Thurrott.com just concluded a podcast, where they discussed the future of Xbox hardware- and contrary to a lot of speculations, it sounds like the future of Xbox hardware is very bright, with multiple Xbox branded products on the horizon- far sooner than one might thing.

Microsoft apparently have multiple new Xbox products in the wings- included in these is what was referred to as an ‘Xbox 2,’ which will be VR enabled, and based on an entirely new architecture (it was unclear whether or not it would be backwards compatible with the existing Xbox One). That’s not all, either- apparently, an Xbox 1.5, so to speak, is due out later this year, which will be a souped up version of the current Xbox One. It will be capable of 4K output, which means it will probably go head to head with the PS4 Neo.

Microsoft will also be putting out TV specific hardware under the Xbox brand, it sounds like- there are two TV Xbox solutions in the work, including a Chromecast-esque stick, as well as an Apple TV/Roku-esque Xbox TV streaming box (this is separate from the long rumored Xbox Slim). Tom Warren of The Verge has weighed in on a lot of this news on NeoGAF, confirming that there will in fact be new Xbox hardware at E3, and that it will be 40% slimmer than what we have right now- but he refused to comment on anything else, leaving the question of just what this slimmer hardware may be open.

If all of this is true, then we could be looking at a lot of Xbox branded hardware within the next year or so:

• An Xbox 1.5, which would be sort of a response to the PS4K Neo. This will be 4K compatible and coming later this year, and it may have a slimmer form factor than the existing Xbox One
• An Xbox 2, revealed around Spring next year, based on an entirely new hardware architecture, and VR compatible. This will probably be the successor to Xbox One, and it is unclear whether or not it will be backwards compatible with the existing Xbox One hardware
• An Xbox branded Chromecast-esque streaming stick
• An Xbox branded Apple TV-esque streaming box

All in all, it sounds like Microsoft, rather than slowly transitioning away from hardware, are doubling down on it, at least where the Xbox is concerned- with E3 around the corner, official confirmations for at least some of these are likely coming up soon. We can’t wait to see what the future has in store.

The PS4K and the Xbox 1.5 currently have the entire industry in an uproar, as consumers and developers alike struggle to come to terms with the rumored new paradigm; but one entity that seems to be unruffled by the shift to these iterative, upgraded consoles is Electronic Arts.

Speaking during Electronic Arts’ quarterly financial call, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen outlined multiple reasons which, in conjunction, allay any fears the company may otherwise have had with the impending new machines:

• Both Sony and Microsoft realize the necessity for compatibility across devices (exemplified best by Microsoft’s BC offerings);
• EA are moving all in house development towards one singular engine, the Frostbite engine
• The Frostbite engine was designed around the current x86 standard, and so it should be able to handle any upgraded versions of that standard with ease

Put simply, EA foresees no disruptions in its development pipeline and process, even if these new machines do exist- they are counting on hardware and software continuity to cushion the blow.

[Thanks DualShockers]

As if the past teases and information bits weren’t enough, GameStop CEO Paul Raines has essentially admitted that we’ll be seeing some new consoles in the next few years. He didn’t specify what they would be and whether that included the rumoured PS4.5K NEO or Xbox 1.5 or not.

Speaking to [a]listdaily, Raines noted that, “We anticipate that we’ll see some new consoles in the next few years. We don’t like to talk about that because our partners get upset if we jump ahead, so we’ll let them disclose that.”

With this much fervour and information leaking prior to E3 2016, it’s almost guaranteed at this point that we’ll see one or both upgraded consoles at the show. Microsoft has been rumoured to be testing several new Xbox prototypes and a new controller design while Sony is apparently working on 4K output and slightly faster GPU/CPU hardware with its PS4 NEO.

What are your thoughts on all the rumours? Let us know in the comments.

It doesn’t matter what your own personal take on iterative consoles may be (for the record, I am on board with the idea), when it is all but evident at this point that we will be getting them going forward. And yet, resistance to something like this makes sense- after all, it is a change to the way things are done, an all new idea that changes the paradigm of console generations. Of course consumers aren’t necessarily a fan of something entirely new like this.

On the other hand, there are developers- how do they feel about something like this? What are their thoughts and opinions on the upgraded, improved hardware that these iterative consoles will allegedly have?

GamingBolt recently got in touch with Don Williamson, the former engine lead on the Fable games (and now the founder of Celtoys), and we decided to ask him his thoughts on the rumored PS4 Neo. Here’s what he had to say about it.

