Next Gen Console Expectations

After recently being introduced to the world of Steam, and PC gaming I find it difficult to get very excited about the next generation of video game consoles. That's not to say that I don't still enjoy playing console games, and I doubt that my steam library will ever grow to rival my current collection of console games. However, the popular consensus from most of the people that I have heard from on these forums or those of my friends who have been die hard console fans is that next generation consoles have some pretty big shoes to fill to justify all of the mysterious buzz that we have been hearing surrounding the next Microsoft and Sony console releases.

So what would it take to convince gamers that consoles are truly growing up, and that they can continue to persuade us to fork over out hard earned cash on what will most likely turn out to be another $300 to $400 gaming system? The following is a list that I have compiled of what it would take to persuade me that the next generation is worth prying myself away from PC gaming long enough to shell out a few clams. Keep in mind that these is my wish list, and that it may not reflect any speculation about the components or capabilities of the consoles still in development. This list is in no order of particular importance.

• Simultaneous digital release of new games along with retail releases: I understand that we are a long way off from having digital only copies of media, and I don't necessarily want that to happen any time in the near future. Still, I want the choice to be able to download a copy of my anticipated releases if I so choose rather than having to wait for a preordered copy, or without having to stand in line for a midnight sale. On several occasions, I have been disappointed by the fact that I preordered a game, and the disc was flawed (i.e. the famous Best Buy non-working disc copy of Halo 3) or scratched and I was forced to wait for more copies of my purchase to arrive since they sold out at the store and I was unable to exchange immediately. Furthermore, what is the deal with download speeds on the PSN? Why does it take me less than 2 hours to download a 4GB game, but 1.5 hours to download a 50MB game patch or update? Sony definitely needs to fix this with their next system, or I'm afraid I'm out of the market on that one.

• Give me the option to purchase a console with an SDD instead of an HDD: Hell, this could be a peripheral upgrade that is released along side the console and not necessarily the option that comes with it for all I care. If you want to see a huge reduction in loading time for games you install to your gaming system, try using a solid state drive instead of a standard hard disk drive, and you will be amazed. Not only does it reduce load times, but it also means that there are fewer moving parts on your system that can wear out or get damaged if the console should fall off of an entertainment stand. I know that SDD tech is still fairly expensive at the moment, but give consumers the option of upgrading and the things are bound to sell.

• Support larger lobby sizes for multiplayer games: I'm sure someone explained why consoles don't do this already to me at some point, but I still don't get it. Games like Battlefield 3 feel downright empty with lobby sizes limited to 24 players, and there are plenty of other PC titles out there that thrive on the fact that they have huge, chaotic player counts on their servers at all times. I don't have much hope for this one, but if Battlefield 4 is on the horizon, I really hope it is slated as a next gen release or that they have found a way to run 64 player servers. A boy can dream...

• Forget about this all in one media system mentality: This is perhaps the biggest stretch of all, but I really miss the days of the original Xbox360 blades that were free of advertisements and annoying user un-friendly icons and navigation controls. It's true that I like the fact that I can play my Netflix streaming movies on my PS3 and Xbox360, but it's secondary when it comes to playing games. It's just....a perk, not something that I want to have shoved down my throat every time I boot my console. It's one of the many reasons that I love the fact that the Playstation crossbar has basically stayed the same for the past 7 years. I know where everything is, and I don't have to adjust my routine just to accommodate the way that some nebulous development company says I should interact with my console.

• Do away with virtual currency systems: This one is a biggie for me. I have struggled for years to understand Microsofts "dollars to points" purchasing system, and I just don't want to deal with it anymore. I don't want to spend my time calculating how much a 500 MP package costs so that I can purchase some downloadable content package. On top of that, I hate seeing that I have 300 MP left over in my wallet balance when I know full well that there is nothing worth purchasing aside from some ridiculous avatar outfit that I'm not going to purchase. I could add more points to purchase something else, but there is always some strange balance that I can't get rid of for the life of me. I just want to purchase content for dollars, and nothing else. No tokens, no points, just good old fashioned, digital dollars.

