Sony and Microsoft's 4K consoles are more of an afterthought than a revolution

Maybe the PS4 should have come with 4K to begin with?

[jay2]

stupid comments. tvs were in 4 figures and tje jatdwate woild hwve been 100s more idiots who wrote and approved it
d9 you want to pay 1000 for a consolll3. don5 think so. also ud blurays werent out

[Aenea]

huh? now in English please

[Gitgud]

I can't understand a thing you wrote

[KillZallthebeast]

Translation:
Stupid comments. TVs were in four figures and the hardware would have been hundreds more you idiots. Who wrote and approved this?
Do you really want to pay a 1000$ for a console? Didint think so. Also (something?) blu rays weren't out.

Come on guys get your drunk talk game up to date

[CyrusLemont]

something blu rays = "UHD Blurays"

I helped :)

[Yourmommasaid]

Lmfao

[n4rc]

Best comment of the day.. lol

[meche334]

lmfao.

[2cents]

So true! Great Translation!!!

[Aenea]

Wasn't possible back then, the standards weren't finalised yet...

[TheCommentator]

Love that you have as many disagrees as agrees at this point, when there's no refuting your facts. As proof, the OG XB1 can't upscale to 4K with HDR but XB1S can. They are the same exact hardware, besides the bluray drive and the HDMI Ports (which didn't exist when the consoles came out 3 years ago).

[Aenea]

The power of n4g! :)

[ravinash]

... The power of time travel!

[rainslacker]

Think they both released hoping that they'd be able to play at least UHD...certainly Sony did. But sadly, the studios wanted different copy protection which couldn't be patched.:( The systems themselves are capable of UHD, although neither is capable of FDR AFAIK. Think FDR didn't even come into existence until after the consoles released, so probably didn't know that a faster HDMI port would be required.

Shame too. Wouldn't mind getting some UHD's to show off my 4K TV, but not going to spend $400 on a stand alone player for what little content there is, or will be this year in UHD releases. Game console that supports it would have been great, as that's why I generally got into other tech by Sony's piggybacking technologies into the PS line.

[Aenea]

Yeah same here, I wanted a DVD player then heard the PS2 would have one so I waited for that to release. Bluray and PS3 same deal. Though have to admit I would have bought them anyways even without those drives, but it certainly helped!

This is the first time tho I'm not that interested yet, I don't have a 4k TV yet and won't be buying one until there's actual content out there and it might take quite some time before that's even happening.

[Night99]

The PS4 and Xbox One were desigend to be cheap both Sony and Microsoft don't wanted to heavily subsidize their consoles this generation like they did in the past, they wanted to earn a small income of the Hardware form the get go and now we all pay the price for this underpowered consoles.

[ILostMyMind]

And they were right. These "underpowered" consoles are great for me. Keep making more great games and this generation will remain a success.

[s45gr32]

That is true

[jessionpc]

I feel like this whole idea wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the Wii U blunder and the earlier than expected talk about the Nintendo NX.

I have no idea what these companies know about their competition before their hardware is released, but if it's not common knowledge, It's a reasonable bet they were afraid.

Nintendo is THE legend in the gaming industry, if they released a new console that shit all over even the PS4, and dropped a new 3d Mario adventure alongside the NX Zelda version of BOTL, ALONGSIDE of having all 3rd party support and modernized approach to the industry, "aka actually learning from their mistakes, which many people thought they HAD to have done by now", Sony/M$ would be in a HORRIBLE place right now.

It really feels like to me that these, "refreshes", are just their answer to the NX. TBH in my eyes it's close to being the only choice they really had. Letting underpowered units sit while Nintendo reclaims a lost throne for 4 more years is business suicide.

[Yourmommasaid]

...or maybe AMD decided to make a whole new and improved chip and forced both Sony/Microsoft to manufacture it.

Maybe this chip is cheaper but more powerful, hence the new consoles.

Nintendo had NOTHING to do with it!!!

[Pongwater]

Nintendo had the most powerful console for years with N64 and not many people cared. Wii caught on because it was cheap and motion controls were briefly interesting to casual gamers, not because of Mario or any other Nintendo exclusive franchise.

OT - I agree that Neo and Scorpio are more afterthought than revolution. I don't think either is going to sell in a huge way and I think people who hype themselves up will be largely let down. The only thing I see comparable to a revolution is MS in the beginning stages of leaving the physical console business, which they aren't doing right away to avoid totally alienating their many fans. I've felt that was their long term plan ever since all the Cloud talk started.

Edit - What I see happening eventually are XBL and PSN apps on smart TVs instead of physical consoles. MS will probably make deals to have the XBL app preinstalled like they did with Windows, and in a similar way XBL will become dominate like Windows is now, despite the existence of comparable or better alternatives. Consumers will be lazy and use what is preinstalled.

[s45gr32]

Yes that is exactly what is going to happen. That is the true future of console gaming. Funny most console gamers do not see it.

