Universal Hardware Speculation

How awesome would it be if Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft could sit down together, agree on some specs and bash out a single console that would run all of their future games?

This is good for everybody. None of the big three make much off hardware sales to begin with, but now they've got "their" hardware into the hands of everyone. There's no reason one console couldn't run all three online services and storefronts either on demand or even simultaneously. There would be no more cross-platform developing costs for third party developers and those who only develop for one console to begin with would double and triple their potential customer base. Silly parents who still call every console a "playstation" (or even "Nintendo" if they're in their sixties) would no longer have to worry about confusion in the game aisle at Christmas time!

You know who benefits the most? That's right! Us. The gamers. Every game is now an exclusive, but it doesn't matter because everyone has the same console! Cross platform multiplayer? Not a concern! Everyone has the same platform! I really want to play Bayonetta 2 and Sunset Overdrive but I don't have room for more than one console in my life and this generation it's not a WiiU nor Xbone. If there was only one console, I could have all the games!

Obviously, the lack of competition is of concern. They could charge any damned amount they wanted for the thing. And there will be less impetus to improve the existing hardware as long as they hold 100% of the market. But what if you allowed third-party console manufacture? The music and movie industries long, long ago went this way. They've toyed with simultaneous competing formats over time, like VHS and Beta, but one or the other inevitably fails.

Post your speculations! What hardware specs? Who should make it? Is this a horribly, terrible idea that would end in tears and the death of video games as we know them? Is it the best thing ever? Am I crazy? Dream with me!

That would be good for them, not good for the consumer. It would collusion. They now can price it anyway they want and not have to worry about someone competing with them. The PC you say? Why would they need to worry about that when they now own the console market.

Also why wouldn't it be under powered because the pieces would be cheaper and since they are the only maker, they can over charge and have a nice profit margin.

Why make a Console at all? All they have to do is say "alright no more consoles, now it's all PC, here's the bare minimum and recommended specs you'll need to run our games"

Then hardware companies can sell these prebuilt boxes at varying prices for people that don't know Jack shit about PCs, just like steam box.

The thing is that once you have an open platform you don't make money out of third party games anymore, so basically the big three would be turned into simple game devs, and Nintendo is literally the only one that could survive in that scenario imo.

This seems like a terrible idea, turning a monopolistic competition market into an oligopoly. Do you like how the cabal of wireless providers run their market?

Ruin the competetion that drives innovation and prices down. Why? So you can get the one or two games that didn't come out that year on your console. No thanks.

In a perfect super ideal world, this would probably work out. But I feel like there are an infinite ways this could blow up in the users face. What happens when a publisher wants the same status as one of the big three? I mean origin and uplay would exist on their own on this console. And if they are shit, then you have to sit through it since there is no other option. Uplay can be as terrible as it wants to be and there will be no way to escape it, that is only way to play Far cry: Black flag brotherhood. And why sell your game to one of the big three when you can have your own store? Can they have their own store? do the big three decide who can have one? Isn't that like asking oil companies if a new oil company can set up?

If I had to say anything about specs: they may need to pc-ify it. Have mod bays where you can stick in your ram, cpu, graphics upgrades. These upgrades would be basically mandatory for all the hot new groundbreaking stuff. And this gear would be released like an iphone (but with wider generations ex 2 years). It will be an event, so most of the hardcore audience will upgrade as soon as they can. And as time goes on and there are a number of generations of upgrades in the market, the game devs can focus on supporting 2-3 generations. So for example; 7 years down the line when Generation 4 is out, the dev's can also put in support for generation 3 and 2(maybe) but not 1(ie the base hardware). Since these are upgrades, cost is hopefully cheaper, and if a gpu melts, you can get another.

The key here is to be strict about release schedules of the upgrades and also be strict about support for the hardware. The user must know that their 4 year old device can run the game and that they could wait it out another two years if they want. Oh and btw,there can't be multiple models for the upgrade. I mean that when they release an update and its an i5/nvidia970, there can't be another pack released under the same generation as the economy pack with different and weaker parts. That would only fragment the community, better to let the people who can't buy in stick to their perfectly functioning current hardware. Their games would be a little less shiny but at least they can play everything. There could also be a sick recycling program where you bring in your old stuff and get a % off the new stuff. That old stuff could be melted down and reused.

Unless you find a way where this benefits the big three it aint gonna happen.

Sad, but likely true. This is probably the biggest impediment. Nintendo's low hardware sales implies they might be the most likely to want to go in on a coop machine because they stand to gain, but Sony, who's leading, is more likely to lose. That and the possibility of third-party hardware, and they're actively running scared from the idea. There's also the issue of proprietary hardware like Kinect and Nintendo's touchscreen controller, though it wouldn't be impossible to make the machine compatible with each and sell them separately.