Comcast Game Console?

[Shortbread]

Hum, I had an interesting conversation with a Comcast technician today. It seems Comcast is the process of designing an all-in-one box (early 2015) with gaming features. From his understanding, it will contain some very beefy specs and will be available to all Comcast customers with HD DVR packages at the same monthly rental price. No Blu-Ray drive though – all digital content.


Thoughts?

FYI: For those wondering - who is Comcast? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast

 

[dobwal]

Hum, I had an interesting conversation with a Comcast technician today. It seems Comcast is the process of designing an all-in-one box (early 2015) with gaming features. From his understanding, it will contain some very beefy specs and will be available to all Comcast customers with HD DVR packages at the same monthly rental price. No Blu-Ray drive though – all digital content.


Thoughts?

FYI: For those wondering - who is Comcast? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast

Meet your next collectors rare gaming console.

 

[temesgen]

Hum, I had an interesting conversation with a Comcast technician today. It seems Comcast is the process of designing an all-in-one box (early 2015) with gaming features. From his understanding, it will contain some very beefy specs and will be available to all Comcast customers with HD DVR packages at the same monthly rental price. No Blu-Ray drive though – all digital content.


Thoughts?

FYI: For those wondering - who is Comcast? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast

Bad idea, Comcast should pump that money into improving their infrastructure and actually offering a DVR which is competitive with what Dish and DirectTV offer.

 

[Shortbread]

Bad idea, Comcast should pump that money into improving their infrastructure and actually offering a DVR which is competitive with what Dish and DirectTV offer.

Which part of the country do you live in?

I live in the Oakland/Macomb County area within Michigan. Currently I have no issues with Comcast as far as services. My HD DVR rental fees are no more than $6 dollars a month and I also have the Extreme 105 broadband services at a reasonable price (FREE - Forever ).

 

[3dilettante]

Hum, I had an interesting conversation with a Comcast technician today. It seems Comcast is the process of designing an all-in-one box (early 2015) with gaming features. From his understanding, it will contain some very beefy specs and will be available to all Comcast customers with HD DVR packages at the same monthly rental price. No Blu-Ray drive though – all digital content.


Thoughts?

I'd expect Comcast to start throttling Live and PSN traffic in 2015, then.

Also, are there any gamers, or people in general, that would like or trust Comcast enough to buy into their rental platform?
Take whatever controversy might have come from Microsoft's abortive DRM attempt, and realize that this is Comcast.

 

[Squilliam]

Well maybe it could be a repackaged Xbox One? If Microsoft can get in a die shrink then there should be no reason that a box like that with a TB HDD space couldn't fit the mould of a decent cable box/game system all in one. I presume by that time Microsoft would have their voice commands pretty close to perfect as well.

 

[Sonic]

Perhaps it could be a repackaged Xbox One, but I doubt MS wants somebody else's name on their console. Besides, Comcast already did MS dirty by marketing their recent branding as X1.

Would developers really want to develop for this machine, given that it will be a segmented market to begin with? Are Time Warner and Cox Cable going to have a compatible version of hardware and services for a bigger market for the machine? Does anybody really have faith in Comcast to deliver a competent machine and actually support it with content that matters? Will they throttle PSN and Xbox Live services in order to compete unfairly?

 

[Pixel]

You mention "beefy" system specs. I can't believe this is going to be anywhere near the power of the nextgen consoles. Maybe beefy in terms of "quadcore" android gaming devices.

Is it a closed platform or open like android and pc?

Sounds like a pipedream that never takes off.

 

[Shortbread]

You mention "beefy" system specs. I can't believe this is going to be anywhere near the power of the nextgen consoles. Maybe beefy in terms of "quadcore" android gaming devices.

Is it a closed platform or open like android and pc?

Sounds like a pipedream that never takes off.

The technician mentioned beefy. In comparison to what, I don’t know. But then again, my PS4/PS3/XB360 is on the component rack, which is how the subject got started in the first place.

Pipedream? I can’t quite agree with that - not yet anyhow. Comcast might feel threaten by these systems capabilities of streaming live TV to millions of viewers across both platforms. Comcast primary business is “Cable Services”… so it’s not a total stretch to think/believe Comcast feels pressure on being proactive on something that might chew into its cable service revenue.

Wasn’t the primary reason that MS entered into the gaming arena was to keep Sony and whoever else from chipping away from the Windows-PC-Gaming experience - but in a different shell?

 

[temesgen]

Which part of the country do you live in?

I live in the Oakland/Macomb County area within Michigan. Currently I have no issues with Comcast as far as services. My HD DVR rental fees are no more than $6 dollars a month and I also have the Extreme 105 broadband services at a reasonable price (FREE - Forever ).

