Rumours About The Next Gaming Generation

[Freya]

You know who the gaming police are? The Wii U Wii U Wii U! :chuckle:


What i'm to understand from work is that I think it's sony? They've ordered some of the parts from china to america and they were supposed to get them in this winter. Like the graphics chip or something. So they are working on SOMETHING. Again from work, dunno how true this is, we've heard that it wont be until at least 2016 that sony has anything and 2014 til microsoft has anything. AT LEAST. S'what we're supposed to tell people.

[Elly]

yeah if anything all thats going on with either Sony or Microsoft is a bunch of Trial & Error R&D right now, i suspect that theyre basicly in only the beginning stages of design and development for their respective consoles, and who knows what Nintendo will be up to by the official 8th gen, roughly 2015/16...

[Shauna]

Sauce for NextBox in 2013? Finally remembered where I found out this rumour.


Anyway. I don't understand the notion that the WiiU is not part of the next console gen? :3

[Bolivar]

^ Because technologically, it's only capable of games being developed this generation.

If you ask me, the whole idea of "generation" being a helpful classifier of video game consoles went right out the window with the Wii. To me, the Wii wasn't a generation forward from the Gamecube, it was rather in a different direction. The technology didn't get a whole lot "better" but it got a hell of a lot different. We've also had two iterations of Sony and Nintendo handhelds coexist with current consoles, so where do the handhelds fit in the generational timeline? It's not particularly helpful anymore, but that could be a thread on its own.

yeah if anything all thats going on with either Sony or Microsoft is a bunch of Trial & Error R&D right now, i suspect that theyre basicly in only the beginning stages of design and development for their respective consoles, and who knows what Nintendo will be up to by the official 8th gen, roughly 2015/16...

First of all, the whole 10-year goal that Sony made just means they'll support the PS3 for 10 years even into a next generation, comparing it to how they've supported the PS2 even into its eleventh year.

All signs point to Sony and Microsoft's next consoles coming out within a year from now. Rumors of early R&D circulated a few years ago and we've already had many developers all but confirm they're working on their next-gen titles. The biggest proof is that we've had no news on what Sony's internal studios are working on - Media Molecule and Sony Santa Monica are releasing spinoff games that were completed in a very short time frame. There's no news on what Guerilla Games or Sucker Punch have been working on. Polyphony has hinted Gran Turismo 6 is in development for the next PlayStation. And I'm not sure Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us" has the studio's biggest developers behind it. By all indications, Sony is having its first party studios preparing a launch lineup.

You also have to take into account that the big third party publishers have been begging for a next generation for years now. Ubisoft was the first one, I believe, stating that software sales are starting to slow and they need a new generation to excite consumers. The media has been at it as well. Everyone was expecting news of the next gen at last year's E3 and was considerably disappointed when it didn't happen. The manufacturers are in a position where they all but absolutely have to announce something at this year's E3. Plus we have all the intel that Microsoft is for sure getting ready for next year. It's pretty much been solid that Sony isn't going to let Microsoft have a year head start again, as the PS3 has sold faster than the 360 and would be leading on them if it weren't for the one year gap.

On a personal level, I can't say a new generation is 100% appropriate. This gaming generation never had its Final Fantasy VII, its Metal Gear Solid 2, that game that draws a defining line between what came before and what's to come afterwards. We've had little hints of it with games like MGS4, God of War III, the Uncharteds and the Killzones, and PC developers like DICE and Crytek tried to shoehorn games like Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2 into it, but "that moment" has never really come. When the typical 4-year mark came in 2009/2010, I thought it would be too soon to end the generation before that moment comes, but now I think it's too late to go on hoping that we'll have it.