What will define the next generation of consoles in your mind?

[Squilliam]

To me the thing which will define the next generation of consoles is the fight to remain relevant and the lessons learned from the Wii. The big question is really one of relevancy in light of developments in other markets because a lot of what currently defines the consoles are already falling into other domains as 'good enough' competitors start moving in to compete for peoples attentions. On the one hand people can now play games to pass the time on devices like tablets/smart phones and dual screening (where people say watch tv whilst fiddling with another device) and on the other hand streaming media services can be found on practically any internet connected device.

The major lessons from the Wii to me are the need to make the performance of the device relevant to the games and to have enough flexibility so the console manufacturer can evolve the experience over time. People don't need powerful consoles to enjoy playing games because you can find fun experiences on a wide variety of systems, fun is fun. If the system is 10 times more powerful then there need to be ways to experience that performance which move beyond prettier pixels. We need new ways to play new games not the same games but prettier.

I think the next generation needs major apps like what we saw with Wii Fit in the previous. Some of the major avenues to explore are likely to me a continuation of fitness from where the Wii Fit game left off but also other self improvement apps like education could find their feet if we can get natural voice recognition working as well as apps for the household itself like home automation where Microsoft recently purchased R2 studios. The consoles will be bought for the games but to really reach a wider audience they need to be justified as more than just toys so apps are the key to bridge the expectation gap where people can only justify a few hundred dollars on a console for games if it only plays games but to give people new experiences they need to release a $399-499 device to enable a device which has both next generation performance and a next generation interface.

 

[eastmen]

Consoles will remain relevant. A lot of people like to point out ios games and android games but they are still behind games made for 7 year old consoles. With the new consoles the clock will reset again and possibly consoles may speed up in how often they are replaced.


I think the generation will be defined by the worlds they create. Currently the rpgs are bland. I loved skyrim but you can see the cut and paste used to make the world. I'm expecting with new consoles we will see much better worlds .

 

[liolio]

I would say more of the same, at this point I'm really likely to go back to PC gaming if editors continue to port a significant part of their production.
I went back to gaming after a long break with the 360 which I've sold for more than year now. Overall I'm bothered by the lack of BC, now on my laptop I'm playing Titan Quest and its extension, Titan quest is old, it still runs on my pc (or any PC for that matter).

I've no interest in a Steam box either / it's going to be a tough sell.

 

[Rangers]

better gfx. which isnt an option....

my stance has always been there is a place for hardcore gaming aimed at a mostly male, younger demographics, and roughly speaking always will be for the forseeable future. this market may not be the biggest yet it is formidable. it should withstand even phone/mobile/facebook gaming imo due to lack of good controls and cutting edge graphics on those devices.

 

[Squilliam]

better gfx. which isnt an option....

Old games just made better is that option.

 

[Rangers]

Old games just made better is that option.

i think as usual that is mostly what you'll see.

yet there will be innovation. The rise of things like XBLA this gen alone is an underrated huge development.

Next gen I expect will trend in the way of more always on set top box features and social stuff, maybe some free2play coming to consoles, things like that.

 

[Squilliam]

i think as usual that is mostly what you'll see.

yet there will be innovation. The rise of things like XBLA this gen alone is an underrated huge development.

Next gen I expect will trend in the way of more always on set top box features and social stuff, maybe some free2play coming to consoles, things like that.

Wii Fit was a huge breakout hit and Kinect was too in much the same way. I think we will see them develop to a logical conclusion in the next generation because we didn't have the performance 'left over' after much of it was devoted to games to really expand the consoles much beyond HD gaming and multimedia. If these were big hits then what else is there for consoles to expand into which could tap new markets or speed adoption from people who would otherwise sit back in the sidelines? Can people really justify spending more than $299 if all it did was games? I mean regular people not the hardcore who will buy it even if it cost twice the price.

 

[eastmen]

Wii Fit was a huge breakout hit and Kinect was too in much the same way. I think we will see them develop to a logical conclusion in the next generation because we didn't have the performance 'left over' after much of it was devoted to games to really expand the consoles much beyond HD gaming and multimedia. If these were big hits then what else is there for consoles to expand into which could tap new markets or speed adoption from people who would otherwise sit back in the sidelines? Can people really justify spending more than $299 if all it did was games? I mean regular people not the hardcore who will buy it even if it cost twice the price.

the wii fit ? It existed before as the power pad and countless other products.