“I’m not really qualified to comment on the PS4 improvements as the last Sony platforms I worked on were the PSP and PS2,” Williamson said. “I don’t know enough to form an opinion on why Sony are taking this route. However, it does seem to me that both Sony and Microsoft may end up going down the route of “curated” PC hardware, instead of custom consoles, for the foreseeable future. The 4k goal sounds curious as it’s going to take a ton of horse power and memory to make 4k games; I would much rather the extra power was used for 60fps+ @ 1080p. If this ends up tightly integrating with Sony’s VR offering though, this could end up being quite a tantalizing platform.

And what were his thoughts on having more than one SKU per console, and how that may end up fragmenting development resources?

“If you target more than one platform you will always need to spend more money,” he stated. “How much more is too variable to generalize. However, even if you target the lowest common denominator you still need to spend time testing builds on the more capable platforms.”

On the whole, he, too, appears to be a fan of the prospect- which makes sense, as a tech focused guy, new technology is probably always an exciting proposition. Now the question is- can Sony and Microsoft sell the PS4K and Xbox 1.5 to consumers effectively?

We decided to sit down with Slightly Mad Studios’ Andy Tudor, and discuss these exciting new developments with him. We talked about a lot of stuff- from VR, and how game design works in VR, to iterative consoles, the Nintendo NX, and of course, the games that Slightly Mad Studios currently have in the pipeline. Sit tight, and enjoy the interview.

"We’re all big fans of technology, at our studio. So no matter what it is, when new hardware or technology comes along, or a new gadget comes along, we’re always playing with it, and we’ll support it."

I wanted to start to start with Project CARS, which was already a pretty realistic game, it got praised a lot for its realism. And I wanted to know, what prompted you to want to immerse the players further in the world of driving with VR? Did you always have a VR version of Project CARS planned, or did you come up with the idea after the game launched?

So, we’re all big fans of technology, at our studio. So no matter what it is, when new hardware or technology comes along, or a new gadget comes along, we’re always playing with it, and we’ll support it. That’s why in Project CARS, we support so many wheels, and gear shifters, and things like that. And that’s why, instead of making just one second screen app, we gave that power to the community, so they could make their own, and we’ve got over a dozen now.

So when VR was announced, when the first rumblings of Oculus Rift started happening on the web, we immediately wanted to try it out. And then from trying the very first development kit, with, I mean, I personally tried out Team Fortress 2, I just could see that this was going to be perfect for racing games. And the racing genre has always been more accepting of additional hardware or peripherals, more than any other genre- we’ve always had seats and wheels. And now with the VR visor, we have a helmet. So even from the very early days, with us trying it out for ourselves, we knew that it was going to be a perfect match for racing.

I do agree with you- the racing genre has sort of always been a pioneer for new technology, going all the way back to the SNES, with F-Zero and its Mode-7 tech, and then Ridge Racer on the PlayStation. So yeah, I think VR is well suited for racing games.

If I’m not wrong, Project CARS had some early demos for Oculus, I think before the game actually released, for one of the devkits.

Yeah, that’s right, yeah, so… the way we developed Project CARS in public view, basically kind of in front of everybody, it meant that when people were out there getting their first devkits, you could actually play a very early version of Project CARS on them in VR. And we’ve been working with Oculus ever since then. So we were working with Oculus back in 2013, I guess, when they were first announced, and we have been working with them ever since. And now they’re finally launched, so Project CARS available on the Oculus helps us all.

So how would you say is the difference between the game’s Oculus version, and the initial experiments you made with VR? How has the game changed from those early builds to the final VR release?

In the very early days, we used to get sick- I mean, it’s pretty easy to say that, we all played, we had things in the game already, from our work on Need for Speed Shift, that was making you feel queasy, because we were already trying to emulate G-forces that were going around the car, head movement was attached to the driver’s head in the game, and those two things were found to be quite conflicting, that they would make the people a bit nauseous. So we immediately stripped those things out for the VR version.

Gradually over time, the hardware has gotten better, the screens being used have gotten better, and they didn’t have full motion tracking in the first devkits, which they do now. So yeah, it’s been a gradual growth over the last few years. And then, in the most recent versions, we’ve added in specific menus and options into the game for the Oculus version to allow you to make things even more comfortable for your eyes as well. So being able to change your seat position, from the in game menu, and you can change the scale of the world from there as well. As well as settings for your eye distance, and other such things as well.

So yeah, it’s been a gradual refinement process, and we’ve been using our community as kind of guinea pigs, who’ve been giving us feedback on what the optimal experience is for virtual reality.

