Xbox one in serious trouble!

[Requia]

Gaming itself is going to be fine. Yes, there is a ceiling graphically that we're going to hit to make (while remaining cost effective that is) but I don't think that's going to be a problem. Hell, if anything, that's going to be a great thing since innovation through a slightly shinier engine will no longer cut it.

That said, I think consoles period are in trouble (and before the pitch forks come out, anyone here who has followed me at all (for some reason you strange strange person) that I am 100% console gamer). Sony/Nintendo are a bit less susceptible to what I'm about to say but they are not invincible to it either.

At this point, a console seems to be becoming much more PCified. As in, they are getting a lot of the negatives (like constant patches and updating being needed) with none of the positives (like much cheaper pricing and the ability to use whatever control system you want). Really, exclusives are the only thing keeping consoles off of life support (which is a HUGE positive so don't get me wrong; consoles are not going anywhere this generation at least).

I'm at my own crossroads with it where I want to continue with my console ways but I don't like the Xbox One (no thanks Kinect) and I don't like the PS4 controller. As I stated, I think they're all safe from elimination...this generation. In a decade? The console as we know it may be dead.

Well, console shave one other thing going for them, they limit how often devs can require hardware upgrades from consumers. If I buy a console I know new games will work until the console maker releases a new version. But as we approach the graphics ceiling you mentioned becomes more of an issue and devs have less motive to up the hardware requirements on PC (or if the Steambox has the side effect of creating standardized PC gaming hardware for devs to target) it'll lose that edge too.

 

[Gearran]

Oh dear, it's another "[X] games are dying! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES" thread. I guess that's the flag to show that we really are into a new console generation. I'm going to sound old for saying this, but people have been doing this for about as long as consoles have been around (which actually predates the internet, if you can believe it). Every single time a new wave of consoles hits the market, the doom-criers come out of their hideyholes and shout that this part or that part of the gaming community is DOOOOOOOO*gasp*OOOMED!

Beh, whatever. I'll throw my two cents in (though I expect change back).

I for one look forward for the time when we hit the graphics ceiling. It's been a (console) generation or so since graphics became one of the major driving forces behind creating new games (yes, watching the graphics upgrade has been a fun pastime of the console evolution, but it shouldn't be a driving force of MUST PRODUCE NEW GAEMS), and I'm kind of tired of it. Graphics has never really been all that interesting to me - sure it's nice to see pretty pictures, but they I don't see them as a particularly big deal as far as the overall gameplay is concerned (one of my favorite games of all time is Earthbound, for crying out loud). However, a lot of AAA studios have been kind of skating by on really pretty graphics to get away with some sub-par (or, at best, mediocre) gameplay; I look forward to the graphics ceiling coming around to hopefully put a stop to this. Maybe then we can get back to games that are interesting for their story and gameplay, and not just because the game makes the pretty pictures on the screen.

 

[Requia]

For those saying that we've hit some sort of "graphical ceiling"...

Have you even seen a movie these past few years? CGI shows how far graphics can still go, we just need to make tech that can render that stuff in real time. We clearly haven't reached the ceiling, we've barely climbed out of the fucking basement.

But those increases in graphics make the game more expensive to develop as well. We've already hit a point *last* gen where 5 million sales was insufficient for a high graphics game. While the current methods (high quality models/textures mechanically scaled back to meet the hardware) allow a certain increase in fidelity without increasing cost the current ultra settings in PC gaming represent the probable ceiling.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Your Xbone price drop aside (which in my opinion doesn't really count as that POS is overpriced due to the Albatross that is the Kinect anyway) the two 'next gen' consoles are doing as well as to be expected.

This all the way! I think the price drop is in large part due to Microsoft's boneheaded decision to force the Kinect into the XB1 package, which brought their price up so high that it couldn't hope to compete with PS4. The effect was like choosing between a Bang & Olufsen sound system or a Sony system when you have a budget of only $150.