There really isn't any moving forward. I didn't see Kinect pushing software, it did push hardware but that's a one trick poney , you gotta keep moving software for these products

 

[manux]

The cynic in me expects infinite amount of sequels where the only real differentiation to current gen is graphics. On similar note there probably is more and more tendency to mainstream everything to maximize profit(what bioware did this gen but to much worse extent).

So I'm pretty much ready to skip next gen assuming there is no real innovation happening in game mechanics or genres.

What I would hope for is more niche games boldly differentiating from the mass of shooters and sports games. Cannot wait for example what braben is cooking with elite and what might happen if baldurs gate enhanced version is seen as a success. Steam box might be ultimate platform for these kind of games as pc ports would be easy and no need for special expensive devkits.

 

[jonabbey]

I've long wondered why neither MS nor Sony has ever bothered to go into educational software on their consoles.

I use my console (PS3) whenever the TV is on, essentially, between Netflix, playing ripped mp3's and mp4's from my Linux box's DLNA server, and occasional game playing and YouTube.

I would want to lose none of those features next gen, else I likely wouldn't bother upgrading.

I'd like better communications / game match set up than is available on PS3 (a la 360). I'd be jazzed to have a greater variety of apps, such as Google Earth, Audible, Spotify, but I do have my Android phone and tablet for those. Having radio style apps over the living room speakers would be nice, though.

Full a la carte television, without the delays or restrictions of Hulu Plus would be great, but that's not a technology problem.

Quality of experience improvements like being able to bring up communications, a video stream, or the store without exiting / killing a game in progress, but that's rather incremental.

It seems that there should be a lot more possibilities, but I'm coming up short, imagination-wise.

 

[jonabbey]

Thinking a little more about it, having the console having greater contextual awareness, a la Google Now on Android tablets, could be very useful. Likewise being able to get a large variety of controllable notifications on screen, tied into my interests, would be good. For instance, I can get notifications on my tablet if there is a large earthquake somewhere in the world, or important weather updates, etc. Make the television much more intelligent and helpful whether I'm watching video, listening to music, or playing a game. Support a huge variety of apps on the console that could monitor information important to me.. that would feel like a generation jump.

 

[Squilliam]

the wii fit ? It existed before as the power pad and countless other products.

There really isn't any moving forward. I didn't see Kinect pushing software, it did push hardware but that's a one trick poney , you gotta keep moving software for these products

Microsoft pushed it hard and there are 122 released Kinect titles and 20 upcoming titles. If it didn't move any software there wouldn't be games for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kinect_games

There are also a lot of Wii Fit balance board games too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_that_support_Wii_Balance_Board

So why wouldn't they continue pushing Kinect given the fact that they can make it better next generation?

 

[Arwin]

As last gen was in no small part defined by services, this is an option that should have been in the poll. Personally I think services are going to be important. They could include streaming services, to incorporate all sorts of existing and new media and web services.

Cross display tech is a possibility, but I think streaming the display to another device as the Wii U does is more likely to be a hit then using two displays at once. More likely the two display thing may work for some applications, like where you want complex controller interaction from your display. I definitely see some good use for that, and something that could lead to more innovation on the gaming front, if it takes off to become something mainstream.

I do believe that something like Kinect could become really successful in a next generation, where all the initial kinks have been worked out, and it becomes a standard component that all games have access to and it's combined with greater processing power and memory. For me, motion controls have been by far the most important innovation for last gen, and of all the things that are of lasting interest: Start the Party may be old, but it's still a favorite go-to game for my son and his friends (and I still like it too), Playing something like Move Fitness, but especially Sports Champions has been truly really revelatory experience for me. I realise that this is not for everybody, but it was my game of the year, and ranks high up on my game of the generation.

What next-gen really needs however, especially on the Sony side, and less so on the Microsoft side, is a unified vision of games development and art. I find it reasonably unacceptable that a title like Sports Champions has such limited graphical appeal and charm (though 2 looks a slight bit better at least), and so little in the way of services integration (just fairly boring online leaderboards - Move Fitness is much better in that regard). They should provide a framework for services and a pool of artists that are easy to tap into, if they are going to have 'outside' studios make games that are first-rate, and no matter how good the gameplay really is in the Move titles (and it is really great at times), many of those titles are seriously held back by the presentation.