I actually wanted to ask you about the menu and the HUD and the UI, which you brought up. What would you say are the challenges of designing a UI in VR, and how would you say you managed to create one that was intuitive?

There’s lots to be kind of learned here, and there are a number of other studios who are going through the same process basically, of how long a session should be when you’re playing VR, and – I mean Project CARS is rated as ‘intense’ for its gameplay, because you’re in the game, and you’re racing around at high speeds, and looking left and right, and being in command of a steering and trying to wheel a car, and things like that, it’s not a leisurely experience – so from an interface and presentation point of view, things need to be pretty simple, in order to make it a pleasurable experience when you’re not out on the track going a million miles an hour. So we made the menus all quite simple and basic for you, it’s just a screen sort of hovering in midair in front of you, and you can access the options from there, and it all has to be quite intuitive. So we’ve kept things quite simple for Project CARS on Oculus by using a floating screen in front of the player’s head. But yeah, other games are coming up with wildly different solutions, depending on the level of intensity in their games.

"Things in your peripheral vision are negligible when you play in virtual reality."

Yeah, plus this is early days. I think people are going to be trying different things, and experiment with new ideas.

So what changes were made to the game released last year to make it work for VR? Were there any changes made? Apart from the menu, from a gameplay perspective.

Well, the version that’s on the Oculus Store is essentially the core game that was launched last year, but with all the on demand content that we’ve added since. So from a gameplay perspective, you’ll get all the cars and tracks and improvements we’ve made, all that kind of stuff. And then when the Game of the Year edition launches on May 6, the Oculus version will automatically get upgraded to that. So from a pure content point of view, there is tons in there that wasn’t in the game released last year. From a technical point of view, we’ve had to make adjustments. So you know, the game has always run at an amazing framerate, it’s run at 12K resolution, things like that. But the solution to getting it to run at those kinds of, that level of quality and fidelity, is usually to increase your GPU, your clock speed, get a better CPU, things like that.

But with Oculus Rift, there’s a slightly different way of going about it, there’s a very regimented minimum spec for Oculus. And therefore we had to make some technical adjustments behind the scenes to make sure the game runs at a perfect silky smooth 90 frames per second framerate. The way to do that is actually quite easy, because when you’re playing in VR, everything is actually about the close up object, it’s about tangible things in front of the face. It’s about the steering wheel, and the cockpit, and the rear view mirror right there. And your brain doesn’t notice as much things that are far off in the distance, because you’re very much aware of your immediate surroundings, instead of things that are miles away. So we’ve adjusted our level of detail for things in far off objects, so we can get away with a lot more on Oculus for far off objects and edge objects as well. Because your brain won’t concentrate as much on those things.

So it’s a lot like real vision, where you won’t focus on peripheral objects as much as you will focus on things right in front of you. 

Exactly, things in your peripheral vision are negligible when you play in virtual reality.

I wanted to ask you, because I think this may have something to do with the nausea thing you brought up earlier, but are you supporting the Oculus Touch controllers? From what I understand, people say that intense VR games with the pack in Xbox One controller can cause a disconnect that leads to nausea.

Potentially. Over the time period, and certainly for the launch of Project CARS on Oculus, we’ve absolutely solved the nausea issue. Because racing is so good for VR, it suits it so well – I mean, you know what it feels like to sit in a car, you know what it feels like to have hands in front of you on the wheel, and you know the horizon line won’t go crazy, it’s not like a space dogfighting game, where up is down, and left is right, and things like that – and you’re always going in one direction (hopefully), which is forward. And you always naturally turn your head in the direction you’re going to be going in anyway, because that’s what we do in real life when we drive. So from a motion sickness point of view, it’s completely solved, and it’s actually a really pleasurable experience. We certainly had people who’ve come from just having played other games, and they have come with an expectation of ‘this looks really intense, like it will make me throw up,’ and then they actually find it really comfortable because of those key things.

So when it comes to the Oculus Touch controllers, we are certainly looking at them, definitely. But, I mean, it would be lovely to put your hands out in front of you and grip a steering wheel in real life, and have your hands in the game do the same- but there’s some work that needs to be done in terms of the actual steering wheel peripherals before that can happen. If you take the steering wheel peripheral away, and you just have your arms hanging out in midair, it’s not such a good experience because your hands can be any width apart from each other. What happens when you want to change gears? How would you do that? There are a lot of caveats like that that need to be overcome to work on that. So we are looking at it, but equally we are also looking at other solutions for actual physical peripherals, too.