 

[Kerethos]

I'm going to repeat what a lot of people seem to be saying: It's far too early to say anything about what the current generation of consoles will be able to bring to the table, at this time. Release titles are always going to be just a small step ahead of what the previous generation had to offer, and with PC-cross platforming it's more than likely the first rounds of games will basically look like medium/high spec PC games in terms of graphics.

The release games for the 360 and the PS3 did not look much better than the last games for the Xbox or PS2, and it took years for games to really push their systems to the max. Given time I'm sure the current generation of consoles will offer impressive games, but for now I see no compelling reason to invest in a new system or cry the death of consoles.

 

[pilouuuu]

Well, I think XBone has been doomed since its inception because it was devised as a Big Brother machine, full of Draconian always on-line DRM. There was an outrage and Microsoft had to tune down the idiotic features, so it is not a complete failure.

But the problem is that its technology is outdated by the time it was released. It wouldn't be such a big problem if the thing had some good games, but most of its big games are also on the X360, so what's the point on "updating"? You'd be better off with a more powerful system like the PS4, but that console also has the same games from previous generation.

That leaves the Wii U as the only console worth having alongside a PC, as while it's less powerful than the others it's different enough from a PC, having unique and very fun games and an unique control system.

PC is the way to go. 4K, triple-monitor gaming, better sound, better performance, modding, a higher quantity of cheaper and more varied games. In the future we'll get better physics and maybe even raytracing, which will make it really hard for consoles to keep up.

This is really the PC generation!

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

PC is the way to go. 4K, triple-monitor gaming, better sound, better performance, modding, a higher quantity of cheaper and more varied games. In the future we'll get better physics and maybe even raytracing, which will make it really hard for consoles to keep up.

This is really the PC generation!

Yeah for those that have the complete know how, the money and the general preference of the PC, other than that it's down to one's opinion, you say it;s the way to go (also at the same time implying there's no "logical" choice in the matter and thus leaves as the "only way") and quite the millions don't think it's as such and they're fine to keep their opinions, I game on PC and consoles and I really don't feel the need to grab 4k triple monitors (quite happy with the one and it isn't even 4k) and mod my games to hell and back, sometimes I'm quite often happy with just the vanilla game (if it;s not broken in any way shape or form).

And as for the last line, no not really, the consoles are still selling, millions are still buying (well maybe not so much the U) and the cycle continues, to say it's the PC generation is casting aside millions of people, stats and sales along with devs that design for said consoles and the like.

Besides this quote, I'm not expecting to reply to this in the future because I know exactly what's to happen next, I'm just saying what's out there and as it exists.

I also know what the answer is going to be so I wouldn't want to waste time further than I already have.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

Speaking as someone old enough to remember the release of these consoles, I can safely say that that isn't true for any except the SNES. It also wasn't true for the PS3 or 360.

Speaking as someone old enough to remember the release of these consoles, I can safely say that that isn't true for any except the SNES.

Yes it was. Playstation was AMAZING when it came with tomb raider and the famous


The Playstation had WOW factor, bucket loads

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I have a history of backing the wrong horse, the Sega Saturn, the Dreamcast, the Xbox One, so yeah I'm a little concerned. That said, someone hit the nail on the head when they said there's never been a more disappointing launch to a next generation, although Titanfall is really good in my opinion. About bloody time though.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

So out for less than 6 months and it get a price drop of £125!! (Xbox one £425 no game then £349.99 plus a £50 game free in April) I'm not a fanboy but how can anyone with a straight face think that the xbone has a long term future.

But its more than that this gen has been without a doubt the most underwhelming of all time. Not one single game has shown a significant leap. And dont get me that crap about 'give this generation time to shine. Snes, Ps1 and PS2 all had early release games that showed that wow factor but not one single game on PS4, Xbox one or even the almighty PC has shown ANYTHING that has caused any jaws to drop.

So where do we go from here, I really don't know where gaming is gonna go do you guys? for the first time in gaming history I honestly believe we have hit the ceiling.

You're most likely underwhelmed because you're older and wiser than you were 8 years ago. It's hardly surprising.