Now I could have spent all of this time ranting about the fact that I want better graphics or MMO support, and I do. However, I know that consoles will never be able to stay current with their hardware if they expect to turn a profit. Instead, I would settle for a happy middle ground where developers can push the boundaries of their creativity and consumers can say that they see the value in purchasing a system that they may be stuck with for another 5+ years. At any rate, what would you say we can realistically expect from the next generation of consoles? Only time will tell.

After recently being introduced to the world of Steam, and PC gaming I find it difficult to get very excited about the next generation of video game consoles. That's not to say that I don't still enjoy playing console games, and I doubt that my steam library will ever grow to rival my current collection of console games. However, the popular consensus from most of the people that I have heard from on these forums or those of my friends who have been die hard console fans is that next generation consoles have some pretty big shoes to fill to justify all of the mysterious buzz that we have been hearing surrounding the next Microsoft and Sony console releases.

So what would it take to convince gamers that consoles are truly growing up, and that they can continue to persuade us to fork over out hard earned cash on what will most likely turn out to be another $300 to $400 gaming system? The following is a list that I have compiled of what it would take to persuade me that the next generation is worth prying myself away from PC gaming long enough to shell out a few clams. Keep in mind that these is my wish list, and that it may not reflect any speculation about the components or capabilities of the consoles still in development. This list is in no order of particular importance.

• Simultaneous digital release of new games along with retail releases: I understand that we are a long way off from having digital only copies of media, and I don't necessarily want that to happen any time in the near future. Still, I want the choice to be able to download a copy of my anticipated releases if I so choose rather than having to wait for a preordered copy, or without having to stand in line for a midnight sale. On several occasions, I have been disappointed by the fact that I preordered a game, and the disc was flawed (i.e. the famous Best Buy non-working disc copy of Halo 3) or scratched and I was forced to wait for more copies of my purchase to arrive since they sold out at the store and I was unable to exchange immediately. Furthermore, what is the deal with download speeds on the PSN? Why does it take me less than 2 hours to download a 4GB game, but 1.5 hours to download a 50MB game patch or update? Sony definitely needs to fix this with their next system, or I'm afraid I'm out of the market on that one.

• Give me the option to purchase a console with an SDD instead of an HDD: Hell, this could be a peripheral upgrade that is released along side the console and not necessarily the option that comes with it for all I care. If you want to see a huge reduction in loading time for games you install to your gaming system, try using a solid state drive instead of a standard hard disk drive, and you will be amazed. Not only does it reduce load times, but it also means that there are fewer moving parts on your system that can wear out or get damaged if the console should fall off of an entertainment stand. I know that SDD tech is still fairly expensive at the moment, but give consumers the option of upgrading and the things are bound to sell.

• Support larger lobby sizes for multiplayer games: I'm sure someone explained why consoles don't do this already to me at some point, but I still don't get it. Games like Battlefield 3 feel downright empty with lobby sizes limited to 24 players, and there are plenty of other PC titles out there that thrive on the fact that they have huge, chaotic player counts on their servers at all times. I don't have much hope for this one, but if Battlefield 4 is on the horizon, I really hope it is slated as a next gen release or that they have found a way to run 64 player servers. A boy can dream...

• Forget about this all in one media system mentality: This is perhaps the biggest stretch of all, but I really miss the days of the original Xbox360 blades that were free of advertisements and annoying user un-friendly icons and navigation controls. It's true that I like the fact that I can play my Netflix streaming movies on my PS3 and Xbox360, but it's secondary when it comes to playing games. It's just....a perk, not something that I want to have shoved down my throat every time I boot my console. It's one of the many reasons that I love the fact that the Playstation crossbar has basically stayed the same for the past 7 years. I know where everything is, and I don't have to adjust my routine just to accommodate the way that some nebulous development company says I should interact with my console.

