What company's next-gen plans are you most interested in?

[GwymWeepa]

MS, Sony, Nintendo? Which company are you more intrigued by, who's next-gen plan would you love to look over in detail?

For shits and giggles give predictions of what you EXPECT them to do, and perhaps some realistic guesstimates on what the graphics will be capable of (perhaps even link pics or movies of cinematics that you think best indicate what the machines will be capable of).

 

[SegaR&D]

Nintendo wont be a player next gen, as I predict for them to drop out around 2007/2008 time frame.

 

[speng]

Sony, because it is vastly different from the others and will be part of the next-generation of appliances.

If I am thinking about buying a HDTV, I'd be tempted to wait on the first Cell based one to come out.

Speng

 

[Polarbear53]

I wanna see what the cell is all about, but i'm rooting for microsoft.

 

[wco81]

Microsoft hasn't innovated much. It's often found itself behind in a lot of new product categories and then using its enormous warchest to catch up or just outlast rivals.

It was true of browsers, streaming media, PDAs/phones. Not it's true of iPods and game consoles and they're trying to get in on PVRs as well.

MS will let someone else come out with the stark new design or entirely new category and then try to benchmark their way past them.

Sony is going out on a limb with an entirely new architecture while MS is again leveraging off technology being developed for other markets (i.e. PC graphics).

Xenon may be a very attractive product in 2005, for the right price. But if it doesn't have a blue-laser drive, it won't represent as much of an advance over the current consoles as the PS3 presumably would be.

 

[Guden Oden]

I used to be the WORST kind of Ninty f-boi, but when they started banking so heavily on Rare (who started producing washed-out, unimaginative games that got delayed for months and were still uninspiring to play), whilst alienating 3rd party developers, I got a little miffed at them. I still luvd my N64 though, you powered it up, the game was there. No obnoxious loadtimes like PS, and no horrible polygon warping or texture sliding either.

What annoyed me though, and annoys me even more today, is they seem to have the attitude that if 3rd parties desert them, then good riddance.

They have SO much money just SITTING THERE. Why aren't they BUYING some support for their hardware?! They could set up several new devstudios and only spend a fraction of their capital!

Takes money to make money. For example, steal money to buy coke, then sell the coke and make even more money. Capital investment.

Anyway, Nintendo's reluctance to break up from their old set ways of cheerful primary colors and milking of one million year old franchaises makes me pick Sony instead. That, and I am REALLY curious about PS3, hoping it'll be a real monster! (I am such a geek... )

 

[thop]

I'm really interested in Nintendo, interested in SONY, not interested at all what Microsoft does. I know how the next gen is gonna work out already anyway. It began today with the first day of real PS3 hype

 

[Goldni]

Definitely Nintendo. Sony and MS have only promised better graphics and more online games blah blah. Ninty could really have an ace up it's sleeve with Revolution. It'd better be impressive from an innovative AND graphics standpoint though. I go where the good games are..no matter if they are new franchises or older ones that are better and better beit Mario, Zelda or whoever. Judging from the very innovative direction of the DS I'm excited about what Nintendo are thinking up next. I Remember when I first heard about the DS and how we all thought "oh no not another gimmick" but now I know the real deal. I've fallen in love with this thing. And my faith in Nintendo is renewed for a while at least.

 

[TheMightyPuck]

Really should have had the taco option. Ooops. Wrong forum. If forced to pick, probably Sony as they seem to be trying something new and it appeals to the hardware geek in me. If I was a software developer, maybe MS as they seem to be paying a lot of lip service to ease of development issues that, much to the chagrin of hardware geeks everywhere, will be the real bottleneck of the next generation.

Note: the use of the term "seem" herein means that my perceptions are based on extremely limited information.

 

[Blade]

Nintendo, always Nintendo. We know what to expect for the most part from MS and Sony, but Nintendo's been messing around lately in a rather creative way. It'll also be interesting to see if they can reclaim the crown or at least the no.2 slot from MS.

Bottom line: They need more 3rd-party support. They need to spend more money on their hardware. They need a 1st-party killer app at launch. They desperately need to take their superb multiplayer library online one way or another. They need to continue bringing new franchises out along with polished sequels to old favorites. Along the same lines, they need to diversify their lineup with more M-rated software. If they can do half of this with the Revolution they'll be okay.

Lots of obvious points here but frankly it's all I've got. Heh.

 

[Sonic]

I am interested in all three equally.

I'm interested in Sony and the PS3 mainly because of the architecture. Sony also has the industry in its hands and has been #1 for two generations in a row and has grown its userbase at a faster rate over the PS1. The only thing I fear is that CELL will be too costly to implement early on in its life but later down the road it culd be a huge cash machine if it does get adapted to the rest of Sony's electronics and appliances. I am sort of interested in what games Sony will come up with as they do have new franchises each and every generation.

Microsoft is also interesting coming from the standpoint as the Xbox is a success if you do not consider it being a financial failure for MS. If Xbox 2 is profitable for MS then Xbox was a great success for the company. The technology is a little bizaare minues the R500 graphics chip. A tri-core CPU sounds interesting in theory but I would like to see how it plays in the real world. MS needs more exclusives that agre great and not just good.

