EA Asks: Do We Need Another Console Generation?

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CaedenV

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Man, what a terrible human being... I mean really? Current gen consoles were developed in the SD era. They were forward looking enough to handle 720p just fine, and the occasional 1080p, but they were not designed to play 1080p fluidly. We are now in the HD era (even though some of us technically don't have an HDTV yet because our computer monitors have taken over the job). Modern TVs support much higher contrast, much larger color range, 120Hz refresh is not uncommon, and nearly everything is 1080p with quad HD rumors floating in the wind. The game has changed for what is expected in a TV, so we need consoles (and more importantly content) to match.
Give us a richer, fuller, more immersive experience so that we forget that we are playing a game, and believe we are watching a movie that we are just really into. My 6 year old computer can do it, but consoles are too slow/laggy/clunky and those eternal loading screens really hurt the flow of things.
 

jp182

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When the CEO is talking about consumers, he is talking about mainstream consumers and not early adopters like the people who read Toms Guide/Tom's Hardware.

And to be honest, with the current emphasis put on graphics today, games cost a ridiculous amount of money to make. I could see why he wouldn't want to move onto a new generation of consoles considering the costs and learning curves involved in starting over with a new console that handles even better graphics.
 

sticks435

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[citation][nom]Farrow099[/nom]Everyone in the tech field KNOWS the x360 and ps3 have both been pushed to their limits. There are soo many examples it is just ludicrous to say otherwise. This man should leave the tech industry and become Amish. I'm sure his boss and/or shareholders will be having a talk with him shortly![/citation]

Actually, I doubt they will. Neither hardware makers or publishers want a new generation, because that means more R&D money spent, more money spent on the newer hardware and processes, which reduces their one and only motivation: profit margins. Dev's are a 2 sided coin though, since they want to work on new and exciting stuff, but on the flip side, it's the same issue as publishers have. They will then have to spend more on new engine tech, and their productivity will decrease as they learn the new systems.
 

ram1009

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If they would stop dumming down PC games because of consoles I wouldn't give a rats a$$ what they did for consoles. Sooner or later even the dumbest consoler would realize what they were missing.
 

ta152h

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It's sad to see how inane some of these posts are from people who think their priorities are the same as the big companies that sell stuff.

Sony doesn't care about you getting better games for your PC. Neither does Microsloth or Nintendo. They release hardware based on their own desire to make money. They aren't going to say, "You know, we need to release better hardware so the ports to the PC world work better." They don't. Just like you don't think about Sony and their financial situation when you ponder your purchases, they don't worry about your gaming satisfaction on the PC, outside of any material financial impact it might have. It's reality.

Having said all that, and having endured the pathetic cries of people who make such a fuss (like it's soooooooooooo important to life) about game quality when there are millions of people who can't even eat today, this guy is full of crap.

In theory, he's correct, but in practice, the limit has not been reached. If you can do everything you want in 1080p, without compromise, then more speed would not help unless the resolutions improved, and then you'd tie those two together. It isn't so right now. Trivializing resolution is kind of silly, since that's what these machines do better than prior generations, and that's why a good portion of people bought them instead of the prior generation.

Also, because people are generally content with the current consoles (even if true), does not mean they would not be more happy with something better. The natural evolution is to be able to power the modern displays without compromise, and current generation consoles do not succeed. Next ones should, and still have some left over for the unexpected. That would make a difference, and would be an improvement people would notice. That's why a company makes a new generation, and the same reasons still are there, even if they are not as dramatic as in previous generations.
 
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If there were new consoles, then EA would have to train and pay their developers more.
EA is one of my least favorite gaming companys, but not as much a Zynga..... barf.
 

nmodin

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He has a valid point here that I think touches upon all aspect of technology. I think that mankind should just stop striving to improve and enhance technology, and in addition we should halt all efforts in science and research in general.

Who needs a next generation console/pc/tv/car ?? What would it even do ???

People are already happy so lets not spend any more money but just sell them the same old crap but at a higher price year after year !!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAY !!!!


ps.
Can someone please fire this person ?
 

DirectXtreme

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Yes we do! In fact, next XBOX and PS4 will be overdue if they are launched in 2013 considering there is a console refresh every 5-6 years. The Wii U is on time. Most modern PC games still run in DirectX 9.0c and system requirements haven't increased since 2008 (not necessarily a bad thing, but you can tell you won't need much faster hardware past that). Our hardware is barely utilized and some modern games (console ports) still look terrible at their max settings.
 

nebun

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really?....how dumb is this guy? YES we need a better console....the current ones suck big time...especially with no DX11 support.
 

jeremy88

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I think this is just a way for EA to divert attention away from their privacy intrusion scandal, the entire article is just nonsensical.
 

hanrak

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[citation][nom]TA152H[/nom]It's sad to see how inane some of these posts are from people who think their priorities are the same as the big companies that sell stuff.Sony doesn't care about you getting better games for your PC. Neither does Microsloth or Nintendo. They release hardware based on their own desire to make money. They aren't going to say, "You know, we need to release better hardware so the ports to the PC world work better." They don't. Just like you don't think about Sony and their financial situation when you ponder your purchases, they don't worry about your gaming satisfaction on the PC, outside of any material financial impact it might have. It's reality. Having said all that, and having endured the pathetic cries of people who make such a fuss (like it's soooooooooooo important to life) about game quality when there are millions of people who can't even eat today, this guy is full of crap. In theory, he's correct, but in practice, the limit has not been reached. If you can do everything you want in 1080p, without compromise, then more speed would not help unless the resolutions improved, and then you'd tie those two together. It isn't so right now. Trivializing resolution is kind of silly, since that's what these machines do better than prior generations, and that's why a good portion of people bought them instead of the prior generation. Also, because people are generally content with the current consoles (even if true), does not mean they would not be more happy with something better. The natural evolution is to be able to power the modern displays without compromise, and current generation consoles do not succeed. Next ones should, and still have some left over for the unexpected. That would make a difference, and would be an improvement people would notice. That's why a company makes a new generation, and the same reasons still are there, even if they are not as dramatic as in previous generations.[/citation]

I think its worse that you have written what amounts to a pointless, slightly snotty and wrong summation of what people are saying here. Do you honestly think people here, PC owners at that don't understand that these mega corporations care about anything other than the dollar? Of course they understand their business logic, they are simply pointing this affects PC gaming in a negative way.

