JimmyStewart: Focus on the future then!

How can one focus on the future without learning from the past, even if that learning is from the competition?

The stats for example are meaningless because they’re only used to convey things about this generation of consoles. First, take sales. Think of the sheer dominance of the PS2 last round and the less impressive numbers on the XBox 1. What did that mean for this round? What about the Gamecube numbers vs the Wii. It’s just not relevant when looking at the future, it’s only relevant with this generation.

This generation’s sales need to be high enough to have a possible revenue for the next system. That’s why Dreamcast never had a successor because that system flopped, losing tons of revenue and lost any chance for redeeming itself for the next console. PS3 was heading down that same path until the Slim was released, turning around the sales when they needed it most. If they let the sales falter and they never had that turnaround (due to a price cut and a new system design), they would have abandoned the PlayStation brand after this generation finished up.

f your point about future proofing with HDMI was that 1.2 doesn’t count, and that 1.3 is the wave of the future… Then what does the new 1.4 mean? Sony just lost that future proofing advantage didn’t they? And why do we care what this generation has for HDMI support, wasn’t this article about paving the way for the next console? Won’t both companies update their HDMI for those consoles? What does this have to do with future proofing anything?

v1.3 adds a lot more functionality than v1.2. Yeah, 1.4 is coming out so the PS3 isn’t that far ahead, but at least with them having v1.3, they’ve got an advantage with HD audio and other advantages. My point with this was that the PS3 took what was best available at the time and implemented it into their system. Since the 360 used a standard DVD drive, though, v1.3 HDMI would have been pointless anyway. Microsoft could learn some things from Sony, too.

The HDD, again this is very fan boyish stuff here. All I said was that if you’re giving Sony props for having an “easily replaceable” hard drive, it’s worth noting how much easier it is to replace on the 360. It’s not to say the 360 is better or ideal, just that pushing that button and popping off your HDD is a ton easier than swapping a drive on the PS3. And once again, what on Earth does this have to do with the future? Surely the next generation will build on this, just like the current generation build on the last gen.

I know it’s easier to replace the 360 HDD, but you’re stuck with what they give you. What I meant in my article was it’s easier to replace to high capacity HDDs if that helps you understand any better. And yeah, they will undoubtedly build upon it next gen. They’d be stupid not to. Then again, Microsoft made a mistake of their own by making the HDD optional this gen as opposed to mandatory. What this shows for the future is that it’s a very, very good idea to have memory stored in, and with an upgradeable HDD without a mandatory, sealed enclosure (only way an enclosure would work is if it resembled that of the 360′s but has tabs to open the cover of the enclosure and easily pop in a replacement).

And finally, about the XBox 1 having better technology. You cleverly loop this back into a focus on reliability. “On paper, it had the better technology, but the reliability issues of that console was questionable as well. I still have a PS2 fatty that works just fine.”
But then respond a few posts down with… “I agree, the PS2 had a pretty large failure rate, but it was nowhere near as bad as the 360 failure rate.”
Wha? And that’s what’s wrong with all this reliability stuff, it only matters individually. You had a problem with an XBox 1 and that translates to it being “reliability issues”.

The PS2 had a relatively bad failure rate, as did XBox 1, but the PS2′s failure rate is nowhere near the 360s. XBox 1′s failure rate was probably but a few points higher than the PS2′s but not much of a difference, i’ll admit that, but at least Sony improved their hardware when they got into this generation instead of making it worse! In relation to this article, if Sony keeps their hardware development in top shape, then we’re looking at next gen’s Sony system to have a sub-10% failure rate. Microsoft, IDK. If they want to do some good next gen, hopefully they’ll learn that they need more testing before they try to hit the market first.

You had a GREAT idea for an article I was REALLY excited to read. I still wish I could read that article. I guess it’s my fault. I keep coming to this site to be excited about my PS3… and instead I keep seeing a bunch of trash talked about the other consoles I play. I must mistype the website… I keep trying to find a blog about the PS3 and instead I keep finding the one that’s about how terrible Microsoft is. Hmmm…

No one is forcing you to come here. You don’t have too many fans either because almost every time you come here, you complain about something. I’m sorry the site isn’t EverySystemIsEqualBlog.net. You come to a PS3 site, you’re going to get articles that are a bit biased in areas (at least with my article, I gave Microsoft some credit, and as much as it deserved, too). If you want articles that are the way you want them to be, then the internet won’t have any available because everyone has a biased opinion on something.

