort of (formatted to "only interact with the console") data stick (Like a USB drive) that plugs into the front end, complete with (translucent, so you can see what's in the slot) hatch that you could snap down to protect it from The Cat or Accidentally Kicking It.
This will make the game more robust, and only marginally increase

Internet Connection would be completely optional, of course. You can definitely play off-line, and the only difference between Free Online and Premium Online will not be "Multi-player actually exists, now", and will instead be "Pay to get rid of advertisements".
If I want to get REALLY FANCY, I'd probably give it some way to interface wirelessly with your PC, to cut down on awkward A/V cables stretching across the house when you want to plug 'n' play with Steam Big Picture or watch a DVD or something (Put DVD in computer, enable connection, sit down in front of the TV to enjoy the movie).

But, hey, I'm a laymen. What do I know? Besides What I want.

Oh, and as far as aesthetics go, the console itself will be a featureless box. I might be tempted to include some divots on the side to hold controllers, or else attached the controllers semi-permanently to the console, itself, with some sort of self-spooling wire for neat storage, but still allow third-party manufactuers to make paddles.

 

[octafish]

Mouse, Keyboard, Controller, 1440p, Upgradable, and runs Lightroom and Photoshop (I know GIMP is free and very powerful but I have 13 years invested in Photoshop). Give me that and I'll buy that console. Until then I have one device that can do all that. (Actually I have four of those devices but only one that does 1440p well)

EDIT: Oh, cloud saves should be used in conjunction with local saves. I have a couple of these things, I really like cloud saves so I can pick up and play from the same point on my Laptop, my Livingroom PC, or the Workhorse in my study.

 

[Thanatos5150]

Mouse, Keyboard

Urgh. No. No mouse & Keyboard on my console, please! It's a wonderful control scheme, but it's not cetralized like I expec a console's cotrol scheme to be!
I'm fine with the Xbox360's chat pad being standard-issue or even part of a controller, for faster text input, but don't kae it the part which controls the games!
I have a hard enough time just being comfortable with a 360 controller, adding the logistics of a mouse and keyboard into the mix would be terrible. You want mouse and keyboard? Play the PC version.