Are next-gen consoles going to cost too much?

LazyGamer: Sony’s set to unveil its new PlayStation pretty soon, apparently – but is that sucker going to cost way more than people will be willing to pay? Think of it this way; Nintendo’s getting a ton of heat at the moment because the perception is that its Wii U costs too much.

[B-radical]

They will only be worth it if they last long enough hopefully longer then this gen did....ps3 aimed for a 10 year lifespan and it did well for lasting this long same with xbox but the time has come and by lasting long i mean people not whinge about graphics we saw what halo 4 did for xbox we have seen ps3 exclusives all looking great but its not enough for alot of people

also could SOMEONE finally tell me if these are the final 720 specs? http://imageshack.us/photo/...

[Xof]

Dude, calm down.

There is no next generation yet. Nothing has been announced. It's all just bullshit speculation.

[B-radical]

im calm!

[juandren]

I doubt it. What gave it away to me is the fact that the letterhead says "Pvt Ltd", but Microsoft is a public company, not a private company. Secondly, DDR4 has not been released yet. I doubt MS will invest in DDR4 as it will be too expensive to put in the next Xbox

[clrlite]

I can see them maybe having a good amount of dedicated GDDR5(or a different solution), like 2 GB+ and a good amount of system RAM if they launch soon. If they buy/produce the ram, processors, etc. they should be able to churn out a formidable system for under $500 imo. They will of course have to find a way to enable devs to continue to improve/optimize games for years to come.

[SAE]

Your request is what i want too . But all people here want a cheap price or the ps4 will be dooooomed for them. They want it to be 300$ which will be 100$ more then current generation prices with 12gb hard drive xD and that doesn't make sense ..

in the beginning of 2012 all people here said they are not ready for ps4 and they can wait 3-6 years to buy another console but suddenly they all changed their mind now.

That's why im not listening to people here . i think it will be between 499$-600$ or it's useless to upgrade . why upgrade if it's only gonna change one part of the console with that 100$..

[princejb134]

I'm still not ready for a next gen console
Most likely if a ps4 or 720 is released I won't get it to 2-3 years after is released since I usually wait for the game library to pile up

I also feel like this gen graphics are just fine
I really doubt well see a huge leap in graphics from this gen since the majority of pc games don't have a big leap from this gen graphics

The only thing we really need is more ram
Maybe Sony and Microsoft can add expandable ram to their consoles

[Raoh]

LOL, I'd say xbox gamers are more desperate for a new console than playstation gamers.

The 10 year lifespan has nothing to do with the ps4, just like the ps2's lifespan had nothing to do with the ps3.

Sony continued to support the PS2 for what? 12 years?

Microsoft shut down the xbox after 4.

Microsoft is not a hardware company, so it would be interesting to see how long they support the xbox 360 post 720 launch.

Just last christmas I was on line at gamestop and people of lower income were still buying ps2's as new gifts.

As for the question of the topic. If you can't afford a luxury item that is meant to last at least 5 years minimum, you shouldn't be buying luxury items.

Also the first xbox had a power cord recall, the xbox 360 had disc scratching trays and rrod then e74, oh and loud as hell. Mind you before people got a 3 year warranty, ms denied rrod errors. Many people bought multiple 360's. Before that, people had to upgrade to a brand new xbox if they wanted an hdmi port. Microsoft fans must have tons of disposable cash.

Only a fool buys an original xbox. Save your money, wait a year or two for a price drop or their first refresh.

Original PS3 = Still the best PS3.
Original 360 = Weakest of all the 360's.

Don't worry xbox fans, ms knows how cheap and foolish their fans are. Just like with their software, they will give you some cheap crap and upgrade you slowly. For a fee.

Edit: and for god sakes people, we are trying to do away with cable and cellular subscription fees. Don't support a subscription based console.

Be smart consumer folk.

[dcbronco]

Raoh,

If you look into the business side of gaming you will see why Microsoft dropped the Xbox. It wasn't about not wanting to support it. It was about Nvidia and Intel making it impossible for them to continue making it. And the Irony is that both Intel and Nvidia are on the outside looking in with console gaming. Nobody wants to work with a company that will try to strangle you in the crib.

More breaking news. Microsoft has become a hardware company. It actually has been for years now. The Xbox and 360. Zune. Surface(the original and the new one). Kinect. MS has several hundred engineers working for them making there own CPUs. The APU in the 360 S was designed by their people. Based on others parts, but modified by Microsoft. This isn't your older brothers Microsoft.

As for what lower income people buy. There are a lot of Jordan's in the hood. Last time I checked, Jordan's were more than a 360.

Sony has had it's share of problems also. They were foolish to include Blu-ray. It cost them millions of sales early on. Coupled with the Cell, the lower than expected install base and high cost of development scared off developers. All of the constant changes to the PS3 have dropped items Sony said were important. And their fans agreed. But overall they were the more reliable company.

