8th Generation Consoles

[Benji]

UK games industry outlet MCV has reported that both the next Xbox AND the PlayStation 4 will be shown at this year's E3 in June.

This isn't the first time that a publication has cited an unnamed source with information like this, but this isn't some unknown central European games blog - MCV's credibilty makes this particular report worth paying attention to.

Speaking on Twitter, MCV's online editor Ben Parfitt said "Obviously we can't reveal our sources. But you have my personal word on this - the source is exemplary, 100% concrete, ultra high level."

We shouldn't necessarily expect a full-blown reveal, though - we might just see the announcement. Editor-in-Chief Michael French told IGN: "This is very credible. Even if we don't see the hardware itself, or know a price or date, key publishers and developers are expecting some nod towards what direction PS4 will take at E3 this year. Sony isn't stupid - it knows that if Microsoft is planning to also say something about its next console, it can't be left behind."

Many were expecting Microsoft to come out on stage at E3 with some information about the new Xbox, but Sony's reveal would be more surprising, as a new console at this stage in the PlayStation 3's life cycle would fly in the face of the company's stated "ten-year plan".

If both Sony and Microsoft do indeed reveal their new consoles at the same time as Nintendo details the release schedule and pricing for the Wii U, this would quite probably be the biggest E3 in history.

Are you ready for a three-way showdown? Is it still too soon?

So, with this in mind and the Wii-U, what do you want to see and not see in the eighth generation? My main thoughts are some kind of achievements on Nintendo consoles (the one company whose achievements would be the most worthy of achieving, in my estimation), and a massive drop in focus on motion gaming, as well as 3D. I know the latter is unlikely, but a guy can pray.

[Ruki]

I want less emphasis on motion gaming, for sure.

I would also like for my 360 achievements to carry over to the Xbox 4, and for them to keep the exact same controller style...it's perfect in my eye.

And...backwards compatibility.

[Fudge]

I spent about £450 last year on buying that new black Xbox, and a PS3, so they can fucking wait at least 3-4 years until I buy a new console.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Fudge

[rocksta]

I want to sit on my ass and only move my fingers and play pretty games.

[TCO]

Yeah the less focus on motion controls the better in my view, just prettier graphics, more media/online features and free online like in the PS3 will do me fine. 3D is pointless so I don't care about that.

[Robsturgh]

The console that moves the least towards motion controls and stupid media/social hub additions will likely get my money, since if the current trend continues, the new XBOX and the PS4 will have largely the same games available for them anyway.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Rob. S. Ter

[Ruki]

Also, I hope the new Xbox doesn't come out until, at least, fall of 2013.

[apsham]

I want less emphasis on motion gaming, for sure.

I would also like for my 360 achievements to carry over to the Xbox 4, and for them to keep the exact same controller style...it's perfect in my eye.

And...backwards compatibility.

This and I will buy on day one.

[Ruki]

And of course, by Xbox 4, I meant Xbox 3. Or 720 .

[GoGo Yubari]

All motion controls and full Twitter functionality in-game so I can Tweet while I game and game while I tweet about gaming.

[thatshortguy]

I spent about £450 last year on buying that new black Xbox, and a PS3, so they can fucking wait at least 3-4 years until I buy a new console.

This. Inifinitibillion times this.

If MS could just drop the charge for XBL Gold, I'd be fine. Why pay for something Sony is giving me for free? (And honestly, they're on par with one another as far as services and uptime. Price is Sony's advantage, XBLA is MS'.) Also, 3rd party accessories. First party prices are still insane. I want to make sweet, soft love with my XBox, but it just wants to pound away with no regard towards anal well-being.

Nintendo has the most room to move and improve. HD graphics, 3DS cross-compatability...it almost feels as if Nintendo purposefully shied away from these things in order to make their inevitable debut more glorious. They're the Apple of consoles, folks.

Sony? From a technological standpoint, they're fine. Large native HDDs would be good (especially with the push towards full games taking 10s of GBs). I think they've acheived the best balance of motion gaming to a regular catalogue. Unlike MS, who are currently trying to shove a Kinect up where I poop.

[gunnar hendershow]

I don't exactly know where technology goes from here, but I hope it doesn't require me to jump into a full body gaming suit. Just a controller and a TV, nothing else please.

[TKz]

Backwards capability for one. I'd love cross-platform online, but I'm pretty sure that'll never happen. I definitely want my PSOne classics to carry over, heck, just the accounts to cross over. No need to sign up for new things when we've already got accounts on the current consoles, just update what the accounts do. I'd like for a free Cloud Saving system set up as well. Obviously still a copy of my save on console, but if they include a copy online then we'd never have to worry that much about our consoles crapping out. I mean, it's still a lot of money, but at least you don't lose the saves.

Sony is definitely still in my favor with free online, but fuck, they need to sort their fucking servers out. It's a nightmare to stay connected to the PSN a lot of the time. I was actually tempted to get a XBOX next time around, just because I'm sick of PSN. Though luckily I recently converted to PC gaming so I haven't had to put up with it much lately. But yeah, Sony needs to get their shit together for online. Even if they start charging, I won't mind, so long as they get it together.

Hopefully they keep the same Playstation controller (I can't see why they wouldn't) as well.

