As games get better looking and more and more technologically sophisticated, the costs of making them continue to rise. For consumers, on the other hand, this leads to not just more intrusive monetization methods in games, but also more expensive hardware needed to run those games to begin with.

This generation saw consoles launch at their highest average price yet, with the PS4 launching at $400 and the Xbox One launching at $500- and now, the Xbox One X has, yet again, come in at the $500 price point. Is this indicative that to hit the level of power necessary to get an appropriate specs and graphics bump that most gamers expect, the next gen of consoles might end up costing $500 or more at launch, too?

According to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, the answer to that is no. Speaking on his web show, Pachter said that $500 consoles have historically never done well, and that is unlikely to change- although he did say that, presuming the Xbox One X was a sufficient, sustained success, he would be proven wrong.

“I don’t think next gen consoles will be $500… though I guess the right answer is, let’s see what happens with the Xbox One X,” he said. “If Xbox One X is a phenomenal success, if it sells out, if overall Xbox sales rise to above the current level of 10 million a year, because everyone wants that power, then sure, the next gen can be more expensive. But if the Xbox One X sells 1-2 million a year, out of the 10 million Xbox sold every year, and after a couple of years, they satisfy demand and no one wants it at $500, then no.

“Look, I don’t have a lot of experience with $500 consoles, but what I have is bad. The PS3 launched at $600 and it flopped. The Xbox One launched at $500, and it didn’t work, they had to drop the Kinect and bring it to under $400 before it sold. There’s just some consumer obstinacy about spending more than $300-400 on a console. I can’t explain why, I spend that much on Halloween candy, I don’t know. Some people, they just say ‘I can buy an HDTV for $500,’ and you can, and in a couple of years, you’ll be able to get 4KTVs at that price. So a console sounds very expensive compared to that- a TV will last you 10 years, and you can use it all the time, and a console lasts you 5 years, and won’t be used that much. So my bias is no, $500 consoles won’t happen.”

He also touched briefly upon when next generation consoles might launch to begin with, stressing again that he doesn’t feel like discrete console generations will ever happen again, while stating that this would be a question to return to after the Xbox One X has had a couple of months on the market.

I agree with him on the former point- I don’t think $500 consoles will ever be mass market or palatable to the mainstream, and so, I do not see them happening. But as for there being no more discrete generations, well… look, as far as I know, I was the earliest advocate for rolling hardware generations on the internet. back when the Scorpio and Pro first leaked, and everyone either doubted the rumors, or dismissed the potential of the idea, I was talking about how they could be the wave of the future for consoles.

But the thing is, while I see Microsoft going with this plan, and I see Nintendo continuing to do their own thing, I don’t see Sony dropping discrete hardware generations, not just yet. I think there will be a full fledged PS5- but like Pachter, I don’t think it will be $500.

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has promised that the Xbox One X represents a world beyond console generations- but the question on the minds of many has been, just how enforceable is such a mandate, anyway? Is Microsoft meaning to never release a true, next gen Xbox system? What happens if Sony releases a PS5? Will Microsoft continue to put out iterative Xbox One systems on the market?

Speaking about this topic with IGN, Microsoft’s Albert Penello said that Microsoft doesn’t think that console generations are coming to an end- but rather, that generations will maintain compatibility.

“That’s the question we’ll have to see how it goes,” he said in an interview with IGN. “I mean, part of it is, this is a grand new experiment that both us and Sony are on with this concept. And right now, we have to sort of build trust that the stuff you’re buying will work, that this ecosystem will make sense for people, for developers, and that is what will inform what happens next.

“But I think there will always be step changes in technology. I don’t think we’ve ever said that console generations go away because of this idea. But I do think that it changes the nature of how you think about compatibility, which has always been an afterthought for the most part on consoles… there have been some who have done a great job of it, but we’re doubling down on it, going back even further. And Phil said this a lot… we’re making a huge effort for backward compatibility. A lot of the stuff you saw, the tools that we are doing for 360, are tools that were necessary to make Xbox One, S, and X games compatible. We’re building a lot of that strength in software to do that.”

He added that the next Xbox console, should it exist, will probably be compatible with the Xbox One family of hardware, since that is an area of huge importance to Microsoft going forward.

“So I think compatibility will be a more important focus. And then, there will be step changes in hardware, there will be evolutions. I am not sure what the next thing will look like, but I would certainly say we are doubling down on our commitment to compatibility, we will try to keep it compatible with our existing library of games, that is super important to us.”

Now, to be clear, Microsoft has implied that the Xbox One X represents the start of a world beyond console generations in as many words plenty of times before- but I am willing to consider that they will still consider discrete generations with rolling hardware, simply because that makes the most sense for them (and for game creators and console owners, too). As for what the inevitable Xbox 4 will look like? Well, hopefully we find out in the next 3-4 years.

Microsoft has confirmed that  games will be forced to be installed on the system’s hard drive, and if you wanted to install the same disc on your friends hard-drive the owner of the disc has to pay another fee for additional install.