But Microsoft is new to hardware. So new you apparently didn't realize they were a hardware company. Mistakes happen for new things. Babies don't run the 100m hurdles straight out of the womb. Despite all of the press and fanboys shouting Micrsoft is headed in the wrong direction, all of the evidence disagrees. They are making mistakes. But they are strong enough to overcome them. The 360 proves that. And considering everything the 360 S says about what they have learned, a smart consumer would expect the next Xbox to be a high quality machine. And the next Playstation, given Sony's current situation, to be the best Playstation ever.

Smart consumers are never fanboys.

And all of the people complaining about the price of Live need to let it go. If you don't want to pay, but you complain. It must be because you don't want to pay, but it is where you want to be.

[Raoh]

@dcbronco

You bring up very valid points.

But a few things.

1. The reason MS dropped the XBOX was because it was bleeding money. It was for comparisons sake, their PS3. They added a hard drive to every model at a high price early on. To be fair it was a learning curve as it was their first console it would be the equivelant of sony shutting down the PS3 in 2009/2010. MS lost about as much as with the original xbox as sony did with the ps3.

2. Yes and no on the hardware front. Just like the xbox, MS's hardware is reaction products. Zune to fight off the iPod. Surface to fight off Android/iOS tablets and netbooks. Xbox to chase the PC gamers that migrated to Consoles. Technically they are a failed hardware company regardless of xbox popularity. On paper the facts are power cord recall and billions in losses for the xbox, disc scratching/lack of features added later on the 360/rrod/e74. Any other company would have folded by now. Late and failed Zune. Lack luster windows phones. Their failures in hardware are only matched by the big budgets and successes of their marketing.

3. Re: Jordans in the hood. Sure, I see the same thing. But I speak more of the families that are working and not buying jordans, that would consider a used xbox 360 or ps3 4 years from now a luxury item they saved up for. The reports of a poor economy in america are not being exaggerated.

4. Sony was not foolish to include blu-ray. Nor to back cell. Hardware, formats and standards are their bread and butter. Companies were ready to move with hd dvd, including sony. Toshiba failed in its promises to deliver an hd format in time. Sony worked on blu ray in secrecy and presented it when hd dvd failed. Toshiba was ready to call it quits but ms funded the war. Why? Because the blu ray association decided to not use microsoft patents for the blu ray format.

Read this (Origins of the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD War)
http://www.roughlydrafted.c...

If one says that Microsoft should be cut slack because they are new to hardware, then Sony should be cut slack because they are new to software.

As for XBL Gold. I don't pay, I did at first but realized it was a ripoff. I can afford it. But its the principle. Charge me for a higher party chat count, larger friends list, discounts, limited vs unlimited Microsoft only features. But to charge me to access netflix, youtube and online gameplay is ridiculous.

XBL is definitely better than PSN, as it should be with MS not only being a software company that makes office and os's but a company that is also successful with servers.

The smart consumer that is buying a failed hardware as listed above can only be considered a fanboy or foolish or ignorant to their options. You don't have to support sony to realize ms is not that good of a company.

Just my opinion, read that article, lots of good stuff in there.

[Dasteru]

The PS3 will last 10 years atleast, The PS2 continued to be manufactured and sold in the US for 11 years.

New systems come out but that doesn't mean the old ones immediately die.

As for the 720 specs, unlikely.

DDR4 while possible, is highly unlikely given that it isn't available at a consumer level yet. I would say maybe 20% chance of it happening.

The PSU is the giveaway though, 600w+ in a console will never happen.

1: A 600w PSU wouldn't be needed even with the most powerful hardware they could fit in a console enclosure.

The launch 20GB and 60GB PS3 for example only used 209w when playing games. The current super slim models have brought that down to a mere 70w while gaming. Launch 360's had 203w PSUs while the current slims use a 135w supply

2: There is no 600w power supply in existance right now that would fit into a console enclosure, The PSU alone would be the size of a current 360.

3: There would be massive heating issues even if they could fit it.

4: Modern hardware has become more efficient than it was 7 years ago, not less.

The Nextbox/720/Vault (Locks you down with bad DRM??)
will probably be using a PSU of less than 150w.

[BullyMangler]

kinda article question is this?

we all got diff price chord$ .

[awi5951]

Some of these console companies should get smart and put a physics chip in their consoles or a cpu dedicated to that. I know nivida cards has physx chip but almost no one supports it. But physics and lack of ram killed frame rates in this gen console games. Consoles need to fix both problems.

[B-radical]

physx would be amazing but pointless if both xbox and playstation had it and as u said its only supported by nvidia so that sucks :(

[awi5951]

The sega saturn had 2 cpu's in it. No one knew how to program for it but i can be done. Put a second cpu in there just for physics only. Developers can use that for all physic calculations.

