Uh-Oh!! Is Microsoft setting up to answer Sony?

[AlphaMan]

http://m.ign.com/articles/2013/02/22/xbox-event-website-registered

XboxEvent.com has been registered!! This is certainly a shot across the bow! I think Xbox will be announcing the Durango/720 in the coming weeks!

This holiday season is going to be good for gamers!!

 

[FPAlpha]

It's common for companies to register many sites in the months and sometimes even years leading to a major release if only to prevent grabbers from registering sites they have no intention to use and maybe even trying to tarnish the reputation of the product/company.

With the 720 i'd not sweat too much.. even with Sony's lukewarm presentation MS doesn't have to fear they'll lose the marketing race.

That will begin in earnest at E3 in the summer and only increase over the fall when they start to hit gaming and news sites en masse revealing "exclusive" information, making "unintentional" leaks through various means etc. culminating in huge release parties before Christmas.

Solid info will most likely be available after E3.. so far what we know are just appetizers.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'm not sure what this portends but I have no doubt MS is ready for this however they choose to respond.

 

[AlphaMan]

I'm betting that in the age of Apple, tech makers see the value of big announcements in a spotlight of their own. Sony had a very successful conference and generated enough buzz to dominate the games media this week and weeks to come.

Microsoft will reveal the 720 well before E3, and away from GDC and Pax East if only to curtail the momentum Sony has built. E3 will be used to focus on software and new IPs.

This holiday season will be a console war like consumers have never seen. 2 next gen consoles on the market fighting for your wallet. This will be interesting.

 

[Tribble puncher]

This holiday season will be a console war like consumers have never seen. 2 next gen consoles on the market fighting for your wallet. This will be interesting.

Kinda reminds me of pretty much every other console war: SNES/GENESIS, SATURN/PS1, PS2/XBOX, ATARI/INTELLIVISION, ETC.....Just sayin..nothing new here except the consoles themselves

 

[CorporalClegg]

Console wars lack the oomph and pomp they once had. It hasn't been a "one or the other market" in over a decade.

Honestly, I wish Disney would just put one out and get it over with.

 

[Kelthaz]

I think it's going to be similar to the previous generation, but with a bit less sales for everyone. And a whole lot less sales for the Vita.

The Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 are aiming for a very hardcore crowd. The exact same audience that bought their predecessors. When you refuse to expand your audience with fresh blood the only direction you can go is down. The token effort to reach out to casuals with the facebook sharing crap isn't going to work.

The Wii U on the other hand is off to a horrible start, but it's only a matter of time until those world famous Nintendo games get released and the price drops enough to entice the casual market. Nintendo did a fantastic job reviving the 3DS, so I have little doubt they'll do the same with the Wii U.

I'm calling it now. Wii U > PS4 = 720

 

[TrekAlliance92]

Even though I own a PS3 and 360, I have no interest in either one's successor. I can't imagine the graphics being that much better, and there's not a new media...erm...medium coming that will be in the new system (i.e. DVD w/ Ps2, Blu w/ PS3). Also, I'm content with my system from this generation being the WiiU. Plus, I imagine the PS3/360 will still have support for a few years to go anyway.

But, there's always the chance the NextBox could surprise me, and I'll be watching to see what happens regardless.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Even though I own a PS3 and 360, I have no interest in either one's successor. I can't imagine the graphics being that much better, and there's not a new media...erm...medium coming that will be in the new system (i.e. DVD w/ Ps2, Blu w/ PS3). Also, I'm content with my system from this generation being the WiiU. Plus, I imagine the PS3/360 will still have support for a few years to go anyway.

But, there's always the chance the NextBox could surprise me, and I'll be watching to see what happens regardless.

Yeah I'm planning on skipping the PS4 and Xbox3. I already have a Wii U and 3DS to play Nintendo games, and I have a PC to play everything else.

Also the only Microsoft franchise I care about is Alan Wake, and I'm sure Alan Wake 2 will get a PC release after the success of Alan Wake's PC port. I don't care about any of Sony's franchises.

 

[ATimson]

Even though I own a PS3 and 360, I have no interest in either one's successor. I can't imagine the graphics being that much better, and there's not a new media...erm...medium coming that will be in the new system (i.e. DVD w/ Ps2, Blu w/ PS3).

Whereas I certainly can imagine they'll be that much better; with many popular games (at least on 360) running at sub-HD resolutions (Halos) or with lower-res textures than their PC counterparts (Mass Effect 3, Skyrim), the new consoles should finally let developers run games in full 1080p fairly effortlessly.