• Do away with virtual currency systems: This one is a biggie for me. I have struggled for years to understand Microsofts "dollars to points" purchasing system, and I just don't want to deal with it anymore. I don't want to spend my time calculating how much a 500 MP package costs so that I can purchase some downloadable content package. On top of that, I hate seeing that I have 300 MP left over in my wallet balance when I know full well that there is nothing worth purchasing aside from some ridiculous avatar outfit that I'm not going to purchase. I could add more points to purchase something else, but there is always some strange balance that I can't get rid of for the life of me. I just want to purchase content for dollars, and nothing else. No tokens, no points, just good old fashioned, digital dollars.

Now I could have spent all of this time ranting about the fact that I want better graphics or MMO support, and I do. However, I know that consoles will never be able to stay current with their hardware if they expect to turn a profit. Instead, I would settle for a happy middle ground where developers can push the boundaries of their creativity and consumers can say that they see the value in purchasing a system that they may be stuck with for another 5+ years. At any rate, what would you say we can realistically expect from the next generation of consoles? Only time will tell.

I agree with all of your points particularly the all in one media Bull Shit the 360 dashboard bothers me, at least ps3 gives you the option of downloading this netflix/amazon modies/films on demand(bestbuys version of netflix). and yea graphics would be nice but its not top on the list of things.

On the subject of supporting larger multiplayer games, the Xbox and PS3 technically both have that capacity. The problem is that the hardware in them is so old that they can't produce Battlefield 3's graphics while 63 other players are running around, blowing stuff up and knocking down buildings. MAG had 128 players per team, so a high player count is definitely possible.

On the subject of an all in one media system idea, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the idea, but the Xbox has simply executed it horribly. Microsoft is more concerned with pushing ads in my face than it is with providing me with good games, which is part of the reason why I am not buying the next Xbox. The PS3, however, has done this wonderfully - except it has some serious issues with slow downloads, something I've seen many users report.

I don't think SSD's are really going to sell well to Average Joe console gamer even as a peripheral. AJCG probably isn't willing to spend a hundred or more dollars on less space for the sole purpose of having faster load times. PC gamers will, yes, because part of the appeal of PC gaming is performance, but a console gamer doesn't need his games to load instantly. As long as they stay under thirty seconds to a minute, he's generally fine. However, it would be nice if Microsoft would let us use whichever HDD we wanted to and then supported SSD's. That way, the people who cared could get them.

Simultaneous digital and physical releases would also be nice, but then think to the launch day parties for the likes of Halo and Call of Duty. They're often nuts and getting a physical copy of a game is part of that, and it's great for advertising and getting a bunch of people pumped to get a game on day one. Releasing the game digitally might mean less people go to these launch parties and less people getting it on launch. Social activities are great for getting people to buy things.

More realistically than all of those, the only thing I can see next generation giving us (aside from more power) is support for free to play games.

Something I want to become standard, that I never see people talk about, is something only the Wii does. A speaker in the controller. It blows my mind to think of the things a game designer can do with this to fuck with the player if used properly and it makes me sad that no one ever talks about it.

@kgb0515 said:

• Simultaneous digital release of new games along with retail releases:

• Give me the option to purchase a console with an SDD instead of an HDD:

• Support larger lobby sizes for multiplayer games:

• Forget about this all in one media system mentality:

• Do away with virtual currency systems:

Very likely to have digital / disk release day and date, if we're lucky we'll have a pre-load option.

You will not get an SSD first party option, the advantage is not significant for the cost for console play. Additionally, the improved amount of ram will reduce load time and the lowest common denominator for multiplayer will mean you'll just stare and wait for other players to load anyway.

By lobbies I assume you mean just larger game sizes, that could happen, but only a few games would really be improved by that specifically the odd FPS game. The bandwidth limits for games on PS3 and XBox is tiny, it'd be nice if it'd be raised some.

They make money from the adds. They make money buy having ad on versatility for their consoles.

They make money from you having cash stuck in their system, points or dollars. It'd be great if they did set that up, however it does have some limitations if you go with a cash wallet. The 20+ MS points you can earn a month for surveys and such wouldn't be possible. Not a huge much, but 300~400 free points a year is kinda nice.