Nintendo is interesting because it is still a mystery. They really need to come up with something for the next gen as they're promising something different. If their innovation is the usual crap or gimmick we get from them then it will be highly dissapointing. If Nintendo actually manages to come up with something that is used on a wide basis then I am all for it. One thing is for sure though, if they do not step up to the plate and actually TRY to compete with Sony and MS then they will become a niche player in the industry. (I agree with Johnny Awesome when he says this) The problem with Nintendo is that they are losing appeal amongst gamers around the world and need something fresh and exciting (in terms of software) to reinvigorate that old Nintendo love.

 

[Vennt]

From a gaming perspective, I'm interested in all three.

From a technical perspective I'm more interested in Sonys plans due to the gamble they are taking with cell.

 

[Readykilowatt]

Nintendo of course.

From a software perspective: Nintendo. They continue to make some of the best games on the planet IMHO. It will be interesting to see what they will come up with next-gen.

From a hardware perspective: Nintendo. With all the hype that Microsoft and Sony recieves from their hardware, I have come to notice something about Nintendo's hardware.

N64......... (MIPS core) (Rambus RAM) (Vector Processor) Reminds you of something? That's right the PS2.

Gamecube......... (Power PC CPU) (ATI GPU) Reminds you of something? That's right the Xbox 2.

No wonder Nintendo is so secretive.

Additionally, to this very day, hackers have still not figured out how to get the GCN to read pirated discs. Very good job Nintendo. I can't wait to see what Howard Cheng, Genyo Takeda, etc. will come up with next-gen. As EA Vice President Jeff Brown once said, "Hardware is in thier DNA."

 

[PC-Engine]

I'm interested in all three for different reasons:

SONY, because I want to see if they'll actually accomplish a 1TLFOPS single chip CELL with good sustained realworld GFLOPS figures.

MS, because I want to see if they'll use eDRAM and HD DVD and how the tricore cpu performs in realworld environment. I already know the R500 will be a beast.

Nintendo, because I want to know what Revolution actually means. I'm also interested in their media format and what ATI has designed for them and also what cpu. Basically everything since we don't know anything at this point. 8)

 

[V3]

Nintendo definitely, because they're the most unknown at this point and beside I need another Mario platforming game, hopefully that'll be the launch title for their Revolution.

 

[Deepak]

I want to know what part Nvidia is possibly playing in PS3. And I want to hack into Ken K's PC/Laptop....

 

[TheMightyPuck]

Nintendo of course.

From a software perspective: Nintendo. They continue to make some of the best games on the planet IMHO. It will be interesting to see what they will come up with next-gen.

From a hardware perspective: Nintendo. With all the hype that Microsoft and Sony recieves from their hardware, I have come to notice something about Nintendo's hardware.

N64......... (MIPS core) (Rambus RAM) (Vector Processor) Reminds you of something? That's right the PS2.

Gamecube......... (Power PC CPU) (ATI GPU) Reminds you of something? That's right the Xbox 2.

No wonder Nintendo is so secretive.

Additionally, to this very day, hackers have still not figured out how to get the GCN to read pirated discs. Very good job Nintendo. I can't wait to see what Howard Cheng, Genyo Takeda, etc. will come up with next-gen. As EA Vice President Jeff Brown once said, "Hardware is in thier DNA."

Good points. I should have added Nintendo because I personally like their idea of what games are. Unfortunately thousands of bloodthirsty teenagers disagree.

 

[wco81]

Nintendo definitely, because they're the most unknown at this point and beside I need another Mario platforming game, hopefully that'll be the launch title for their Revolution.

Wasn't Mario Sunshine considered something of a letdown?

Not nearly as revolutionary as Mario 64 and the sales weren't quite blowout?

Seems like Mario Sunshine didn't move nearly the same number of boxes as Mario 64 did.

 

[London Geezer]

Nintendo definitely, because they're the most unknown at this point and beside I need another Mario platforming game, hopefully that'll be the launch title for their Revolution.

Wasn't Mario Sunshine considered something of a letdown?

Not nearly as revolutionary as Mario 64 and the sales weren't quite blowout?

Seems like Mario Sunshine didn't move nearly the same number of boxes as Mario 64 did.

Well, Mario64 was revolutionary for the time, Mario Sunshine was one out of many excellent platformers this generation. I think Naughty Dog and Insomniac really set a new standard for platformers this generation, and Mario Sunshine, although good, wasn't that much better than their offerings, if at all.

 

[V3]

Wasn't Mario Sunshine considered something of a letdown?

If you aren't collecting the red and blue coins, the game is really good. Its too bad half of the game is collecting red and blue coins. So yes in that way it was some what of a letdown. Another let down is the way Mario control, its less twitchy than Mario 64, in that way the game become easier to control, but less fun IMO. But it has its moment. Overall I am actually please with it.

Not nearly as revolutionary as Mario 64 and the sales weren't quite blowout?

Seems like Mario Sunshine didn't move nearly the same number of boxes as Mario 64 did.

Yes. Nintendo didn't put as much effort in Sunshine as it did with M64, the result speak for it self I suppose.