Yeah, it’s a completely new paradigm, so some things need to be considered that you wouldn’t have to in a traditional game. Which brings me to my next question- how would you compare making a game for a VR platform versus developing for traditional game systems? What kinds of different resources are needed? How do you have to approach development from a different mindset?

I think it’s, I mean, we’ve already started work on Project CARS 2, so I think having played the game in virtual reality, it’s fair to say that we won’t be going back from VR- every game that we work on in the future potentially may support VR in some form. So that means definitely as we begin work on Project CARS 2, we’re already thinking of what is the VR experience going to be like for this particular game? So that can go through absolutely everything, so at the moment, we’re concentrating on the gameplay being a VR experience, and now we’re starting to think of what is the outside of the gameplay experience – like browsing your career menu – going to look like? How do you do Photo Mode in VR? How do you do replay cameras in VR? How do you browse your garage in VR? Things like that. So it’s certainly a different mindset, and if it works for VR, it’s likely to work for non VR experiences as well, and be a fantastic experience there.

So there are definitely a lot of questions, lots of meetings that happen regarding how we’re going to take it to the next level. So yes, these are exciting times currently.

And would you say that Project CARS in VR is close to actual driving? Basically, not true driving, naturally, but as close to true driving as you would ever get with a video game?

Yeah, absolutely. We have seats in the studio which move, so they are hydraulic. And if you sit somebody in that, and the seat is moving in relation to the physics of the car you’re driving, you strap a wheel and pedals in front of you, so you’re doing what you’d be doing if you’re actually driving- and now we’re wearing a VR headset? We can’t get you any more immersed. We’ve got surround sound speakers on the seats as well. Like the only thing left is to blow a fan in your face so you can feel the wind in your hair, right? We’re as close as we can get.

And when it comes to the guys who are playing our games on the pro level, at our eSports events, they already have the seats and wheels, and I think many of them may now take the plunge and purchase the VR headset, because, as you said, it is the last piece of the puzzle in getting you as close as you possibly can to having the authentic driving experience. And it’s something we just couldn’t do previously- with a 2D screen, the closest we can get to something like this is triple screen monitors, or potentially having eye tracking, like on Kinect. But the headset is the true way of doing something like this.

So essentially in the future, VR could be really good for driving or flight simulators.

Oh yeah, absolutely, I can see many applications- like your driving tests, learning to spot hazards on the road, and learning how to look out of your rear view mirror, or rear mirror, and learning how to properly park, like parallel parking- so it would be perfectly suited for a training tool for learning how to drive.

"We’re investigating PlayStation VR right now."

I wanted to ask about the PlayStation VR version. I know that the game is coming to that- how different is it going to be from the Oculus version, though?

So, we’re investigating PlayStation VR right now, but we can’t talk about it, I’m sorry. (laughs)

Well, pertaining to VR in general- Oculus is now finally available, and it has gotten really good reviews, and we have the Vive and the PSVR. I guess I want to ask you, how long will it be before VR becomes integral to gaming entertainment, basically becoming a new pillar- PC, consoles, mobile, VR?

 We’re still in the kind of wild west at the moment, you know? It’s done extremely well, it’s not in everyone’s hands yet, it’s not even in everyone’s price point yet. But once you get your hands on it, you know, everyone agrees that it’s absolutely phenomenal. So considering that the jump in graphical fidelity wasn’t maybe as big this generation as it was last generation, or like going from 2D to 3D,or 3D to HD, virtual reality truly is that big graphical and gameplay leap that I think gaming audiences have been looking forward to.

So you know, with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive and PlayStation VR all coming out this year, and all being available by Christmas, it’s certainly an interesting time, and we are all hopeful that VR does take off this particular time, definitely, because there are certainly some amazing experiences that can only be had in VR. Experiences in VR are truly revolutionary, beyond just sitting on a couch, and playing on a 2D plane.

So yeah, we’re all hopeful it takes off, and we’re gonna be supporting it ourselves for the near future.

So in your opinion, the current crop of consoles and high end gaming PCs are powerful enough to deliver the kind of VR experience that is needed for the medium to take off?