[seanpitt23]

New 120gb iPad $850
New ps4 with 2 launch games $799

I know what I will be buying

[clrlite]

For around $850 I could get a gaming laptop. So that is already null.

I'll likely be able to upgrade my PC and buy a PS4 for around the same price. Plus I already have a laptop that performs better than any tablet I know of.

[Neko_Mega]

Sony has offer alot for a good price, Xbox 360 when it started wasn't worth the price and thats mostly because you had to pay just to do anything online.

Hopefully Microsoft will just make you pay for the online playing and nothing else.

As for the prices of the next gen, well learn to save your money up. Thats what I have done with most of my systems.

[MasterCornholio]

Not to mention when the 360 first came out it was severely lacking in terms of hardware features. I still remember my first 360 which didnt have HDMI and my second one which had HDMI but lacked WiFi. Then Microsoft came out with the slim and slapped WiFi into it. The PS3 on the other hand had all of these features since the original model. I hope that for next gen Microsoft launches a console with all the latest hardware features and a drive that supports larger disks (doesnt have to be blu ray but it has to be bigger than DVD 9)

[Jadedz]

It's just me assuming, of course.

[g-nome]

No , it should be fairly priced. Sony learnt a lesson the last time around. I guess $449 for 500gig ps4.

[mcstorm]

I think a lot of people on here will be shocked when the next xbox and Playstation are shown off as I don't think they will have as much power as people are expecting. I expect them to have more power than the WiiU but not that much more. I just want to see games running in true 1080p at 60fps from next gen.

What people need to start seeing in the gaming industry changed last gen from the gens before as more and more family's are buying games consoles for different things.

You have your core games like UC, Halo, GT, Forza ect but then you have a big market for fitness in terms of Just dance, Dance central, WiiFit ect, then family markets with games like Kinect sports, Wii Sports ect.

I think Both MS and Sony will look at Nintendo as there bench mark of how powerful the console should be and what it will offer and we will see 2 balanced consoles at a price that sits well in all the markets we have at the moment. If MS or Sony just go down one market it will hurt them as having a console with lots of power will push the price off and could start like the PS3 did and it could hurt them in the long run. Or not enough power could put the core off from buying the console and less of the big names will be developed for the console.

But that said none of us know what Sony or Microsoft will do but as long as they both keep giving us the games they want along with Nintendo the better it will be for us gamers who want to play the games we see on the consoles gen after gen.

[madjedi]

"I think Both MS and Sony will look at Nintendo as there bench mark of how powerful the console should be"

That is truly hilarious, the only people that believe that shit is you diehard nintendo fanatics.

So ms and sony should use slow ass old ddr 3 ram, a underpowered cpu and a marginally better than 7 yr old gpu.

I am a sony fanboy and i still wouldn't want ms to release a little bitch of a console, like you think they should. I intend to own one at some point, and i want some kickass xbox 720 exclusives, that crush xbox 360 games.

Yeah your opinion/point of view sucks ass and i am happy you have no input whatsoever in the next gens design. Because i don't want my future systems fucked up, by someone like you.

[mcstorm]

@madjedi how long have you been playing games for? If you want power go and buy a high end pc as this is the only way you will get what you are wanting.

Also do you know much about gaming at all? Look at the state of the industry at the moment. There have been games come out this gen that should of sold a lot better than they did but the industry is changing and the core are not where the money is at any more.

Yes the money is made by the big names like GT and Halo but this gen has all been about COD and family games.

Also Sony can not afford to make a massive loss on the PS4 like they did with the PS3 and are now doing with the PSV.

Playing games on a games console has never been about having the most powerful system. You for some reason seem to think it has yet look back through each generation and you will see Wii, PS2, PSX, DS, GBA, GB were all the lest powerful of there generations yet sold the most in each of there generation.

I do think the next xbox and Playstation will have more power then the WiiU but it wont be the big step we saw between the PS2 and PS3.

Gaming is not about one type of gamer any more and the old style games console has now gone they are now media devices that play games and this is what Sony and MS wanted to do and that's what has happened.

[SAE]

Again , Ps3 was 600$ and i want the ps4 to have the same price and even more . the higher the price the better tech we will get. Price change but tech stays ..

[MultiConsoleGamer]

They're all going to have some sort of subsidy or subscription plan.

[Ninjamonkey82]

Im thinking £400 mark for the base unit.

[Theyellowflash30]

Multiple sku, bare bones version for $400, Premium versions for $500. A bunch of first and 3rd person shooters. JRPGs go extinct on the PS4 and Xbox 720 as both companies wont give a F about Japan anymore.