SW US but you can go to their forums and see that intermittent outages are quite common, they blame your equipment but the issues ate on their end.

 

[Shortbread]

SW US but you can go to their forums and see that intermittent outages are quite common, they blame your equipment but the issues ate on their end.

This is why depending “strictly” on cloud compute and other cloud needs for future gaming console designs – is a bad idea, IMHO. Too many bad variables (outages, bandwidth restrictions, IP slowness, etc…) to factor into a media box that is strictly limited to digital downloads, and based around a low spec box needing cloud compute. Could you imagine not being able to play “Call of Duty 14: Jupiter’s Zombies at War” for days, because your IP provider(s) can’t get their sh** together?


In other words, not all IP providers are made equal… and cloud computing shouldn't be the "only" future for gaming needs.

 

[RobertR1]

Comcast can barely make a DVR work. I'd love to see this disaster.

 

[Pixel]

The technician mentioned beefy. In comparison to what, I don’t know. But then again, my PS4/PS3/XB360 is on the component rack, which is how the subject got started in the first place.

Pipedream? I can’t quite agree with that - not yet anyhow. Comcast might feel threaten by these systems capabilities of streaming live TV to millions of viewers across both platforms. Comcast primary business is “Cable Services”… so it’s not a total stretch to think/believe Comcast feels pressure on being proactive on something that might chew into its cable service revenue.

Wasn’t the primary reason that MS entered into the gaming arena was to keep Sony and whoever else from chipping away from the Windows-PC-Gaming experience - but in a different shell?

True, however MS had more preexisting divisions established with lots experience in a number of fields needed to enter the console race.

Comcast has lots of cash so I suppose they could bring in the talent needed to form a gaming division and buy some exclusives.

They'd need some edge to make up for the countless shortcomings being the new platform. Perhaps pricemodel might help but is that enough?

Id get excited if they somehow figured out how to afford having a steammachine/cablebox hybrid.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

Dark text is unreadable.

In my part of the US, South, comcast offers subpar TV and streaming services in both content and video quality, provides a horrid DVR with essentially broken UI, and all for inflated prices. Most people I know use comcast either a) because they can't get sat (line of sight, building covenants, etc) or uverse isn't available in their area, or b) just want a very basic channel lineup and care nothing of DVR or HD.

A gaming machine! I'd love to see that disaster.

 

[RudeCurve]

It would make sense if Comcast licensed MS's X1 box and make a DVR app. Comcast has Xfinity and you could watch Xfinity programming on X1.

 

[AzBat]

Didn't the Yukon leak suggest MS might actually license the new platform to other companies to sell as their own?

Tommy McClain

 

[Silenti]

Considering the pathetic nature of our current Comcast cable tv/ DVR service all I can say is "bwahahahahahaha". They cannot even get these basic services correct. Rolling out a full blown console is so far beyond their abilities I'm stunned if they think they could do this in house in a short time frame.

 

[McHuj]

I don't think a Comcast console is viable. They only have around 20-25M video subscribers and regional coverage. I bet only a fraction of that customer base would be interested so I think getting quality developer content would be an issue for them. I going that if they do end up with a "console" if will Ouya level of quality in terms of hardware and content.

 

[Malo]

Maybe an integrated SteamOS?

 

[Shortbread]

I don't think a Comcast console is viable. They only have around 20-25M video subscribers and regional coverage. I bet only a fraction of that customer base would be interested so I think getting quality developer content would be an issue for them. I going that if they do end up with a "console" if will Ouya level of quality in terms of hardware and content.

I believe Comcast doesn't want to be in the "console business" per se, but rather disrupt/head-off any oncoming cable TV services losses. The rest of the cable TV consortium, especially in the US, would probably follow Comcast lead and offer a "mid-spec PC" DVR device that would handle streaming game services, or even downloaded game content.

I don't believe for one second Comcast will release a worldwide console, not within them (profits in hardware would be to low). They want something they can easily install in their current customer houses, at no added fee, just the monthly rental cost of the box and keep them interested in their all-in-one package... thus, keeping the average customer and casual gamer occupied with their services (specifically Cable services).

If you really think about it, PS4/XB1 (XB1, more so), have all the needed hardware and features for providing a DVR cable box experience - the only thing that's missing is Sony/MS fully owned cable services. I think as more of these companies Apple/Google/Sony/MS are starting to provide more avenues on watching IP based TV programs, especially live programs... I would think cable providers like Comcast would be worried about loosing a major portion of their business sales. And "IF" this does happen, you can expect broadband internet services cost to go up - on offsetting cable service revenue losses.