Yeah, I mean- I mean, we’re in games development, so obviously our computers are pretty beefy, and things like that. But the minimum spec for VR on Oculus is attainable, definitely. It’s not necessarily the most powerful Nvidia GPU, it’s a card that has been around for a while and is affordable now. Most players have hopefully gotten rid of their old CRT monitors by now, and they have decent CPUs… so, yeah, although many people may need to upgrade one or two things on their machines, overall, certainly, we’re mostly ready for VR- we just need the headsets and the controllers. I think it’s one of those cases of a killer app coming out for one of these devices, and just like Half Life 2 or maybe Crysis used to be in the old days, people will naturally upgrade their computers to go VR ready. I mean, some will not, but they’ll be outliers.

So yeah, I think, everyone should be having a machine that is capable of VR, definitely- I think if you are a true gamer, that this is the kind of next generation experience that you’ve kind of been waiting for.

I also wanted to ask you- so VR requires high framerates, my understanding is that is necessary to counter the feeling of nausea. I think 90fps were mentioned by you for Oculus, and Sony mandates 60fps for PlayStation VR- my question is, will this sort of change the general mentality for games development? It’s been really focused on resolution, but do you think the increased emphasis on framerate placed by VR could bleed over into non VR AAA games as well?

I think it’s definitely going to bring the issue of framerate up more when developing your game, absolutely. If you want your game to ever be a VR game, it needs to be running at that silky smooth framerate. Most driving games are either 30fps or 60fps- we prefer to go for 60 frames, because it’s a smoother experience, but other racing games just stick to 30. And if they want to be VR capable now, then they will need to be 60fps, or greater. So VR is going to bring the question of framerate back to the forefront for many developers, definitely. And on the other hand, VR also increases resolution, now you’ve got effectively two monitors, two screens that you are rendering to, so I think there will be many studios out there that will have to readdress their own internal technology to try to reach these goals, if they ever want to have a game that is a VR experience also.

"I think, everyone should be having a machine that is capable of VR, definitely- I think if you are a true gamer, that this is the kind of next generation experience that you’ve kind of been waiting for."

I wanted to shift focus to what you guys have in the pipeline coming up next. You’ve mentioned Project CARS 2 a couple of times- how far into its development are you?

So we announced the crowdfunding a while back, when Project CARS 1 had actually launched. And while a team has been working on the on demand content for the first game, we are now shifting focus to Project CARS 2, once the upcoming Game of the Year Edition launches. Our WMD community have already been kind of experiencing the early builds, concentrating on what we are doing differently this time around- things like off road racing, or loose surface racing. So yes, we are full steam ahead now, and we’ll have more information on Project CARS 2 to share later in the year.

When Project CARS was announced, it was as a long term platform for racing game fans. How are you ensuring community continuity between the first game and the second?

We launched Project CARS back in May 2015, our on demand program and brand new content, has all been happening over the last year. Today is our Project CARS eSports draft day, so we’re talking about the upcoming 2016 season. So that should take us through to 2016.We’ve got more events that will be happening as well, and then as I said, we will be moving the discussion over to Project CARS 2, so the franchise as a whole is definitely going to be this ongoing organic thing, growing each day. And I think the evidence of that is, if you roll back to interviews with me in the past as well, I said we’re in this for the long haul, we’re going to be around for a very long time, we’ve got a big vision for the game… and that’s certainly coming to fruition now. The community feedback to the game and the critical acclaim that it got can ensure that the franchise can certainly live on and grow and get better over time, and that will certainly be happening.

So I hate to bring up the question of resolution, especially when we just discussed the importance of framerate- but I think I should ask you this anyway. The first Project CARS ran at 1080p on the PS4, but 900p on the Xbox One. Do you think that with the second game, you can up the resolution on Xbox? Especially with the availability of the DirectX 12 API, and new SDKs, and so on?

Yeah, certainly, it’s something we actively are looking at, definitely. And it’s interesting to hear the news from Sony and Microsoft about upgradeable consoles, essentially. So, whether that is the PlayStation 4K or Xbox 1.5 or whatever you want to call it, that’s certainly interesting from a development point of view, what we can take advantage of, when those consoles or add-ons or whatever they may be, come around. You know, higher frame rates, or getting a game to run at 4K on a console, as opposed to just a PC, or getting full parity on a console, so it’s running at 1080p on both, PlayStation and Xbox… so yeah, it’s something that we will always be looking at, and it’s always our goal to get parity across every platform that we release on, absolutely. It’s just that sometimes there are, you know, restrictions, or things that we need to overcome in order to reach that, so yeah. It’s definitely something we’ll be looking at for Project CARS 2.

I also wanted to talk to you about Red Bull Racing. I just received the PR for it, and I think it said that the game will be free to play, but it will explicitly distance itself from financial models that try to push monetization over gameplay balance and fun. So my question is- how? How do you plan to monetize the game, without it being intrusive to the gameplay experience?