[sway_z]

@Theyellowflash30

'JRPGs go extinct on PS4.....companies won't give a F about Japan anymore'

Ni No Kuni sales say you're wrong....it sits comfortably at the top of the UK charts...dethroning Fifa Soccer and Black Ops 2 ....so clearly RPG's are still in demand.

...At least on the PS3 ;)

[Theyellowflash30]

Ni No Kuni is one good JRPG compared to how many shooters on the market? And trust me, Ni No Kuni won't last long on the top of the charts.

[sway_z]

The PS4 will not exceed the £399 mark....Sony cannot afford to price PS4 any higher, and the general public can't afford (in this economy) it either.

I think a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised what they get for the money ;)

[Saleem101]

$499 is a good price point for good tech...

[sway_z]

Only a fool would disagree with my above comment, since Sony themselves said they will make PS4 more affordable than PS3 was at launch...

In the UK PS3 launched at £425 for just the console/1 pad. So a £399 price tag is not beyond the realms of possibility. It's only £25 less than PS3 was at launch...so go ahead and disagree a little more....thanks ;)

[solid_warlord]

Consoles are for casuals and the core, PC is for Hardcores.
I sit somewhere between casual & the core. I dont pay stupendous amount of money buying games and i refuse to pay anything above £400($600) for a console . I expect decent hardware from $ONY & Micro$oft, maybe not as powerful as high end PC but all i ask is 1080p 60fps gaming for next gen.

PC gamers seem to troll alot these days. Talk about there almighty RPG master pieces on there gtxhd 690's 790's 8890 0099 19970's GPU's that pop up ever few months which most of us console gamers couldn't careless. Console's are mainstream and technicaly optimised and i bet next gen will come close or be totaly comparable to high end GPU's in terms of visual graphical differences for 3-4 years, even if PC GPU's will have more poligon count...atleast to a point most casual gamers wont care as the Leap between High end PC of today and current gen consoles is more akin to NES to SNES than SNES to N64 leap. PC's being 15x-30x more powerfull, its still not enough to reach near Avatar graphics. Remeber also Devs NEVER utilise full capabilities of a high end GPU so its preety much pointless spending £400-£500 on high end GPU's to only get current gen games sexed up. Its time to be a console gamer for the next 4-5 years.
----------------------------- ------------------

Anyone knows the difference between PC VS Console Gamers?
Below are scientific example of evolution of Console Gamers and PC Gamers....The path of evolution has taken different routes.

Console Gamers:
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/mu...

PC Gamers:
http://funnyshare.org/s/09/...

I hope i haven't offended PC gamers, im sure u are doing very well on WoW. U MAD? Please press the disagree button to prove ur mad. Thank you.

[profgerbik]

Let me ask you this, does the cost of living continually keep increasing?

Ok then that answers your question. Yes they will be more expensive just like everything else on the planet continually becomes more expensive over time.

Ask some old dude and he will yap on about how bread used to cost him 2 cents a loaf back in his day.. If the cost of bread has increased significantly I think it's pretty safe to assume the cost of electronics will only increase along with everything else.

Whether or not it will cost too much I guess depends on your pay check every month.

[ThyMagicSword]

Probably ...

[MontyQ]

I make 100k a year so im game

[GoldPunch-TR]

No matter. Shut up and take my money Sony!

[strigoi814]

when you are a hardcore gamer the price wouldnt bother you at all

[dcbronco]

So many people believe the cost of the next console will be high because of the power they should have. They also base it on the cost involve with previous consoles. Stop and think about all of the differences between the current generation and the next one.

The 360 cost Microsoft less than $200 to make now. I believe it's less than $150. It's been on sale for as low as $125. But ask yourself how the cost came down in the first place. One way, the main way, is die shrinks. Shrinking the size of the major components, the CPU and GPU. If you make ten chips and you shrink the chip size in half, you can make twice as many chips. At no additional cost. That makes the console cheaper. Smaller chips use less electricity and run cooler. The means a cheaper fan and smaller power system. Again, cheaper. That happens several times in a consoles life-cycle. In addition you can go back to other companies and get better prices as certain other parts become cheaper.

In the 360 S, they did even more. The combined the CPU and GPU into one chip at an even smaller size. So now you are paying for one chip instead of two in each 360. That was a huge cost cutting. If iSuppli was right, and the 360 was $526 at the start. And the cost of the CPU and GPU was over $200 of the cost. Imagine the saving if you combine the two. You save half that cost day one. In addition, the size of the combined chips will be even smaller than the chips in the 360 S. Several sizes smaller.

It all leads to a smaller package, fan, power supply, motherboard and everything else. Which means the next consoles will be far cheaper than the last generation to make. Also remember Kinect was believed to cost over $200 by many until it was broken down. It cost around $56.

[black911]

Gaikai is probly gonna extend PS3 life cycle.