Sorry, but every time I get a Microsoft console, it takes a shit on me. Why would I say a lot of positive shit on that? Sure, it’s got a handful of good games, some OK ones, but nothing to get overly excited for. The hardware itself is crap, though. You seem to come here and want everyone to either say that the 360 is just as good, if not, better than the PS3, but that’s just not the case!

to all the xbots ,

i hav to say..what are yo doing here

and ps3 has alread won…..by far…miles and miles even in the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere

were scorning that microsoft paid a few jap developers for games…but sony has s many games developers under their belt, i think they couldn’t care less…..peace out….and get urself a ps3…..its like owning a bmw compared to owning a ford,…the ford still gets you to the shops… but come on……..u need that air-conditioning and leather seats,…… DONT YOU

You’ve taken a bunch of fanboy stats to try and consistently paint your console in the better light… and then you say it’s an article about the future. Focus on the future then! If you can’t manage to make an interesting article about your favorite console without trashing the competition than maybe you should rethink the article… and for that matter, maybe even the console you’re using! Hell, the Wii is my least favorite console and I could muster up an article on my hopes for the next one! And I could do it without trashing the PS3 or 360. There’s no need for it, at all.

The stats for example are meaningless because they’re only used to convey things about this generation of consoles. First, take sales. Think of the sheer dominance of the PS2 last round and the less impressive numbers on the XBox 1. What did that mean for this round? What about the Gamecube numbers vs the Wii. It’s just not relevant when looking at the future, it’s only relevant with this generation.

The same is said about using Metacritics stats. They’ll say exactly what you want them to say. For example you say the PS3 has the highest scores out of all the consoles. I’m not sure where this was sourced, but I do know it had the highest scores for 2009. Every year prior it’s been the 360, so the opposite stance would be that it’s had the best games for one year out of the past four. Also, those same stats show that the 360 had more games rated above 75. That would mean the the PS3 has more games that are rated well… but that the 360 has the most games rated the best.

And since you took the time to respond to my initial post, I’ll do the same. It’s missing the point a bit, but I just feel it would be polite as this is obviously an issue you take dearly.

If your point about future proofing with HDMI was that 1.2 doesn’t count, and that 1.3 is the wave of the future… Then what does the new 1.4 mean? Sony just lost that future proofing advantage didn’t they? And why do we care what this generation has for HDMI support, wasn’t this article about paving the way for the next console? Won’t both companies update their HDMI for those consoles? What does this have to do with future proofing anything?

Sure the Cell might be in a PS4, without seeing the future we have no way to tell. The point is simply that we don’t know if it will be included at all and recent evidence at Sony would lead one to believe they’re leaning away from the process. It’s certainly not the best example for the point you’re trying to make.

The HDD, again this is very fan boyish stuff here. All I said was that if you’re giving Sony props for having an “easily replaceable” hard drive, it’s worth noting how much easier it is to replace on the 360. It’s not to say the 360 is better or ideal, just that pushing that button and popping off your HDD is a ton easier than swapping a drive on the PS3. And once again, what on Earth does this have to do with the future? Surely the next generation will build on this, just like the current generation build on the last gen.

And finally, about the XBox 1 having better technology. You cleverly loop this back into a focus on reliability. “On paper, it had the better technology, but the reliability issues of that console was questionable as well. I still have a PS2 fatty that works just fine.”
But then respond a few posts down with… “I agree, the PS2 had a pretty large failure rate, but it was nowhere near as bad as the 360 failure rate.”
Wha? And that’s what’s wrong with all this reliability stuff, it only matters individually. You had a problem with an XBox 1 and that translates to it being “reliability issues”.

