General Next Generation Rumors and Discussions [Post GDC 2020]

[eastmen]

I mean the switch is what over 3 years old going on 4 in march ? So i could certainly see Nintendo wanting to upgrade it soon. Its going to get harder and harder to drag ports down to that switch level now that the cpus and gpus have had such a drastic boost.

I could also see Nintendo looking at Sony and MS ... esp MS and their long tail of Backwards compatibility . For Nintendo something like that can be a match made in heaven . Things like zelda and mario and animal crossing all hold their value extremely well and still sell new for a lot of money.

Nintendo already has dock mode and undocked mode. So perhaps they are getting more aggressive with a dynamic resolution for when the next switch pro or switch 2 or what ever they name it comes out. They would want an easy transition and a way to retain customers through the switch... heh

I think year 4 is a good year to do it

 

[HBRU]

I see MS really superior in BC tech to anybody in the world... and that has been gained trough decades long hard efforts. So yes Nintendo -that we know likes to make just what is necessary- can be drawn naturally to that tech for future products.... I agree.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Well, now he has a new rumor about Switch Pro and all the sudden he's credible again I guess (being spread around other forums).

Surely he'll only regain credibility if a rumour comes true. He released a bullshit rumour as a moderator on resetera, was called by other industry insiders on resetera, then admitted he made it up because the console gaming narrative was to his liking. Why would anybody believe someone who admitted to lying ?

 

[PSman1700]

Insiders promised us 24GB HBM memory, 13+ TF gpus (before 30+ tf became reality), ReRam..... Zen3 and so much more. Even lcd screens in controllers ive heard.

We didnt get any of it, not even close.

 

[HBRU]

A collaboration between Nintendo & MS is reasonable and likely. Just this.

 

[Tkumpathenurple]

Well, now he has a new rumor about Switch Pro and all the sudden he's credible again I guess (being spread around other forums).

https://twitter.com/x/status/1308915667924590592

Point being we seem to pick and choose what we believe is true insidery info from "insiders". Pretty clearly a fanboy though.

That doesn't prove his credibility. It proves the stupidity and the lack of diligence of the mass of the internet.

 

[Tabris]

Purchasing SEGA will be far more difficult/complex/expensive than all you might think.
SEGA is bidding the Yokohama casino and resort complex in Japan with SEGA IP theme.
Fitch estimates Osaka and Yokohama project will draw US$6.3bn revenue in the first year.
Japan Government is planning 4 to 6 casino projects now, and SEGA is the only Japanese bidder.

 

[London Geezer]

Purchasing SEGA will be far more difficult/complex/expensive than all you might think.
SEGA is bidding the Yokohama casino and resort complex in Japan with SEGA IP theme.
Fitch estimates Osaka and Yokohama project will draw US$6.3bn revenue in the first year.
Japan Government is planning 4 to 6 casino projects now, and SEGA is the only Japanese bidder.

That's probably a division of SEGA that has little to do with their video game division, and MS would only need to purchase that one. Don't really see the point in doing that, what has SEGA done lately that's worth paying billions for? What have I missed?

 

[AzBat]

Are there any smaller Japanase studios or publishers that have any recent history with Microsoft & Xbox?

Tommy McClain

 

[Rurouni]

That's probably a division of SEGA that has little to do with their video game division, and MS would only need to purchase that one. Don't really see the point in doing that, what has SEGA done lately that's worth paying billions for? What have I missed?

Pachinko XD
In all seriousness, if MS only buy their video games division, I don't think the IP will go with it. There is not much to Sega without their IP. Also The they just merged their video games and pachinko division.
Edit: what I mean by not much is that their video games division is not really hot without their IP and I believe Sega use their IP not only in video games but also their theme parks, pachinko machine, etc. Maybe MS can buy their video games division + exclusive license for the use of Sega IPs in video games.

 

[Tabris]

For all non-Japanese who is not familiar with Pachinko.
It's a type of gambling(grey-area) in Japan, and far the largest one.
You play slot machine(Pachinko), you get some iron balls if you win.
You use these iron balls to exchange worthless souvenir inside the shop.
Some "second-hand shop" near pachinko shop will buy your worthless piece of shit with RFID your just get from Pachinko shop.
Yearly revenue of pachinko industry is around 20~30 trillion yen. (horse racing just 2.8 trillion yen in 2019)
And the Japanese govenment collect 200 billion yen taxes from pachinko, 1% of the revenue.

Then you know why Japanese govenment want to push casino.
And how much will SEGA lose if they sold their IP.

 

[Rangers]

Purchasing SEGA will be far more difficult/complex/expensive than all you might think.
SEGA is bidding the Yokohama casino and resort complex in Japan with SEGA IP theme.
Fitch estimates Osaka and Yokohama project will draw US$6.3bn revenue in the first year.
Japan Government is planning 4 to 6 casino projects now, and SEGA is the only Japanese bidder.

I dot think MS will buy Sega, but too be fair I think most assume they would only be interested in buying the gaming part.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Microsoft can do a lot better than SEGA. I think nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses are clouding a lot go people's judgement here. If you asked gamers who the influential companies were in the 1990s SEGA would be in everybody's top three and most people's top two. I bet if you asked people that today SEGA would be in very few people's top ten.

