Games: Sony Confirms PSPGo Gone; New Consoles Expected 2014 116
itwbennett writes "Sony on Wednesday confirmed rumors that it is ending production of the PSPGo, the 'slider' version of their handheld gaming system that was introduced back in 2009. Meanwhile, Kotaku posted an article saying that Microsoft and Sony probably won't be launching their next generation consoles until 2014. Whether the Kotaku prognostications are true or not, 'it's fun to think about what a console will have inside it in 3 years,' writes blogger Peter Smith. 'Will it support physical media? Probably. That seems too early for a pure digital delivery system. But I bet they'll have either terabyte hard drives or some kind of cloud storage for digital media.'"
Physical Media... Of Course (Score:2, Interesting)
Why does everyone assume that everywhere has real hi-speed internet? I live in not so rural PA and the only "Hi-speed" we have is cellular 3G. No cable company will come out here, no fiber, no DSL. If it doesn't use real media, it isn't going to be sold here.
Add to that the rest of the world doesn't always have unlimited bandwidth. So now you have to pay for the game and the bandwidth overages.
Think again
Re:More RAM? (Score:2, Interesting)
Tiny RAM space is one of the methods they use to slow down piracy. It's harder to hide bootloader-based copy protection cracking in resident memory if all of it needs to be used legitimately.
Re:And here I was, (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, I have been sticking with the PC for strategy, MMO, and certain FPS games. Going with the console for everything else (because I can sit on an 8' bean bag in front of a 65" television with an audio system that cost more than the last brand new car I bought a fwe years ago). However, I find myself slowly migrating back to PC for titles that I have come to feel weren't necessary to play on the PC - simply because 2011 hardware beats the shit out of low-end commodity hardware from 2005 that was being sold all together for $300 or $400 even back then.
Unfortunately, it's just not so easy, because developers focus on consoles. Even the ones who are traditionally PC developers. The PC version is usually - at best - a red headed step child. It may not be what we normally consider a "port", but it's still developed using much of the resources and limitations that result from focusing on the console. For example, with Dragon Age II, you had to register your game, login to an EA.com account, tie your game to it, enter a code, find the HD res textures bundle, download it (over 1gb), then run an installer. Just to get non-console texture resolutions in a game that was an almost PC-exclusive experience and development a year before.
So, we all suffer.
But hey, by the holiday Season of 2014, we'll finally get low-end 2010 hardware on the console side. So exciting! And by 2023, we'll finally be playing on consoles that match game experience we're getting on PCs (or could get - if developers focused on it) in 2014!
*sigh*
Re:More RAM? (Score:3, Interesting)
Because, they are selling a low end commodity product. The are selling an entire system of parts for half the price of a modern PC video card, because they perceive the consumer market as being too fucking cheap (and possibly rightfully so) to spend anything more than $300 or $400 on a gaming system that they're going to use for the next five or ten years. I enjoy gaming. I love eye-candy. I love lots of amazing stuff going on at any time time, visually and AI-wise. I love games with more people, better performance, 60fps, and all that. I am more than happy to spend $800 or $1,000 or even more on a very high end console that I'll be playing for the next decade. In the long run, it's still ten times cheaper than building a new gaming rig every 12-18 months over that same time period.
But . . . they would likely seriously suffer in sales. So it's a lowest common denominator proposition.
Re:And here I was, (Score:4, Interesting)
Someone really needs to come up with an FPS controller that you can use in your lap while sitting on a couch or recliner. Something that gives you the full dexterity of a mouse/keyboard combo without requiring a desk.
Only when they do this will playing shooters on a console become bearable.
Re:More RAM? (Score:4, Interesting)
Tiny RAM space is one of the methods they use to slow down piracy. It's harder to hide bootloader-based copy protection cracking in resident memory if all of it needs to be used legitimately.
Are you kidding me? The PS3, Wii and 360 all have extra memory reserved for the kernel inside which piracy hacks have been placed for a while.