But most importantly, what I’m trying to cement is after all of the fan boy back and forth about how much better you feel the PS3 is, and how much better you feel the PS2 is… the point I am trying to make is all of that debate is of absolutely NO indication for what the PS4 will bring. You had a GREAT idea for an article I was REALLY excited to read. I still wish I could read that article. I guess it’s my fault. I keep coming to this site to be excited about my PS3… and instead I keep seeing a bunch of trash talked about the other consoles I play. I must mistype the website… I keep trying to find a blog about the PS3 and instead I keep finding the one that’s about how terrible Microsoft is. Hmmm…

Of course, Microsoft makes a bigger profit because of Live, Sony’s profit making is still respectable, and as long as they have good games coming out, they would still turn a bit of a profit.

These days, 2 years isn’t as long as it used to be. Back when the shift went from PS1 to PS2, graphics and processing technology was booming, with vast improvements every year, but now that technology boom has slowed down a bit, more game companies are focusing on consoles than ever before because the games can look good and play well without having to spend hundreds of dollars every year to upgrade a computer; basically, every game is guaranteed to work.

With games maxing out, it’s a good idea to keep at that for at least a little bit before releasing new hardware, because once things have been maxed out, that’s when the games start to really shine. God of War II and Shadow of the Colossus of prime examples of great games at the end of a life cycle. The problem with releasing a new piece of hardware is that a lot of developers would start focusing on that hardware, and then lack development on the older hardware’s ports, etc. This was probably the reason why Sony lost exclusivity with the DMC and FF series, because Microsoft hit the market first and built up a fan base rather quickly, but now, according to a bunch of sources, FF devs are regretting that, as they had to drop a lot of content because of the 360′s limitations (they would have needed a few more discs probably).

Which leads me to my next point. If I’m engrossed in a game, I’d rather not be interrupted by switching discs. With MY 360, I’d try to avoid it if at all possible because of my disc read errors, sticking CD tray, etc. I’m sure the next system lineup will have blu-ray capabilities as well. PS2 got a lot of flack because it had a DVD drive and people were saying CDs were just fine, yet, the PS2 helped pave the way for the DVD format’s success as well, and the space was beneficial for the games at that time, too. XBox, too, used the DVD technology for their games, but they didn’t really help the DVD community because you had to buy another device to enable movie playback.

Blu-Ray is totally beneficial for gaming, especially when you get into larger, data heavy games. On a somewhat unrelated note, people want the Digital Download Era to come, but I don’t think that will be until the generation after the next, at least. The internet, as it stands, wouldn’t be able to handle that much bandwidth, and some internet service providers put a download cap on their data lines, and with games most likely topping 15-20GBs in the next couple years, it would require for multi-terabyte HDDs for you to have a respectable collection of games. And what happens when that HDD dies? You’ll either lose all that data and have to repurchase it, or, if the games service has a retrievable account, redownload them all and spend days waiting for that to finish. This, on top of the cost of a new HDD to replace it. This is why physical copies are always nice to have, and this is why blu-ray is going to be the format of choice for disc-based gaming within the next few years (I’d suspect that cartridge gaming could make a return as well, though, on like SD type cards, but they would have about the same space limitations as the current DVD standard). At least when the next system comes out, they’ll have faster blu-ray drives, so loading will be a lot faster, too. Plus, it calls for backwards compatibility on PS3 games, since it will most likely house an updated version of the Cell processor

I brought up the PS2 failure rate because it was bad. It wasn’t Red Ring bad, but still people didn’t think twice about. If anything, Xbox learned you don’t put a signal on the console that is universal. PS2 had a bunch of different problems but not signal.

Sony did not drop the PS1 or PS2 because they were making a killing on the system itself and were selling games and making a killing. If you look at their numbers now they still make a killing on the PS2. Poor people usually don’t get a system until it hits the $99 price point and games can be found for $5-$10 that are high quality. There are what, 3,000 PS2 games? Their is a huge market after the new systems are out. Now that the 360 is making money, Microsoft will continue to sell the system once the new system is released. Maybe you didn’t look at it before from this standpoint. Xbox 1 hemorrhaged money. There isn’t a company anywhere that would continue to support a product if it loses Billions of dollars. If they are making Billions, they don’t throw that away either. I personally didn’t care as I bought a 360 upon release. Bought a few PS2 games brand new for $40 at release. Good times.

