The grim and expensive future of consoles

A look at 4K TV's,a current gimmick and what they mean for the future of consoles

[1upgamer99]

4K TV's are out yeah, and NO NETWORK SUPPORTS IT. That is a long way down the line my friends. Most people just upgraded to 720p and 1080p tvs, in the past 7 years. I think Xbox will be out next year and Sony in a year and a half or so. I am not shelling out $500 bucks plus for a new Xbox...At least with Wii U you can use any Hard drive you want.

[HappyCamper172]

PS4 is rumored to be 4k?! NONSENSE. Lets talk facts:

Current gen console games are mostly 720p

720p is 1280×720 or 921,600 pixels

4k is 4096×2304 or 9,437,184 pixels

So the graphics card needs to be more than 10 times powerful not to mention ps4 would cost more than 2000$ which is the cost of 2 nvidia gtx690(dual gpu) graphics cards needed to run smooth on resolutions like that on high graphics settings in games on pc and we haven't came to the 4k TV pricing yet.... (it's about 25000$)

Lets just end it with the conclusion:

PS4 won't be 4k

[jmc8888]

ROFL was the guy old enough for when HDTV came out to realize the prices were similar, if not cheaper when adjusted for real inflation?

Of course the prices for these tv's are outrageous. They'll go down faster than a hooker for a grand.

Within 3-4 years you'll see these tv's at around $2,000. Of course all this changes when hyperinflation hits, but if it hasn't happened yet...then you'll see them drop like this.

A year or two after than you'll see them for sub $1000.

In 1999 you'd pay $16,000, and in 2004 you could pay $499 (smaller, but still).

There's also a way you can get close to 4k, and that's with eyefinity. Of course it's only for PC gaming, but you can buy 3 1080p monitors/tv's and do it. Just try to get the ones with no edge to them. So technically you could do it for $300-500 if you use three cheap 20-24 inch monitors.

Of course no cable network, sattelite, or console will output at these data rates. Though movies have been shot in 4k or above for quite a few years. Hell 16k is coming online soon movie wise.

For computers the tech isn't really there to display 4k. You can barely do the 3x infinity type that's close to 4k, but it's still not there yet. 3-5 years it'll be much more capable, and you won't need $2,000 in GPU's to do it well. But right now two GTX 690's can run BF3 @ ultra settings pretty well. I think one GTX 690 suffers from some slowdown, but hovers around 55 fps, which is pretty good considering what it's doing.

So everything starts point to about 5 years from now, though cable providers will probably be the last to push it out the door. Will Sony come out with a new format? Or will someone else beat them? I know some people years ago were working on discs that could hold well over 100gb's. So discs are still possible as a format. But there's no reason a 4k format can't be delivered digitally, and accessed locally once downloaded.

Of course, also towards the end of the decade comes holographic television. But I have a feeling that will be the thing after 4k. I wonder though how good the resolution will be if it's going up against 4ktv's.

Hopefully the world economy isn't in shambles by then. Of course, that would be a miracle, as it's very possible none of this is possible because it's completely broken and leaders have their heads in the sand.

[Trago1337]

there should be a bigger focus on gameplay.

[taquito]

pc is THE ONLY place you will be seeing above 1080p gaming (2 million pixels)for the next 6-8 years, and we've been doing it for years on pc, I've been playing games in 2560x1600 (double 1080p, 4 million pixels) for well over a year, some people i know have had 1600p for 3 years or more, no next gen ps4/nextbox is gonna come close to what pc was doing 3 years ago

[Conzul]

And yet, 3-4 networked PS3s pulled off a 4k demo just a few months ago.

[HappyCamper172]

so by that ps4 should have 16 core cpu and 4 ps3 gpus to produce ps3 4k graphics and it would cost more than 1000$ and we are talking about next gen graphics. How much would that cost?

[Conzul]

Which idiot disagreed with me? It happened: It's history: It's fact:

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

@HappyCamper
The point is that for 4k games to start appearing, the PS4 needs only to be 4 times as powerful as the PS3. And that - is highly likely. You don't go and multiply actual hardware components. That's just silly.

[Conzul]

I know 8 year-olds who write better than the author of this article.

[Rob Hornecker]

This is starting to sound like when the push for 3D was starting out! The only system that currently uses 3D is the PS3 and even that has its drawbacks! Those glasses look stupid and need batteries.

I saw in the latest issue of Game Informer a mention of a new sony 4K 84 inch tv and it was priced at $24'000.00!!! For that kind of money I can buy a nice,top of the line LED 60 to 70 inch 240hz with a 960 refresh rate. Plus I would still have enough money left over for both next gen consoles,a killer gaming PC, and a bunch of games!

As far as his thoughts on the Kinect,I disagree! The problem with the kinect has been a lack of hardcore game support and it would be nice to be able to take a picture with it to send out to my XBL friends. As it stands now I have to swap over to my old xbox vision camera.

[Npugz7]

4K is a huge gimmick! 1080p is full HD and you don't need higher than that!

[Hicken]

Color TV was a gimmick, then cable was. That was followed by digital channels and HD. 3D, while not as widespread as HD, is still growing. 4K is next.

Overall, it's a rather weak article. As detailed above, new formats start off expensive and get cheaper over time. And what about increased power leading to improvements in gameplay?

Just not a very well thought-out article, in my opinion.