For the WiiU, I think Achievements of some kind are definitely needed. And they could probably do with a simple controller alternative alongside their big new one. I'd be more interested if games also had a Wii Classic Controller option. That's always been what's kept me from really enjoying the Wii.

And yeah, a decrease in motion controls and 3D. I'm not so bothered about the 3D as it's really just there if you want/can use it. It's not quite as bad as motion controls where some games you HAVE to use them in, which prevent me from really enjoying them.

Also, the PS3 is fantastic for watching downloaded shows on. I know that's not really something they probably want to promote, but fuck, just install a shitload of codecs for watching stuff on there. It's a little annoying not being able to watch mkv files.

[Quom]

I have been saying it since we moved to CD/DVD/Blu-Ray but I want a fucking 6 stacker in the cunt or to move to download/install only (since we no longer get manuals which were the only thing I like about physical copies). I don't want to get up every time I choose to swap games. I'm fucking lazy and it annoys me. I really can't see a six stacker making a massive difference price wise, even if it did I'd pay it.

[Captain Eo]

I spent about £450 last year on buying that new black Xbox, and a PS3, so they can fucking wait at least 3-4 years until I buy a new console.

This. Inifinitibillion times this.

If MS could just drop the charge for XBL Gold, I'd be fine. Why pay for something Sony is giving me for free? (And honestly, they're on par with one another as far as services and uptime. Price is Sony's advantage, XBLA is MS'.)

This is a big fat lie. Xbox Live is miles ahead of Sony's PSN. I own both systems and I refuse to buy anything with online multiplayer for PS3. The community sucks, the downloading of patches and updates takes ages, and there's no community whatsoever.

[Adam]

Please no. Got to keep the physical copies. I hate this 'online manual' shit. It's no good sticking a manual off the menu in the game when I want to refer to it during actual gameplay, and I can't because I'd have to exit out of what I'm doing. Instead of just pausing, turning to my right and picking up the freaking booklet. Are people that damn lazy nowadays that they would prefer to not have to move 5 inches and use their eyes to physically read a piece of paper rather than access it on a menu on the television screen that they're already gluing their eyes to all the time?

Next I'll be demanding the return of spinning tops!

[rocksta]

Nothing will ever replace the pleasure of reading a game manual on the toilet.

[EddieRuckus]

What do I want out of these 8th generation of consoles? To wait at least until 2015. Better graphics and hardware? That's what my PC is for >_>

[Cactus Drags]

Benji, why would Nintendo's achievements be more worthwhile than MS or Sony? I don't really get that. I only value my gamerscore over trophies because I started on Xbox and fuck collecting for both systems >_>

I spent about £450 last year on buying that new black Xbox, and a PS3, so they can fucking wait at least 3-4 years until I buy a new console.

This. Inifinitibillion times this.

If MS could just drop the charge for XBL Gold, I'd be fine. Why pay for something Sony is giving me for free? (And honestly, they're on par with one another as far as services and uptime. Price is Sony's advantage, XBLA is MS'.) Also, 3rd party accessories. First party prices are still insane. I want to make sweet, soft love with my XBox, but it just wants to pound away with no regard towards anal well-being.

Nintendo has the most room to move and improve. HD graphics, 3DS cross-compatability...it almost feels as if Nintendo purposefully shied away from these things in order to make their inevitable debut more glorious. They're the Apple of consoles, folks.

Sony? From a technological standpoint, they're fine. Large native HDDs would be good (especially with the push towards full games taking 10s of GBs). I think they've achieved the best balance of motion gaming to a regular catalogue. Unlike MS, who are currently trying to shove a Kinect up where I poop.

Xbox Live is far, far superior to PSN, and I'd be happy to pay for it. Cross-game chat, the Arcade, actually staying connected for more than twenty minutes at a time, not being attacked and down for months at a time, well worth it.

As for new consoles, I would hope for continuity with my current profiles, backwards compatibility and support to an extent (I won't be buying any new console on day one, see). Less dashboard advertising would be nice, but doubtful. It'd also be nice if everything were region free.

[jase12881]

Agreed with the sentiments about Xbox's online. I have both and love both, but Sony's online is no where near as good or as easy to use as Xbox Live. That said, it's also a lot less expensive

In that same vein, what I would like to see from the next generation is not going to happen, but I want to see less attempts to nickel and dime gamers to death. We're already charged $300+ for a new gaming console, $60-70 a piece for the games, and around that same amount for every piece of hardware. I think this generation I've probably spent over $2,000 EASILY on my Xbox360 alone and I'm actually probably on the low end as a consumer because I usually only buy a game if I know I will be getting some serious replay value out of it. I really don't think they need to charge for every little thing so that they can wring every little drop of money out of my pockets.

Additionally, it would be nice if the hardware next generation had a much lower failure rate than this one. If I pay a few hundred bucks for a game machine, I expect it to last.

I don't know what innovations I would like to see, but I'm sure they will come up with something. I'm pretty sure if it's anything like this generation was, when we finally start hearing about the new consoles, they're at least 1.5-2 years from the market if not more. No worries on that front.

I guess this turned more into a rant than a "Dream Console" thing, but honestly my Xbox and PS3 both already do everything I could conceivably think to ask a console to do and more. I'm not sure what else I would want other than more of the same features and better games. The games now are good, but I would like to see games in the next generation add depth. More games that have as much content as Skyrim, for example and less games that are like 3-5 hours long and repetitive.