What do you want from the next generation of consoles?

[andrewducker]

So it looks like we're going to see announcements in the next while from both Sony and Microsoft about the next gen Playstation and XBox.

And I'm wondering what they can announce that will make them seem better than the current generation.

There's no point raising the resolution above 1080p, because (a)TVs don't support higher resolution than that and (b)the vast majority of people don't have a big enough TV to see a higher resolution than that*.

So, I'd hope that they'd be able to manage a solid 60FPS. And presumably we'll see more physics-based animation to pretty things up**. And I don't see pullany reason why they can't support 3D out of the box.

But I can't see any of that exerting the same pull that there was from the PS2 to the PS3, let alone from the PS1 to the PS2. Take a look at this video, which shows the difference between PS1, PS2, and PS3 games. The difference from PS1 to PS2 is very marked. The difference from PS2 to PS3 is definitely there, but it's nowhere near the same leap. Detail seems to be exponentially more expensive to produce, so each generation of consoles makes less of a difference than the last.

Though I haven't tried it myself, the Wii U's asymmetric gameplay - where one person plays on the tablet and has a different experience to the people playing on the TV (thus allowing them to either assist or work against the other players, depending on the game) strikes me as at least an interesting way forward.

Any thoughts about what the next generation of consoles might be able to do that the current generation can't?


*See: http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter/ which tells me that unless you have a 50" TV you sit within 5 feet of, your 20:20 vision aint getting anything out of ultra-high-resolution screens.
**See: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/30/nvidia-uses-hawken-to-show-off-physx-clevers/ for an example of this.

Comments

[teresafloyd]

I would still hook up the SNES and play SimCity. Though, to be honest my family judges "controller-impaired". I truly play games for the story and for the sense of satisfaction. Pretties don't do it for me, so I guess the only thing I would want is the option to use an input device that has less of a learning curve for me. (Yes, I replied on Facebook too).