Also, price drops don't mean that the console is in trouble, just that Microsoft want to expand their audience now that they have roped in all the suckers that were willing to £450 for the console at launch. It's called maximizing profits. They probably could have sold the console at £350 with a free game at launch but wanted to see first how many people would actually buy it at the higher price.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I'm a PC Technician and I don't want to waste the time finding fixes for PC games, you always run into some issue that takes you an hour of Googling to find some guy on some forum that found the fix for your issue. I spend more time actually playing games on console; I put the game in and it just works. For example, the first week Splinter Cell Blacklist was released, 90% of posts on the official forum were about the PC version not working whereas I played on PS3 with no issues.

Wow, that is weird, I have almost 200 games on Steam, and never had one game that I had to waste time finding a fix. Except one, which was Bioshock Infinite. This argument against PC really doesn't work anymore.

There's always some little thing that pops up that I know I can fix with the right tweak or edit so I end up spending the time to figure it out, it might be something that doesn't bother others (like a slight stutter) but I'll fix it. That doesn't happen on consoles. If I know I can make the game play better, I will do it. For example, it takes me at least 50 games played to set my sliders in MLB The Show to get the game playing the kind of baseball I want it to play (and compared to other sports games, it doesn't have many sliders). I just looked at the Titanfall PC forums and immediately found there's an issue with high end computers running the game at only 30 FPS. With console gaming, I spend more time gaming and having fun.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

So you are kind of using your personal OCD like PC gaming habits, to downplay PC gaming in its entirety?
Nah, its all good. Fair enough. I was just pointing out, that that isn't how it is for all of us.

It's not that much of OCD, I just know how a game should play and when it doesn't, I want to fix it. All the many different possible hardware configurations causes so many issues pretty much each and every game. You can go to a forum of any major PC game and you'll see loads of people having issues with the game. Go to that game's console game forum and you have none of that because the game was made to run on one specific set of hardware instead of millions of different possible configurations.

 

[Something Amyss]

No they didn't add another "processor". That would of required a complete redesign of the mainboard.

Or, you know, I wasn't talking about a post-release processor. Several people have referenced them using multiple processors (not cores, before you get all condescending again without bothering with the whole claim). Pretty sure it was even referenced by Escapist news. If it's not true, it's not true. That's fine. But saying it would require a redesign is assuming I'm talking about something I'm not talking about.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Neither the PS4 or XB1 has shown me one game worth buying a new system for. Also, people said the same thing when the PS3 failed to sell much and the 360 sold loads. Its just pathetic to judge a console based on its first 6 months, there are maybe 8 years still to go. Stop acting like a PS4 fanboy, people will buy the console they want based on the games they want to play. Loyalty for a console brand is stupid, PS1 and PS2 were the greatest consoles ever and i still chose a 360 over the PS3. Both PS4 and 360 will do fine, MS just made the same mistake as Sony did with the PS3, they ripped backward compatibility from their console and it didnt hurt their overall sales much regardless of gamers moaning about it. Give it a year or so and then check the sales numbers, either way i will only chose the console with the games i like and not based on what is popular.

 

[neppakyo]

No they didn't add another "processor". That would of required a complete redesign of the mainboard.

Or, you know, I wasn't talking about a post-release processor. Several people have referenced them using multiple processors (not cores, before you get all condescending again without bothering with the whole claim). Pretty sure it was even referenced by Escapist news. If it's not true, it's not true. That's fine. But saying it would require a redesign is assuming I'm talking about something I'm not talking about.

Both systems use an 8 core AMD Jaguar APU (Basically means a CPU+GPU in the consoles case) There hasn't been another processor(CPU) added to the xbone. It's still the same weak hardware, but software overclocked.

Just by what you wrote it was assumed you meant another processor was added to the xbone, which isn't possible without a redesign of the system mainboard to accommodate it. Something that major would of been top headlines.

Both systems use the same hardware basically. MS went for the cheaper version of the jaguar, with cheaper DDR3, but a more expensive process of a specialized bridge to "boost" performance of the DDR3, in straight out speed, PS4's GDDR5 is a lot faster.