[citation][nom]kamen[/nom]Keeping costs down for their next console should be the top priority. A $299 price point should be the max for their new console. Also, I don't see why console makers keep making the same mistake of developing custom hardware platforms for their devices. Nintendo should save money by building a console with good off the shelf hardware that is already available or soon to be available. Sony and Microsoft would be in serious damage control mode if Nintendo had the Wii 2 ready for Christmas 2010 and it had inexspensive off the shelf hardware such as a 4 core Athlon II and Radeon HD 5770 graphics at the $299 price point. Also, Nintendo needs to go to a 4 year release strategy with 2 additional years of game support. Waiting for 6 years between consoles is far to long as the hardware in them is pathetically behind the times after only a few years.[/citation]
The reason for custom architecture is for the prevention of emulation on other systems and control of the development process. Consoles function differently in that the OS isn't actually running the games and calling the hardware functions for the game to use (unlike PC where the process works Game>OS>Hardware, hence why you need certain OS requirements), the use of "off the shelf" components and non custom architecture gives people the ability to emulate easier by only needing to recreate the OS on a different hardware setup because all the function calls the game will make will be to the OS alone and not the actual hardware functions of the system, making it a software only emulator, which still isn't perfect but runs leaps and bounds above hardware emulation (i.e. PS2, Dreamcast, even PSX emu's still have some bugs, etc). It also allows proprietary connections for things like controllers beit in the form of a custom wireless reciever or physical port, that the common man wouldn't know how to work around (and most people in general don't know the first thing about modding or even where to begin looking for info). And custom architectures also lead into contract agreements with chipset makers that they will continue to produce the chips, as using a regular off the shelf chipset the manufacturer would have to seriously weigh on whether or not they want to produce for a long obsolete line 2 years down the road.
The reason for custom architecture is for the prevention of emulation on other systems and control of the development process. Consoles function differently in that the OS isn't actually running the games and calling the hardware functions for the game to use (unlike PC where the process works Game>OS>Hardware, hence why you need certain OS requirements), the use of "off the shelf" components and non custom architecture gives people the ability to emulate easier by only needing to recreate the OS on a different hardware setup because all the function calls the game will make will be to the OS alone and not the actual hardware functions of the system, making it a software only emulator, which still isn't perfect but runs leaps and bounds above hardware emulation (i.e. PS2, Dreamcast, even PSX emu's still have some bugs, etc). It also allows proprietary connections for things like controllers beit in the form of a custom wireless reciever or physical port, that the common man wouldn't know how to work around (and most people in general don't know the first thing about modding or even where to begin looking for info). And custom architectures also lead into contract agreements with chipset makers that they will continue to produce the chips, as using a regular off the shelf chipset the manufacturer would have to seriously weigh on whether or not they want to produce for a long obsolete line 2 years down the road.
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