I really hope this gen doesn’t last past 2012 (as the current gen). You shouldn’t either. Support will still be ongoing and game prices will drop. Usually 5 years after a system launch everything becomes the same. A.I., Graphic Tricks, Level Design, Draw Distance, etc. MW2 and many other popular games are not 720p, let alone 1080p.

In order to get the game to run at an acceptable frame rate they compromise graphics and other effects. these systems are great and have some life left, but 2 more years is a long time. The systems will be maxed out by one of the many constraints the hardware has. When that happens I am ready to move on to something new. I like new and shiny game systems!

Think of how massive the difference between the PS2 and PS3 was. There was a 6 year difference between them. 2012 would be 6 years. I really can’t see 9 years between launches. PC tech will be light years ahead by then.

TheRealMaxPower: PS2 had a terrible failure rate. My cousin bought 7 of them, I bought 3, and I know many that bought multiple PS2s.

I agree, the PS2 had a pretty large failure rate, but it was nowhere near as bad as the 360 failure rate.

360 has sold more units AFTER the Red Ring Fiasco.

The Red Ring fiasco is still not exactly over with, since they seem to still have problems with the hardware far more frequently than the PS3.

DVD players, CD players, Car audio, Cameras, AVRs, Labtops, etc. All have higher failure rates than their competitors. Sony makes HDTVs well. That is the one thing I will recommend family and friends to buy. Avoid the others like the plague. Sony also over charges for their products.

Sony makes good products if you get the right ones. I will agree with Car Audio, laptops, etc, but I had a Sony CD player, dropped all the time, banged up like crazy, and still worked great for about 5+ years. TVs and game systems I’ve always been satisfied with, but I think Samsung makes better TVs, but I do agree with their products being a tad overpriced.

Blu-Ray and HDMI were not included for you, the gamer. They were included for Copy Protection which made HDMI mandatory for HD movie playback plus Sony would win the HD DVD format war.

It was a mixture of the two. One, it gave access to audio and visual under one cable as opposed to multiple cables, or a cable with 5 off-shoots (7 in the case of the 360).

They also throw on a bunch of language and other crap we don’t need.

They usually have different languages, etc on one disc to save money on manufacturing costs (assuming developers take advantage of it), so you’ll only really need to manufacture on one line as opposed to multiple lines for multiple regions. Using blu-ray, they have the capability, and also have the capability to run games from another region without the need for a modded system (in other words, you can import a Japanese title and it will play on a US PS3).

Microsoft dropped the Xbox 1 because IT WAS LOSING MONEY ON EVERY CONSOLE SOLD!!!!! They wanted a clean start and got it with the 360. They dumped everything they had into making it successful (guess what, it worked) THEY WILL NOT ABANDON THE 360 BECAUSE THEY ARE MAKING A TON OF MONEY!!!

OK, let’s look at this now. 1, is it really fair to the gamers for their manufacturer to drop a system completely, even after a new one comes out? THat only shows they are in it for the money as opposed to being in it for the gamers. People will say that Sony is in it for the money as well. Well, if that were the case, then they would have dropped PS2 and PS1 support as soon as their successors came out. They were losing money on those consoles for a while, too you know? Oh, and by the way, Microsoft is still losing money on the 360 as well. The only one turning a profit would most likely be the Wii.

Sony invented rip off accessories. Memory Cards, Multiple controllers per console (PS1 plain and analog and PS3 motion/ no motion). If you look at the DMD, Memory Stick, and god knows all of the other crap in every line they “invent”.

No one ever said anything about Sony inventing anything. First off, the world revolves around using ideas already available to have something more proprietary. Memory cards, etc, for sure, had similar tech already in different markets, it’s just the fact that Sony has taken advantage of the technology and used it in their own systems, which had almost always proven successful.

They still don’t give you HD out of the box with PS3. You have to buy another cable (either HDMI or Component) to fully use the PS3. Doesn’t that seem a little stupid?

