Tell us what you think will happen next-generation, go into as much detail as you want. (i'm bored, waiting to see if that hurricane hits us here in south florida, so please entertain me)
I expect the xbox2 to come out first, be the easiest machine to develop for, and probably the second most powerful. There will probably be peripherals to make it a pc-lite in time and help capitalize on the whole XNA initiative, bringing the console and pc closer in capabilities. I believe the machine will be doomed to relative failure (being a distant second to the PS3). PS3 I expect to be the most powerful machine (though who knows, it may be difficult to squeeze that power out) and be the best seller. It too will have a ton of peripherals, but making it more an entertainment center than being too much like a pc, though there will probably be a move towards that, though its the PS4 that I expect to be a general computing device. Revolution I expect to be the least powerful, though that will make little difference IMO, but it will rely on gimmicks to help sell the unit, its peripherals will revolve around odd modes of gameplay as opposed to anything that may widen its audience. I'm praying for VR, but I don't see it likely.
As a whole I think that next-generation consoles will be the graphics leaders for a long time, PC's will quickly catch up technologically, but considering how much money it will take to make a game truly specatcular looking next-gen, I think console games will be much more likely to get such budgets, though there will be more ports of such games to PC to try to recoup costs.
I expect the xbox2 to come out first, be the easiest machine to develop for, and probably the second most powerful. There will probably be peripherals to make it a pc-lite in time and help capitalize on the whole XNA initiative, bringing the console and pc closer in capabilities. I believe the machine will be doomed to relative failure (being a distant second to the PS3). PS3 I expect to be the most powerful machine (though who knows, it may be difficult to squeeze that power out) and be the best seller. It too will have a ton of peripherals, but making it more an entertainment center than being too much like a pc, though there will probably be a move towards that, though its the PS4 that I expect to be a general computing device. Revolution I expect to be the least powerful, though that will make little difference IMO, but it will rely on gimmicks to help sell the unit, its peripherals will revolve around odd modes of gameplay as opposed to anything that may widen its audience. I'm praying for VR, but I don't see it likely.
As a whole I think that next-generation consoles will be the graphics leaders for a long time, PC's will quickly catch up technologically, but considering how much money it will take to make a game truly specatcular looking next-gen, I think console games will be much more likely to get such budgets, though there will be more ports of such games to PC to try to recoup costs.