------

As far as what you can expect from new hardware? Nothing that exciting really.

+ RAM => Lower load times, higher texture detail, better AI & Physics.

+ Improved Processing => Better AI & Physics, Better Frame Rate (solid 60fps in 3D)

That's about it in terms of a hardware boost, you won't see a resolution improvement, 1080p is where we'll be for a long time still definitely won't see HDx4 reach any real saturation for the next decade. The biggest improvements will come from the UX and marketplace improvements.

@Salarn said:

@kgb0515 said:

• Simultaneous digital release of new games along with retail releases:

• Give me the option to purchase a console with an SDD instead of an HDD:

• Support larger lobby sizes for multiplayer games:

• Forget about this all in one media system mentality:

• Do away with virtual currency systems:

Very likely to have digital / disk release day and date, if we're lucky we'll have a pre-load option.

You will not get an SSD first party option, the advantage is not significant for the cost for console play. Additionally, the improved amount of ram will reduce load time and the lowest common denominator for multiplayer will mean you'll just stare and wait for other players to load anyway.

By lobbies I assume you mean just larger game sizes, that could happen, but only a few games would really be improved by that specifically the odd FPS game. The bandwidth limits for games on PS3 and XBox is tiny, it'd be nice if it'd be raised some.

They make money from the adds. They make money buy having ad on versatility for their consoles.

They make money from you having cash stuck in their system, points or dollars. It'd be great if they did set that up, however it does have some limitations if you go with a cash wallet. The 20+ MS points you can earn a month for surveys and such wouldn't be possible. Not a huge much, but 300~400 free points a year is kinda nice.

------

As far as what you can expect from new hardware? Nothing that exciting really.

+ RAM => Lower load times, higher texture detail, better AI & Physics.

+ Improved Processing => Better AI & Physics, Better Frame Rate (solid 60fps in 3D)

That's about it in terms of a hardware boost, you won't see a resolution improvement, 1080p is where we'll be for a long time still definitely won't see HDx4 reach any real saturation for the next decade. The biggest improvements will come from the UX and marketplace improvements.

60FPS doesn't happen often on consoles. They will make the games look better and keep them running at 30 frames. For that matter, they might even keep the resolution at 720P in an effort to keep up with PC's.

@crusader8463 said:

Something I want to become standard, that I never see people talk about, is something only the Wii does. A speaker in the controller. It blows my mind to think of the things a game designer can do with this to fuck with the player if used properly and it makes me sad that no one ever talks about it.

Really? That things sounds so tinny and horrible. Nothing ever came from it that made me think it was even remotely a good idea.

You make some good points. One thing I want is more hard drive space and the price of the console shouldn't be jacked up too high because of it. 40GB seems like a lot at first, but full game downloads can be pretty damn hefty.

@believer258 said:

60FPS doesn't happen often on consoles. They will make the games look better and keep them running at 30 frames. For that matter, they might even keep the resolution at 720P in an effort to keep up with PC's.

It would take a lot of pointless shaders and anti-aliasing passes to chew up cycles on the next set of GPUs to such an extent that they'd be limited to 30fps and/or 720p

@Salarn said:

@believer258 said:

60FPS doesn't happen often on consoles. They will make the games look better and keep them running at 30 frames. For that matter, they might even keep the resolution at 720P in an effort to keep up with PC's.

It would take a lot of pointless shaders and anti-aliasing passes to chew up cycles on the next set of GPUs to such an extent that they'd be limited to 30fps and/or 720p

I don't know about that - keep in mind that this generation's already overdue and the next generation isn't likely to be as much of a jump in computing power as the last one was. It was once rumored that the next Xbox was going to use an HD 6670 - MS and Sony are trying to keep costs down due to the economy. They can squeeze more power out of a weaker console if they lower the resolutions and framerate, so I don't at all doubt that they're going to keep them low.

@kgb0515:

For the most part I agree with you.