Hire some truly senior graphics artists, and let them review your 'first party' (i.e. commissioned and payed for by Sony) motion control titles as well as share motion tech (which at least happens to some extent with the Move researchers providing assistance).

I do think stuff like Apps is going to matter next-gen for sure, and it will be interesting to see which way the two companies will go. Microsoft should be expected to have a Windows RT style integration, but on Sony's end I'm not sure what will happen.

 

[Squilliam]

There seems to be a lot of potential with motion control successors. For instance this 'leap motion' device looks like it has a lot of potential. Does anyone have any idea of how it works?

@ Arwin

I would say that if you're going to do dual display it would make more sense to try to get more information into the one view by using say augmented reality glasses than having to look away from one display to look at another. I think in the long term there's more potential with augmented glasses and 3D imaging cameras like Kinect 2/PSEYE 2 for instance where you can visually interact with projected information. It would mean you wouldn't have to change focus. I have felt that some kind of projected interface was the half of the Kinect interface which was missing because you couldn't 'see' what you were interacting with. Even if they improve the sensor itself they still need to give people a visual feedback, like for instance the haptic interfaces shown in Mass Effect 3.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think next gen will be defined by device independence/cross functionality. Xbox won't be an isolated game playing device, but a device that runs your Xbox games along with your Windows tablet and phone. Android consoles are already appearing. I think Sony will pull something together, or at least attempt to. If they fail, goodbye Sony. Apple might also give it a shot. So the concept of the console will disappear and become the TV computer to go with the handheld computer and the study computer.

Essentially the answer to the poll is 'all of the above'. The games will be better - that'll be the majority experience. There'll be new apps thanks to cross device functionality - this'll be a new branch to the console pioneered this gen (TV streaming). The console as it is (was) will die as it evolves into a new product. The only thing that may not make it is the new genre of games. I don't think there's any new tech to allow for new game genres. I'm not even sure there were any new genres of games this gen. Motion controls were applied to the same game genres to give new experiences.

 

[tuna]

So I'm pretty much ready to skip next gen assuming there is no real innovation happening in game mechanics or genres.

What I would hope for is more niche games boldly differentiating from the mass of shooters and sports games. Cannot wait for example what braben is cooking with elite and what might happen if baldurs gate enhanced version is seen as a success. Steam box might be ultimate platform for these kind of games as pc ports would be easy and no need for special expensive devkits.

So you will skip next gen because there is no innovation but you want remakes/sequels to other old games?

 

[Osamar]

I am with Shifty Geezer. I think next gen will be an evolution to console+distribuited media player+social hub+info point+other things I can not think of now. But also a subclass of PCs goes that way too, like Steam box.

 

[milk]

I am most exited about the gameplay inovations, which I´m sure will happen. Just think of the beggining of this gen, how gameplay did evolve substantially in many genres. New hardware always makes devs more experimental.

 

[wco81]

I think the fight for relevance will be more obvious. Fewer and fewer franchises will command $60 and sell millions of units.

If they do something stupid like try to stop used games sales, which is what allows a lot of people to buy $60 games in the first place, they'll alienate more people and drive them towards mobile games, where the policies on buying once and playing on multiple devices are in stark contrast.

 

[Squilliam]

I think the fight for relevance will be more obvious. Fewer and fewer franchises will command $60 and sell millions of units.

If they do something stupid like try to stop used games sales, which is what allows a lot of people to buy $60 games in the first place, they'll alienate more people and drive them towards mobile games, where the policies on buying once and playing on multiple devices are in stark contrast.

There has been another recent filing from Sony about game disc console verification so I would say it is definitely possible. I think in general they can reach an acceptable compromise with Gamestop if they give them a monopoly on used games in exchange for preventing the private used game market in exchange for a revenue stream from the used game market itself. The increased revenue will probably more than offset the low minority of people who would switch away from console gaming as people who aren't willing to pay much for games aren't exactly worth bending over backwards to please.