If nothing else, we should stop getting that damn Unreal Engine texture popping now that there's enough RAM!

Plus, I imagine the PS3/360 will still have support for a few years to go anyway.

That happened with the PS2 last time, because of the huge install base, but both the GameCube and the Xbox withered away pretty quickly. This time, it's the Wii that had the install base - it just happened to wither beforehand! - so I wouldn't hold out expectations of PS3/360 support much beyond the start of 2014.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Whereas I certainly can imagine they'll be that much better; with many popular games (at least on 360) running at sub-HD resolutions (Halos) or with lower-res textures than their PC counterparts (Mass Effect 3, Skyrim), the new consoles should finally let developers run games in full 1080p fairly effortlessly.

If nothing else, we should stop getting that damn Unreal Engine texture popping now that there's enough RAM!


I don't know, I have a computer with 8 gigs of ram and a video card with 2 gigs of Ram and I would still get texture popping on UE3 games, though I don't think it was nearly as bad as console games.

 

[Timby]

This holiday season will be a console war like consumers have never seen. 2 next gen consoles on the market fighting for your wallet. This will be interesting.

So ... the autumn of 2006, then?

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't play very many games, but the ones that I do play I absolutely love. So for the next Batman, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed...if they're only available on the PS4 and NOT the PS3, I'll probably find myself upgrading.

I just wish there were more reasons to upgrade. My PS3 is one of the best purchases I've ever made, not because of the games, but because of the Blu-Ray player and WiFi capabilities.

 

[FPAlpha]

I don't play very many games, but the ones that I do play I absolutely love. So for the next Batman, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed...if they're only available on the PS4 and NOT the PS3, I'll probably find myself upgrading.

I just wish there were more reasons to upgrade. My PS3 is one of the best purchases I've ever made, not because of the games, but because of the Blu-Ray player and WiFi capabilities.

That will happen pretty definitely.. why should a developer create games for an outdated console (even if it has millions of users)?

Given the totally redesigned internal architecture porting games wouldn't also be easy or cheap so once thr PS4 hits and companies develop games for it they won't for the PS3.

I guess the PS4 will also double as a home media center so playing Blu Rays, surfing the web etc should all be possible. Given recent reports though is that the new Xbox will focus very heavily on that so it remains to be seen which console will do this better.

I'm definitely buying one of them come Christmas.. it'll be down to available and interesting games and price.

 

[AlphaMan]

Eventually, I'll have both the PS4 and the 720, it's just a matter of which one goes first and which one get my money before the price drop. I absolutely love Playstation exclusives like Uncharted and inFAMOUS so I know where I'm leaning, but I won't make a decision until Microsoft drops theirs on the table.

 

[BillJ]

...so I wouldn't hold out expectations of PS3/360 support much beyond the start of 2014.

Until the PS4/Xbox Whatever have a large install base and are shown to have a healthy attach rate, game developers aren't going to ignore the 150+ million consoles out there now.

 

[Kelthaz]

That will happen pretty definitely.. why should a developer create games for an outdated console (even if it has millions of users)?

Maybe because they have millions of users? Not to mention much lower development costs.

 

[FPAlpha]

That will happen pretty definitely.. why should a developer create games for an outdated console (even if it has millions of users)?

Maybe because they have millions of users? Not to mention much lower development costs.

Yes but a state of the art game takes years to develop.. years during which most people will buy the new console and after 2-3 years of development you may find your playerbase for the old console has eroded and half or more of the people have switched to the new one.

Current games in development won't get cancelled but once the PS4/XBox 720 are released later in the year i guess most developers will switch exclusively to the new machine. It's just not profitable in the long run to develop for a soon (in financial/development terms) to be outdated/outclassed/unsupported/not sold in major stores console.

Would you as the CEO of a videogame corporation approve a PS3 game now knowing that in about half a year there will be a new, far more powerful machine available?

 

[Kelthaz]

You're right that no new AAA games will start development after the PS4 is out, but I would expect lower to mid tier gaming to continue for a few years. Sega was still publishing new Dreamcast games up until 2006. Good ones too.

 

[ATimson]

You're right that no new AAA games will start development after the PS4 is out, but I would expect lower to mid tier gaming to continue for a few years. Sega was still publishing new Dreamcast games up until 2006. Good ones too.

Sega manufactured games that late, but they didn't publish them. (Admittedly, they did continue publishing DC games - only in Japan - through 2004, which is still quite a while after the system was retired. The fact that most of those were easy ports from Sega's Dreamcast-plus-RAM arcade hardware is what made that happen, though; something which doesn't exist for PS3 or 360.)