The simultaneous digital and physical release with preloading, would be pretty awesome. However, Sony really needs to fix those weirdly horrible download times.

The all-in-one media I'm just hoping that it comes integrated and not bolted on. Like you said, I don't want it shoved in my face especially when what's being shoved in my face are advertisements, especially ones that are not related to my interests.

MS will probably hide those F2P games behind XBL gold, while Sony may not. MS doesn't really like free services that are not included in its Gold membership :/

What I'm really wondering about is the relationship between Valve and Sony since Steam was allowed on PS3. Surely there has to be more done than just the minimal stuff they've done. With all that talk about how Valve was working on a Steam Box (later denied as being their own console), Gabe also saying that they don't want to do hardware on their own, and Gabe's slamming of Windows 8 and Microsoft, call me crazy and I probably am, what if Valve was working with Sony to make a console? Or at least what if Steam had a bigger presence on the next Sony console?

Ever since Valve did that Portal 2 deal where if you bought a PS3 version you'd get the full version as well, Sony has been doing that between the Vita and PS3. I feel like crossplay between the Orbis, or PS4 to the PC through Steam will be utilized even more as well as crossplay between the Vita and PS4, obviously. Imagine being able to access the game that were/are cross-platform in your Steam library on the console and vice versa. Unlikely to happen, but it would be pretty awesome.

I want them to have at least 8gb of ram, we would be fine if the ps3 and the 360 had more ram, games wouldn't be that far from their PC counterparts, so to make them future proof they should put a lot of ram on there, even if they end up being really expensive, we won't care 5 years later if that prevents us from reaching the point where pc exclusives are far superior than console exclusives.

Great post, you make a lot of good points here is just my few cents:

-As you said, digital has a very long way to go before the support is completely there. Physical units are still the norm and I don't think many companies have fully figured how out how they want to implement a digital distribution strategy when it comes to their games and other media.

-You answered this one yourself, SDD costs more and I don't see it being something that the big 3 consider a viable option to take. Perhaps later on in the product life cycle, but certainly not at launch or shortly afterwards.

-A larger multiplayer is something that I could definitely see happening in the next generation. Again not at launch but crazier things have happened, this is a realistic goal to strive for however I don't think that we'll be getting upwards towards 64 players.

-Gaming is a business and you can expect to see more all-in-one media mentality to get the hardware out to the masses. I expect these consoles to be expensive and they're going to exploit every nook and cranny that they can find to cover and/or justify cost(s).

-I don't think that Microsoft is going to do away with their virtual currency system but I can see them modifying and/or altering it in some capacity.

More or less for me I expect the next gen consoles to simply continue, modify and expand on the trends of this generation i.e. DLC, cloud gaming, cross functionality, motion control, online, multimedia, etc.

stop charging for XBL!

@Valkyr said:

I want them to have at least 8gb of ram, we would be fine if the ps3 and the 360 had more ram, games wouldn't be that far from their PC counterparts, so to make them future proof they should put a lot of ram on there, even if they end up being really expensive, we won't care 5 years later if that prevents us from reaching the point where pc exclusives are far superior than console exclusives.

Er... RAM is hardly the issue and 8GB for a console would be overkill. The issue lies with the processors and graphics cards used in consoles, which are way, way, way behind what a modern PC, or even a midrange PC two years ago, could do.

Yes, current consoles could have done with a bit more RAM, particularly the PS3, but it would not have made things much better.

Sounds like what you really want is a PC + Steam.

Salarn and That1BlackGuy said pretty much what I was going to say, but I will add that I foresee a future not too far off where direct download of full console games will not only arrive day and date with their brick and mortar counterparts but with their own exclusive pre-order bonuses. Then you'll have to decide between Amazon, BestBuy, PSN and XBL for the hottest upcoming releases.

@believer258 said:

@Valkyr said:

I want them to have at least 8gb of ram, we would be fine if the ps3 and the 360 had more ram, games wouldn't be that far from their PC counterparts, so to make them future proof they should put a lot of ram on there, even if they end up being really expensive, we won't care 5 years later if that prevents us from reaching the point where pc exclusives are far superior than console exclusives.