 

[Strange]

Surely he'll only regain credibility if a rumour comes true. He released a bullshit rumour as a moderator on resetera, was called by other industry insiders on resetera, then admitted he made it up because the console gaming narrative was to his liking. Why would anybody believe someone who admitted to lying ?

Because it helps with a narrative they're trying to convey.

 

[Strange]

Microsoft can do a lot better than SEGA. I think nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses are clouding a lot go people's judgement here. If you asked gamers who the influential companies were in the 1990s SEGA would be in everybody's top three and most people's top two. I bet if you asked people that today SEGA would be in very few people's top ten.

That's also mainly because people in this forum do not care about a lot of Japanese titles that are held as cults in Japan.
One example is Sakura Wars, which probably nobody here is too much a fan of, but that isn't the case in Japan.

 

[tuna]

One example is Sakura Wars, which probably nobody here is too much a fan of, but that isn't the case in Japan.

I played 1,2 and half of 3!

 

[Inuhanyou]

MS have flexed their real muscle for the actual first time with the bethesda buyout. I feel like these sorts of conversations are now moot. Jim ryan must be beside himself when shown just how small sony is despite the agressive push to win mindshare with the strategy they have gone with for ps5.

As a playstation player going back to be start, im honestly more bummed about that fact more than anything. Faced with such overwhelming odds and MS now seemingly intend on eating up the third party gaming market wholesale, it brings me no joy to say that i see limited paths forward for sony in the gaming industry. And considering how much they lean on gaming these days thats bad news for sony as a whole.

I think its bad news for the gaming industry as a whole. There is no way sony can compete at this level when ms has decided on their plan having the power and money that they do. I dont think any of the work sony has put in fostering good relationships and partnerships over the past 25 years will matter in the future.

if sony expects to survive beyond the next few years as a gaming pub who has their own hardware and ecosystem, they can no longer depend on their traditional ally in the third party market for third party deals, neither can they afford an aquisition war in that space either because the winner wont be them.

The only reasonable path forward i see for sony is to grow their internal first party studios through beefing up existing studios and creating new studios from scratch at a fast pace intent on excelling at many multiple kinds of game genres big and small. And they needed to have started this yesterday

 

[PSman1700]

it brings me no joy to say that i see limited paths forward for sony in the gaming industry.

Sonys push forward is high budget/quality AAA gaming. Problem is that output of those is extremely small, whilest replay value is next to nothing, which means people wont be investing into the games more over time, like buying ingame items etc. They also reach a rather small market to the total install base (around 10 to 15% each).
For that to go forward in a successfull way, theyd have to output big AAA's every couple a months or so, with each having DLC that people what to pay for. And increase prices for the main games.

This is becoming a niche market i think. Now i said quality, but seeing things like Doom Eternal, that quality of graphics/game is extremely high, id argue up there with any sony AAA experience. This doom game im sure doesnt take as long and as much budget to create as say GoW or HZD etc.
Again going forard with this, their consoles and software prices have to go up to sustain this market. I think this is one of the reasons Sony is looking to put out more and more of their games on the PC, explore PSnow/store/streaming, and multiplayer gaming.

All this in special considering mobile/streaming and fortnite/apex etc kind of gaming on the rise, its where MS has to invest and so does sony in the long run. That is, if they not opt to be the 'porsche of gaming' or something. And thats never going to work out well.
With that said, as some others have noted, MS probably wants to create more AAA's too, perhaps not on the level of Sonys, but close enough.

The only reasonable path forward i see for sony is to grow their internal first party studios through beefing up existing studios and creating new studios from scratch at a fast pace intent on excelling at many multiple kinds of game genres big and small. And they needed to have started this yesterday

Maybe, but i think Sony already seen this coming.... they are already expanding and exploring the pc market, PSnow etc. Having this tied to hardware market doesnt seem like a good way going forward in the long run.

 

[Inuhanyou]

The problem with your analysis is the assumption that SIE can exist as a service maker, their own publisher at all when it comes to securing content like gamepass.

Its the exact same problem whether they are in the hardware business or not. They cant win in that space if they are trying to compete with MS at such a concept.

This is why i see a single path forward for them. either they focus on diversifying their internal teams and bolstering those to create said content(ie become a bigger nintendo esque publisher) or they close up shop.

Obviously i dont want the latter to happen but i am wondering what they are thinking now. Ill also disagree with your assertion that first party single player games arent profitable.

Sony sells 10s of millions of copies at this point for their titles, using userbase figures is as as misleading as it is for nintendo. Sure they could do with some service based titles in their portfolio but i reject the notion that focusing on well crafted AA and AAA single player experiences isnt well served. If it wasnt sony would not be focusing on it imo.

 

[Jay]

Sorry only skimmed peoples posts.
But what I will say is that with both Google and amazon entering the market, this sort of acquisition was bound to happen.
One of the questions is who would you have preferred it to be. Would you prefer option to play locally still.
We've all seen how stadia is doing, and it shows that just entering the market isn't good enough.

MS has needed to do something like this for a long time now.

As for Sony survival, i personally think they'll be ok, at worst they'll just become a publisher.
Even in that time frame people could be debating the importance of hardware anyway.
When you'll have pc and streaming, in 10 years or so's time.