[s45gr32]

No, it was due that console gaming looked and perform inferior to PC gaming. It was also the fact that some PC gamers were playing at 4K and VR started on PC not consoles. The console manufacturers are afraid of gamers leaving consoles in favor of PC. Even Andrew House a Sony Computer Entertainment representative (correct me if I am wrong) stated that PS4 Neo exists to prevent console gamers from jumping to PC. Is also the fact that mobile devices have more gamers than consoles. It also doesn't hurt that a smartphone can be hooked to tv sets. This means that in 2020 or 2018 mobile gaming will be on par to what a console offers. This is not good for console manufacturers; therefore, the Neo and Scorpio as a last resort to stay competitive/ survive.

[Khaotic]

Nintendo WAS great and show no signs of that changing

[Errorist76]

Who approves shit like this?!

[s45gr32]

Not me that is for sure lol

[onisama]

too much hate on xbox sony fanboys want xbox to die but what they don t know if sony still alone in the industry it will be like king and slaves compitition is always good if ur a sony business owner maybe i can understand

[DeadlyOreo]

What? PS2 did pretty great thanks.

[cd1]

My opinion only: MS were forced to progress with what is essentially, their next gen of console due to XB1 failures. They misjudged gamers and designed a product that wasn't as capable (in gaming terms) as their biggest rival.

On the other hand i don't think this is Sony's next gen of console, they have done so well with PS4 they don't need or want to push this gen through. I think Sony's decision to supply a higher spec mid-gen console has much to do with PSVR, to get those high frame rates and still keep it pretty takes power.

I also believe that big strides in CPU/GPU fabrication such 14nm finFET have played their part, it was unfortunate timing for both MS and Sony that AMD Jaguar cores were, at the time the were the best option to go with (which i'm sure they were bang for buck). For AMD to be selling the R480 at such a low price tells me they are already getting good yeald's at 14nm and as such this was a no-brainer for the console manufacturers.

[stalepie]

I think also we may be seeing the end of silicon advancement. How much smaller can it go? 14nm is very small. It could be that successive "generations" are much more subtle (like refreshes of iPhones) compared to what gamers were used to in the 80s and 90s.

[mike32UK]

They're not an afterthought, they're in response to the constant barrage of whining and complaining about 60fps and 1080p that they have received by both consumers and media outlets. You have no one to blame but yourselves. You all want the world but you don't want to pay for it.

[stalepie]

It could bring tangible gameplay benefits in some situations, such as adding split screen multiplayer updates to games that couldn't afford it before due to graphics maxing things out. The extra overhead could also add other features gamers want that wouldn't conflict with the core game but work better on Neo/Scorpio.

[AndreR]

they should have waited. Maybe release a new ps4 but with 4k hdmi output but nothing more. And then release ps5 in the future. Its stupid to make a console for 4k but the games will not use that resolution. only upscale to 4k. whats the point..

[NeoGamer232]

The problem this generation is that there was huge demand for a new console because 360 and PS3 had been at their peak from a technical perspective for about 2-3 years. So, the market was needing new consoles that had additional capability. You look at a game like TLOU on PS3. A truly awesome game, but about a year and a half later it released on PS4 showing how truly unqualified the previous generation PS3 was to deal with it.

Now the current consoles don’t have the technical capabilities for a full generation. The rise of 4K capabilities has been fast in comparison to 1080p. In 2005 last generation consoles had a realistic maximum of 720p on AAA games. In 2013 we saw consoles barely able to hit 1080p capabilities for AAA games. 2017 we will have 4K capabilities.

And the rise of VR is also pushing current generation console capabilities.

[GamingTruth]

Yeah, i say since microsoft has proved they dont care about price and sales compared to other systems; specs are able to go as high as microsoft wants now, sony really has no choice but to go big or go home; upgradeable systems imminent.

[iceman06]

I don't know that it was an afterthought so much as it was a Plan B. Both Sony and MS were coming off of a prolonged generation. Both needed that time to recoup the losses from the hardware. Sony with it's price tag and MS with it's RROD issues. Entering into this generation, it was clear that both companies would need a different approach. So, they both went with less cost demanding designs in order to gain profit almost immediately upon sale. IMO, they wanted to release more powerful hardware. But, that would have raised the initial price of the consoles and there was such a furor about price the last time around that neither was willing to risk it. So, with Plan B, they could release a cheaper console and then later (now) offer some of what they envisioned for the original machines.

[s45gr32]

Two reasons why the PS4 Neo and Scorpio exist. One these so called next-generation consoles are out of date and cannot run VR much less 4K. The second is more and more gamers are playing on mobile devices or PC over consoles. Why not, with both PC and smartphone gaming the online portion is free and the game prices are way lower than say consoles. Finally both PC and smartphones have way better features than consoles.

[andrewsquall]

There is a big difference between adding a bit more power to your current console and having to go back to the drawing board and design the architecture from the ground up again, this time with ACTUAL next gen GDDR5 in place.