Well, so that is brand new, fresh news, it literally just came out (laughs)

At the moment, it’s too early for us to talk about that stuff in particular, but I will say, if you look at our other games, if you look at how we approached microtransactions on Shift 2, or in our mobile games, no one has ever complained about our microtransactions that we had there. Like we have always been extremely fair with how each game is monetized. So the point of that press release is that you can trust us on this- we won’t gate content behind a paywall, like you may experience in other games. We’ve always done a good job with this stuff, and that seems to have gone down well the community, so you can trust us on this. So when Red Bull Racing comes out, it’s going to be a pleasurable experience for everybody, and everyone will have an equal chance, without having to put money into the game.

"The PlayStation 4K or Xbox 1.5 or whatever you want to call it, that’s certainly interesting from a development point of view."

So when do you think we’ll hear more about Red Bull and Project CARS 2? E3?

(laughs)

I’m not going to give you a date! You know, bear in mind, there are some big conventions and conferences coming up, so keep an eye out for us during some of those.

Definitely worth a shot, though, asking you that! 

(laughs)

Alright, I think you answered this already, but you are looking at VR support for all your games going forward, right? 

Right, we’re looking at- VR is such a great experience that it would be silly of us to not consider it for all of our future titles, absolutely.

I wanted to sort of shift to the PlayStation 4K, since you did just bring it up just now. I wanted to know, what are your thoughts on it? Is it a wise idea from a consumer perspective to essentially fragment the market like that?

I think it’s too early to tell, to be honest. The full information is not released yet, so I think it would be wrong of us to comment on rumors at the moment.

Okay, from a theoretical development perspective, I believe you said that upgraded consoles would be a good idea, because they would give you more power to work with?

 It depends on how it’s done. I didn’t say that it’s a good idea, necessarily, but that we will always look at- if there is more power available, then we will be there to look at how to use it, yeah. But, there are good ways and bad ways of doing that. Would it be a good thing to bring out a brand new console which is more powerful and that annoyed the 10 million people who bought the original one? That wouldn’t be a good thing. Equally, would it be good to bring out an add on that, you know, attaches itself to your existing PlayStation, and if you have an add on, you can use it, and if you don’t have the add on, then we can’t use it- okay, well maybe, that’s a bit like mobile development, in that we have to cater to the people who have the iPhone 6s, but also to people still on an iPhone 5. So there are pros and cons. But like I said, we don’t know the full details, so it is kind of too early for us to speculate on what our stance would be. But if there is more power available, however it may be, we will certainly look into using it somehow.

I also wanted to ask you about the Nintendo NX- from what I understand, there was a Wii U version of Project CARS, I think it was the first one announced, and then it was cancelled because the Wii U couldn’t run the game properly. And you said you would wait on the NX for a Nintendo version. I guess my question is, do you know much about the NX, something you could share? What are your thoughts on it? 

(laughs) 

Trying to get that exclusive here! It’s not gonna happen! (laughs)

We are aware of the NX, absolutely, but there’s nothing we can share currently.

"We are aware of the NX, absolutely."

(laughs) Not even your opinion, your takeaway?

Nope. (laughs) 

(laughs) Like I said before- worth a shot!

(laughs)

 I want to thank you for your time, and for answering all of our questions.

No problem!

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us or our readers before we end?

No, I think you covered it all! Like the VR aspect, that’s very exciting, and internally, we’re shifting focus to Project CARS 2 now, but also there’s another team working on Red Bull. So yeah, everything is going well- we’ve had a really good year! We’re looking forward to continuing that into the next few years!

Okay, well I want to wish you the best of luck for all your projects coming up!

Thanks!

One of them, at the very least, was expected- Nintendo’s NX, which is primed to be the successor to the disappointing Wii U, has long been marked as a 2016 launch. However, what was unexpected was the rumblings of new hardware launches from Sony and Microsoft, too- both of whom look to be launching new PlayStation and Xbox systems. Effectively, then, the launch of new consoles by all three companies leads to a mid generation reset– an all new generation, so to speak.

What Microsoft is planning is as yet unknown- they were among the first companies to raise the idea of iterative consoles, but they went back on that notion shortly afterwards. Nevertheless, enough indications exist that we know they are working on something new, and Xbox head Phil Spencer himself has hinted at an announcement of something beyond the Xbox One coming soon. What that something is, however, is as yet unknown.