Er... RAM is hardly the issue and 8GB for a console would be overkill. The issue lies with the processors and graphics cards used in consoles, which are way, way, way behind what a modern PC, or even a midrange PC two years ago, could do.

Yes, current consoles could have done with a bit more RAM, particularly the PS3, but it would not have made things much better.

Yeah but you get alot more out of them on a console because they are optimized for that specific card.

@Salarn said:

@believer258 said:

60FPS doesn't happen often on consoles. They will make the games look better and keep them running at 30 frames. For that matter, they might even keep the resolution at 720P in an effort to keep up with PC's.

It would take a lot of pointless shaders and anti-aliasing passes to chew up cycles on the next set of GPUs to such an extent that they'd be limited to 30fps and/or 720p

No, it really wouldn't. Sub-surface scattering, higher resolution realtime shadow maps, and above all else, multisampling, are not pointless shader passes. And this isn't even a zero-sum argument. Online FPS's can continue to run at 60FPS when advanced shaders get thrown-out, while 30FPS is perfectly fine for a single-player/co-op game with all the detail full-on. If you are expecting the best of both worlds, aint never gonna happen.

SSD loading times. 802.11ac wifi. Better app integration. Faster menu screens and logins. Easier to load and search stores. Better organization of DLC. "Complete this album" feature for DLC, if you regret not getting the season pass to begin with. Allowance to redownload anything you bought even if the royalty agreements fell through in the meantime. Longer controller battery life. Larger, more sensitive analog sticks. Games render at TVs actual resolution. 60FPS with 3D turned off. Thunderbolt ports, for display and data. SD Card reader or really fast USB3.0 proprietary memory cards.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@believer258 said:

@Valkyr said:

I want them to have at least 8gb of ram, we would be fine if the ps3 and the 360 had more ram, games wouldn't be that far from their PC counterparts, so to make them future proof they should put a lot of ram on there, even if they end up being really expensive, we won't care 5 years later if that prevents us from reaching the point where pc exclusives are far superior than console exclusives.

Er... RAM is hardly the issue and 8GB for a console would be overkill. The issue lies with the processors and graphics cards used in consoles, which are way, way, way behind what a modern PC, or even a midrange PC two years ago, could do.

Yes, current consoles could have done with a bit more RAM, particularly the PS3, but it would not have made things much better.

Yeah but you get alot more out of them on a console because they are optimized for that specific card.

Oh, I know that for certain. The cards in consoles are highly specialized and optimized, plus developers know exactly what they're working with so they can learn a lot of tricks to drag every last bit of power out of a console.

However, optimization can only go so far. This generation has seemingly hit a roof. Its heyday is over but new ones are nowhere to be found, except in trace rumors and murmurs. More RAM, which is what Valkyr suggested, wouldn't help a whole lot. Maybe a further 256MB dedicated to RAM and not video would help the PS3 - but not by much. Next generation will definitely have more, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was only a gigabyte and, really, I don't know if we need a whole lot more than that (though I'd hope for at least 2, considering how cheap memory is). 4GB would be enough for a current gaming computer, though I'd definitely recommend going for at least 6. But computers have a lot more to run than a console and the 512MB on the 360 doesn't seem to be a heavily limiting factor even now.

@believer258 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@believer258 said:

@Valkyr said:

I want them to have at least 8gb of ram, we would be fine if the ps3 and the 360 had more ram, games wouldn't be that far from their PC counterparts, so to make them future proof they should put a lot of ram on there, even if they end up being really expensive, we won't care 5 years later if that prevents us from reaching the point where pc exclusives are far superior than console exclusives.

Er... RAM is hardly the issue and 8GB for a console would be overkill. The issue lies with the processors and graphics cards used in consoles, which are way, way, way behind what a modern PC, or even a midrange PC two years ago, could do.

Yes, current consoles could have done with a bit more RAM, particularly the PS3, but it would not have made things much better.