Your other point about people taking this too seriously as there are people starving is also rubbish. PCs/PC Gaming is many peoples main hobby here. I give to charity and do some charity work as im sure others do so I will not feel guilty for being passionate about something I spend alot of time doing and I care for. If you really think about it, its a pretty stupid place to come out with that.

Your final paragraph makes absolutely no sense so i cant comment on it.
 

andyp363

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We could have spent decades and millions of pounds making steroids and speed for our horses to unleash their maximum potential.
Im sure we could have got another 4mph or so out of our them if we would have tried but making a car that goes twice as fast would be so pointless.

Efficiency is good but at some point you have to weigh it up you will never get much more from a console than you do now. its time to upgrade them.

Anyway if everybody bought a new console with a 22nm chip (same computing power) how much power would the world save
I think the 360 is 65 or 45nm depending on version (S) so 22nm version would be aprox 66% more power efficient than the 45nm version (depending on design of course)
 

Trialsking

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[citation][nom]soldier37[/nom]The real funny part is my current PC rig is still better than any new console they come out with a year or 2 years from now...2560 x 1600 res, 16gbddr3, 2 x 256 SSD hard drives, (windows boots in 8 seconds) 2 x GTX 590s in SLI. 1080p is so 2008. I only use my PS3 as a media station.blu ray digital files etc. I tried playing NCAA 2012 football demo and started laughing as soon as it loaded with all those jaggies at 720p lol...FAT FAIL![/citation]


How much did you pay for that beast, compared to a PS3 @ full price of $600 5 years ago. Yes you have a higher resolution but does that really matter if the game's graphics are based on the consoles anyway. Fallout 3 will look basically the same on your beast rig as is does on a crappy 360. I could build a $100000 PC but if the games are going to ports for the next 3-4 years does it really matter?

 

jeremy88

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[citation][nom]Cirdecus[/nom]there's a HUGE potential in innovation, particularly the road that Nintendo has been taking the great part of the decade. There's a reason why the Wii is soundly inferior in terms of hardware and technology but still able to outsell both Sony and Microsoft hands down.[/citation]

LOL!! Wtf are you talking about?? Could it be that the Wii is newer and people are buying it because they already own the other two or one of the two consoles?? Or maybe the fact that the Wii is dirt cheap?
 

jeremy88

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[citation][nom]Anomalyx[/nom]Sigh... there should be a requirement of at least a basic understanding of the differences between console and PC gaming before anyone posts a comparison. Yes, if you tried to run a PC game on the same grade of hardware that a PS3/360 has, it would suck. PS3 only has 256 MB of RAM! Try even running Windows with that. Consoles get away with it because they can develop the graphics to directly interface with the graphics cards, since they don't have to worry about everyone having a different card model. For PC gaming, they have to go through the DirectX interface for absolutely everything, which slows it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down. Not to say DirectX is bad, but it's the price paid for having the choice between hundreds of different graphics cards to choose from.Summary: yes, the raw hardware in consoles is very old, but with the way console games can be developed, it's more than they'll ever need.Obligatory car analogy:Consoles are a 1990 Honda Accord. Still goes strong, gets you around as quickly as you need.PCs are a Dodge Ram 3500, with 650 ft-lbs of torque, towing that 2-ton trailer we call an operating system.They both get where they need to go, and each just as fast as the other. The difference is that one is high powered and the other is just-right powered. Yet their speed is the same.[/citation]

Agreed, and finally found someone on here who is not a mindless fanboy!
 

jimsocks

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current hardware can't even do native 720p, its all upscaled.
i want native 1080p next gen, or i'm going back to pc. hell, i'm already playing on PC.
EA can suck my balls, both balls!
 

atminside

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Listen guys it does not matter what this douche bag says, PS4 is coming out in a year and half from now I am sure a new xbox will follow too. The market is a volatile place and always changes. It does not matter what anyone says now and nobody can predict accurately what's going to happen in the future. For now, for us PC gamers, we just have to wait patiently until the new consoles to come in so we can have better PC ports. Also we should hope that these new gen consoles wont be backwards compatible. I say this because developers will be forced to make new games from scratch on newer tech rather than just using older tech. All we have to do it wait. It's unfortunate that the majority of mainstream console gamers are as dumb as a bag of hammers when comes to computer tech otherwise we would have been seeing new consoles coming out every 3 years instead of every 5 to 6 years.
 
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EA reminds me to British Leyland.....
When RAGE is out we will see the difference of a PC game ported to Consoles, not the other way.
And a real programmer Mr Carmak in the Quake CON said that they can do better with better consoles, specially the PS3 that is hard to programme.
And if you remember when Crysis 2 came, it was a DX9 game, lots of people yell about, and then they brought the DX11 Patch, and the High resolution texture Patch, see EA SHIT, why they didn't brought that in the first place? aahh of course no one will notice..... sure...
 
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