"Xbox head Phil Spencer himself has hinted at an announcement of something beyond the Xbox One coming soon."

On the other hand, the PS4K and the Nintendo NX, while both equally enigmatic and unannounced, are far clearer to us- the PS4K appears to be a highly incremental revision of the PS4, enhancing the base console’s specs somewhat to lead to better performing and looking games. The Nintendo NX is Nintendo’s brand new console, and is, according to the consensus found in most rumors and leaks, pegged to be at least a bit more powerful than the current PS4 (where it would stand with respect to the PS4K is unknown for now).

So we have two new consoles coming this year that could conceivably lay claim to being the most powerful console ever released. The question is, will that be enough to sell them to the masses? Remember, the current console generation is only now hitting its stride after almost three years of wallowing in the shadow of the previous generation. Most customers have, within the last year or so, spent a few hundred dollars on new hardware- why would they buy either the NX or the PS4K?

Both the NX and the PS4K will have to make a compelling case for their existence- however, equally important to their ultimate appeal to the mass market will be their value proposition. In other words, how much the machines cost could single handedly make or break their fortunes on the market.

Sony must surely realize that- the reason the PS4 has done as well as it has is because of its consumer friendly pricing. When Sony announced the price of the system, it was just $399- a full $100 cheaper than the Xbox One, and it delivered on this cheaper price while being a more powerful and capable console as well. This good pricing for the PS4 is just the most notable incidence of good pricing moves by Sony in the last few years, which have all lent them a measure of success- the PS Vita was similarly well priced at $249, and the PlayStation VR is priced at an extremely low and attractive $399. Sony, it seems, understands the value of pricing their hardware just right.

"Sony, it seems, understands the value of pricing their hardware just right."

How much, then, should the PS4K be priced at? This is an interesting question that needs to be approached with the full context of the picture in mind: the PS4K, while a new and more powerful machine, is not meant to replace the current PS4 model. Rather, all indications are that the two models will exist side by side on the market- much like how Nintendo sells multiple variants of its handhelds at the same time. Given, then, that the PS4K is not meant to replace the current PS4, but simply complement it, Sony have a lot more breathing room with how they can price the system. Since the PS4K will not be the primary PS4 SKU on the market, but just a premium, high end addition to the PS4 line, Sony can conceivably price it higher than they would have been able to a regular mid cycle refresh, while keeping the regular PS4 model as their cheaper entry into the PlayStation ecosystem.

All of which is to say, the PS4K could be pricy- it will at the very least be $399, a full $50 more expensive than the PS4 currently is (though that difference could go as high as $100, if Sony drops the price of the current PS4 to $299 permanently- as they should), but we could conceivably see it go as high as $449 as well. It would be a high margin SKU sold at the higher end of the market, to those that are willing to spend a little extra money to get the very best that their money can buy. At the same time, Sony will not risk alienating their mass market base either, since the current PS4 will continue to be sold at a lower price. They get to, essentially, have their cake and eat it too.

With that said, a $449 price for the PS4K honestly seems unlikely- $399 seems to be what Sony will target, as that seems to be the magic price point for them. If they drop the price of the base SKU to $299 in this period, then they have a healthy price difference- if not, however, then Sony can make a compelling, implicit case for all would be buyers of the base PS4 SKU to spend just $50 more and get the best PS4 SKU on the market. Given all of these competing factors, we would argue that Sony will end up pricing the PS4K at $399- with the price for the base PS4 SKU probably being kept as is at $349.

"Nintendo’s strongest market, traditionally, has been the family market- the family market is not looking at spending a lot of money."

Nintendo is a far more interesting case to argue. Like Sony, they, too, have learned the importance of price- but because of the opposite reasons. The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U both launched at historic high prices of $249 and $349 respectively- and both did poorly on the market, until Nintendo dropped their prices, and managed to reverse their performance somewhat. Generally, in the past, Nintendo have done the best when they have kept their prices low- appealing to the mass market with their products, as it were. This is particularly important, because Nintendo’s strongest market, traditionally, has been the family market- the family market is not looking at spending a lot of money.

But any discussion on the failure of the 3DS and Wii U at higher price points must be tempered with the realization that Nintendo were essentially trying to sell what was outdated tech at premium prices- while yes, the 3DS and the Wii U had state of the art autostereoscopy and low latency streaming tech to them respectively, they were essentially half a decade old tech being sold at shockingly high prices. The market did not perceive them to be good value at those price points, and it responded appropriately.