Meanwhile, Microsoft corporate VP Phil Harrison spoke to CVG today confirming that Xbox One gamers who bough and activated a pre-owned retail copy of a game will be required to pay the same price as the original buyer in order to be able to play.

However, Larry Hryb now tells gamers to be patient for a clearer explanation regarding pre-owned games. “We are months away from the launch of Xbox One & policy decisions are still being finalized,” he said via twitter. “When they are, we will let you know.”

This whole dilemma is undoubtedly starting to get annoying for consumers around the world. It seems that Microsoft is back-pedaling due to the uproar of the internet and the confusion that the company has caused. I guess we have no choice but to wait.

Let us know your feelings regarding this situation in the comments below.

Check back on GamingBolt as this story continues to develop.

Check out the image of the tweet below:

It’s safe to assume that the big announcement/reveal will be happening at Microsoft’s Next-Gen Reveal event on May 21st, which is tomorrow. However, the question still remains on what could it be? Is it some-sort of multiplayer reveal, exclusive downloadable content for Next-Gen Xbox or something completely unexpected?

Electronic Arts has already confirmed FIFA 14 for tomorrow’s big show, it seems like EA will be going big with Microsoft. We could be speculating all day in all honesty and were less than twenty hours away from the event. The hype is rising, and teaser messages are coming in and out throughout the internet all day. The best thing we can all do is wait patiently in anticipation for something exciting tomorrow. Meanwhile, this is only the beginning because a few weeks after this E3 2013 will bring a hype-storm to the entire world.

Feel free to speculate and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Check back on GamingBolt for Next-Generation Xbox Reveal Event tomorrow.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/ea-teases-major-battlefield-4-announcement-via-twitter/feed 0 155921 https://gamingbolt.com/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag-new-gameplay-trailer-released https://gamingbolt.com/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag-new-gameplay-trailer-released#respond Wed, 15 May 2013 17:34:44 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=154943 The two-minute trailer is narrated by Edward Kenway, the main protagonist of the new Assassin’s Creed title. Edward is the grandfather of Connor from Assassin’s Creed III and the father of Haytham Kenway.

Edward talks about his history and how he used to obey men of privileges and wealth. However, now his loyalty lies within his crew of pirates that are going to be taking everything back that belongs to them.

The ending of the video also teases underwater sharks. Ubisoft previously confirmed that you will be able to use a harpoon to hunt down numerous creatures.

Assassins’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be coming out on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii U and Next-Generation of consoles on October 31st in North America with a European release following the next day.

Let us know what you think of this new gameplayer trailer and if you’re looking forward to playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag later this year in the comments below.

Check back on GamingBolt for more media updates and information regarding the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

According to the sheet, it will have 4 GB RAM, and a 10k RPM hard drive. It will also feature a tablet controller with 720p resolution supported. The GPU will have 1.4 GB GDDR5 memory along with DirectX 11.1 support.

The Optical media is Blu-Ray but won’t play movies. It’s said to be 50GB capacity. So there you go! Is this real? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Check out the image below. Image courtesy of a Chinese site – TBUS.

According to a report it is confirmed that Microsoft’s next-gen system is indeed under development at Flextronics in Austin, Texas. Flextronics manufactures the current Xbox 360 and other devices for Microsoft.

It has to be noted that Microsoft will not show off a new system at E3, so we have to go with all these rumours to gain some knowledge of what’s happening currently.

“Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships,” said Microsoft in a statement to IGN.

“We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumours or speculation.”

Flextronics, meanwhile, declined to comment as they obviously are under NDA. So even a generic comment is a no-no.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Highly detailed Robots

Have you ever imagined how the next-gen character models could look like? The leap in hardware capability should be pretty sufficient to support high polygon models in-game. Now, most of these images we have below are created via Z Brush, which allows for some insane polygon count and it is simply not practical for these models to be rendered real time in game. Such hardware does not exist unless you do it at some render farm. But there are plenty of techniques like tessellation, which allow for increased polygons without straining the hardware a lot. These renders that we have here contain an insane amount of polygons and this is pretty much the ceiling that most character models have to hit. Most character models this gen take up about 20k to 30k polygons, and these are mostly the big budget ones. Next gen you can bump that up to 100k but the models that we are showing you here are all over 1 million polygons. However, they could pretty much end up looking like the real thing due to smoke and mirrors that most developers have in their arsenal.
Which one did you like? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

One eagle eyed member from GAF has found the Linkedlin profile of a Crytek employee who revealed that, RYSE has been moved to the next-gen Xbox. Yes, you heard that right. We have the screenshots as well, in case the information is removed form the profile.

This is what it says:

RYSE (X-Box Next Gen) Pushing boundaries of next generation gaming, RYSE is an original AAA IP from Crytek slated to deliver an Epic first-person melee experience in the Roman Empire.

• Designed, created, implemented and scripted numerous game levels using all facets of Sandbox Editor and CryEngine.
• Lead and mentored Jr. Level Designers and Level Designers as well as collaborated with colleagues across multiple disciplines to ensure winning efforts.
• Championed original Game Design for Tablet title exclusive to Crytek and expanding the franchise to include new genre of video game.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

via GAF