Yeah but you get alot more out of them on a console because they are optimized for that specific card.

Oh, I know that for certain. The cards in consoles are highly specialized and optimized, plus developers know exactly what they're working with so they can learn a lot of tricks to drag every last bit of power out of a console.

However, optimization can only go so far. This generation has seemingly hit a roof. Its heyday is over but new ones are nowhere to be found, except in trace rumors and murmurs. More RAM, which is what Valkyr suggested, wouldn't help a whole lot. Maybe a further 256MB dedicated to RAM and not video would help the PS3 - but not by much. Next generation will definitely have more, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was only a gigabyte and, really, I don't know if we need a whole lot more than that (though I'd hope for at least 2, considering how cheap memory is). 4GB would be enough for a current gaming computer, though I'd definitely recommend going for at least 6. But computers have a lot more to run than a console and the 512MB on the 360 doesn't seem to be a heavily limiting factor even now.

You crazy the ram is a huge limiting factor. These consoles are mid range computers from 8 years ago. Im sick of games being limited by memory.

@tourgen: I do have that, and it's awesome but I know that consoles are going to offer exclusives that I will want. For that reason, I will always be a core console gamer at heart. I just hope that the next gen will be more PC centric. We have already seen consoles try to emulate PC gaming to a certain degree with the birth of social applications and the like, but it would be awesome if they took things a step further and embraced a more flexible format.

If I were to add anything to my list, I would have to include giving console gamers access to the mods that we have access to with some of our PC games. I know this one is a bit of a stretch too with Microsoft and Sony being so concerned about security, but it would be great for developers to be able to open up their games like that across all platforms.

Sounds like what everyone is asking for is a HTPC with a controller plugged into it. Which is perfectly fine, the best thing to wish for is better PC ports during the next console cycle.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@believer258 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@believer258 said:

@Valkyr said:

I want them to have at least 8gb of ram, we would be fine if the ps3 and the 360 had more ram, games wouldn't be that far from their PC counterparts, so to make them future proof they should put a lot of ram on there, even if they end up being really expensive, we won't care 5 years later if that prevents us from reaching the point where pc exclusives are far superior than console exclusives.

Er... RAM is hardly the issue and 8GB for a console would be overkill. The issue lies with the processors and graphics cards used in consoles, which are way, way, way behind what a modern PC, or even a midrange PC two years ago, could do.

Yes, current consoles could have done with a bit more RAM, particularly the PS3, but it would not have made things much better.

Yeah but you get alot more out of them on a console because they are optimized for that specific card.

Oh, I know that for certain. The cards in consoles are highly specialized and optimized, plus developers know exactly what they're working with so they can learn a lot of tricks to drag every last bit of power out of a console.

However, optimization can only go so far. This generation has seemingly hit a roof. Its heyday is over but new ones are nowhere to be found, except in trace rumors and murmurs. More RAM, which is what Valkyr suggested, wouldn't help a whole lot. Maybe a further 256MB dedicated to RAM and not video would help the PS3 - but not by much. Next generation will definitely have more, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was only a gigabyte and, really, I don't know if we need a whole lot more than that (though I'd hope for at least 2, considering how cheap memory is). 4GB would be enough for a current gaming computer, though I'd definitely recommend going for at least 6. But computers have a lot more to run than a console and the 512MB on the 360 doesn't seem to be a heavily limiting factor even now.

You crazy the ram is a huge limiting factor. These consoles are mid range computers from 8 years ago. Im sick of games being limited by memory.

Games are not being limited by memory on consoles. The PS3 & 360 both stream data off the HDD or DVD player fast enough that RAM is just a buffer. If the PS3 or 360 had more RAM, nothing performance-wise would change except for load screens (which is when memory gets purged to load a new level). Why? Because you cannot increase the fillrate of the screen by adding RAM. The only way to increase fillrate is to speed up the GPU or add more shader pipelines. And then yes, you would need more RAM to feed the shaders. But as the GPUs in both consoles are today, the RAM is not the bottleneck.

Downloadable retail releases, day 1.