I agree. They should have, at least, included the component cables, though, HDMI would have been the better option. Maybe something similar to what the 360 had, with component and composite on the same cable (that’s what I use). At least it uses the same cable from PS2, so if you had components for that, you can now use them for PS3 (which, in itself, was a smart move, but would have been better if it was better advertised).

Sony needs to be more developer friendly. Have you realized that ALMOST ALL multiplats look and run better on the 360? Why does Modern Warfare 2 run at 12 FPS more on the 360? Where is all of this power PS3? Sony cannot prove to anyone that the PS3 is more powerful than the 360. It really frustrates me that they don’t work with their developers. There is NO reason multiplats run worse on the PS3 besides Sony not getting them the tools they need to master the system.

I agree, they need to work with developers a LOT more, but Sony has already proven it’s tech with first party titles, which, IMO, is more than reason enough to make their system more accessible to the developers. The only reason the 360 games tend to look better is because more people are familiar with PC programming as opposed to Cell programming. With the Cell processor having each SPE running at 3 GHz, it’s an insane numbers cruncher, and not too many developers, unfortunately, have been able to adapt to its architecture.

What does folding@home have to do with gaming?

Though it doesn’t have anything to do with gaming directly, it has proven the capabilities of the system’s processor, being able to simulate the folding and misfolding of proteins on a supercomputer level. If devs were able to adapt to the processor’s full potential, partnered with the RSX, there would be more stellar games on par with the likes of Uncharted 2 and God of War 3, etc.

Why are you excited it took developers YEARS to get the handle of the PS3?

Because now we will start seeing a turnaround on the game quality from third party developers. Sure, some are too cheap to invest in completely understanding the tech (and Sony being too stingy to help out when they needed it most). Sales numbers are finally getting developers to want to develop games better on the PS3 now. Sure, it would have been nicer if they did so from the beginning.

Everyone seems to think the PS4 is SOOOO far away. I disagree. I would almost count on 2012 as the LAST possible year it will be released. I strongly believe the 2011 Holiday will see the new systems. I am ready for it.

2012 would be a definite maybe, but more realistically, since people want to get as much out of their products as possible, 2015 would most likely be the latest, with 2012 being the earliest. In reality, this generation of gaming consoles seemed to have just started within the last year or so.

1)Don’t be late to the party (Dreamcast failed due to NO EA support).
2)Don’t release at $600 when the competitor is $200 cheaper with more games.
3) I HOPE they realize they need better developer tools.
4) PSN needs an upgrade with a new console.

1. Dreamcast released a year earlier than PS2…
2. I kinda agree, but given the tech the PS3 had, it wasn’t surprising
3. I agree
4. I agree

All I can hope is that the next generation improves all of them. Many mistakes were made by all 3 and I highly doubt any of them will be so dumb next gen.

I agree, hence the name of the article, though, most of it had to deal with taking advantage of the competition’s successes and fallacies.

Really this gen has no bearing on the next.

I disagree with that. If you don’t learn lessons from the generation before, we’d still be using cartridge based games on 16 bit systems, with the fix for a read error being to blow on the cartridge itself .

So far the most successful console the last 2 gens has been the weakest power wise. PS2 was inferior to the Dreamcast, Xbox, and Game Cube. Wii will not be caught this gen. Sony may see that and dial it back a little to get a cheap system that makes them money early on. I would.

Considering the position Sony has put itself in, they will most likely try to go with another spec’d out machine and aim to be the most powerful again, since it’s direct competition, Microsoft, plans on doing the same. The only thing they need to focus on is a respectable price point when the console does become available.

@Trev: Yeah, tell me about it lol. I got Forza 3 from Gamefly and wondered why there was two discs haha. And to my disappointment, with disc read errors, I have about a gig of corrupted data on my 360 hard drive because installation of the second disc failed about halfway through (the discs themselves are in pretty much mint condition). It took me about 6 attempts before I finally got it to install and read discs correctly. If there’s a game exclusive to PC and the 360, I will most likely opt for the PC version instead of my crappy 360. So when I can, I will be getting Mass Effect 2 for PC.