The NX, by all accounts, appears to be different- while Nintendo is likely to skip out on the extraneous media functionality that both the Xbox One and the PS4 seem to espouse, it is rumored to be a capable machine- at the very least more powerful than the PS4, and, depending on how it ultimately pans out, possibly more powerful than the PS4K too- at the very least, it would be in the same general vicinity of hardware power as the PS4K.

Then, too, is the fact that Nintendo has now understood the value of selling their systems at a loss should the need for it come- they did it with both, the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U when it was necessary. Nintendo will probably not balk at selling the NX for a loss upfront as much as they would have done before.

"Any discussion on the failure of the 3DS and Wii U at higher price points must be tempered with the realization that Nintendo were essentially trying to sell what was outdated tech at premium prices."

Given all of this, then, how much should the NX be priced at? If we assume that Nintendo will still want to appeal to their traditional family market, but that the NX is a capable, powerful machine, somewhere between the PS4 and the PS4K in terms of power, meaning that it will not be perceived to be outdated, out of value tech, and that they are willing to take a loss on their systems now, then the best price point for Nintendo to sell the NX at will probably be $349- at that price point, the NX will appear to be good value to most families, and avoid the ‘premium’ pricing label associated with prices $399 and above, they will be able to make a good value proposition (a very powerful machine being sold at a cheaper price than the PS4K’s projected $399), and probably not make enough of a loss for it to put a serious dent in their balance books- in fact, depending on how the NX is designed, they may even break even or make a small, tidy profit for themselves.

Of course, these are all just predictions and projections- the final pricing may vary. Sony may decide to be competitive and go in for the kill with the PS4K’s pricing, and try to undercut Nintendo, a strategy they have tried with the competition in the past with the PS4, PS Vita, and PSVR. Nintendo may decide to change their strategy, and rebrand and reposition themselves as a ‘premium’ alternative for the console market. The Xbox One Elite may throw a wrench in Sony and Nintendo’s plans by being a far more powerful machine than either, sold at just $299- right now, it is naturally impossible to know.

But given what we do know right now, or think we know, at any rate, we feel comfortable with predicting the price points for the two systems that we have predicted above. Whether or not Nintendo and Sony go for these prices remains to be seen- and that, among other reasons, is why we are so excited for E3 this year, when the gauntlet for the next round of the console wars will probably be thrown into the ring in earnest.

At GamingBolt, we’re already big fans of the upgradeable, iterative consoles idea, believing it to be the future of the industry. With Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo now all officially exploring the concept in some form, it appears to be a direction the industry as a whole is heading in- and it also seems that at least some people within the industry agree with our assessment.

In a podcast with Game Informer, Oddworld series creator Lorne Lanning spoke on a number of things, but perhaps the most enthusiastic that he sounded about anything was the potential of iterative consoles, going forward.

“Consoles are typically six years (five to seven years),” Lanning said. “I asked [Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei] Yoshida a question at dinner a few nights before DICE 2015, I said “What does the PlayStation 5 look like?” and he said “You mean if”. It was a really interesting thing, he’s hinting at “we need to be more agile, none of us know what the future looks like, so how do we adopt to it faster?”. To me, that’s the sort of way he was thinking about it which I think is the right way to think about it. The idea that you’re going to release a piece of technology that lasts seven years into the future, I think it’s less and less viable even though the generations are lasting longer.

“It seems like that’s in conflict, but when you look at generations of smartphones…And I’ll give you an example. We’ve talked to some of the biggest smartphone companies and what do they want? They want us to be releasing our new PS4/XB1 games titles simultaneously on their latest, most powerful smartphones, with almost the same image fidelity.

“What’s going to happen is that smartphones will get progressively more powerful. We’ve talked to Japanese publishers like Square and they’re releasing on mobiles first and then come to consoles later. Not necessarily out of fidelity, but because that’s where their audience is.”

Certainly, it appears as though Lanning understands that the traditional console generation model is outdated, and no longer fit for a market where consumer electronics evolve in a matter of months- consoles need to keep up, or they risk being left behind.

The PS4K and the Xbox One Elite have not yet been officially announced- but we can probably expect an unveiling at E3 this year.

[Transcription by WCCFTech]

Is the Xbox One Elite (or Xbox 1.5) happening? Phil Spencer has floated the idea previously, although he later partially retracted the statement. But that’s all that we have heard on that front- there haven’t been many rumors or leaks regarding a revised Xbox One with better specs, like there have been for the PS4K.

On the other hand, there is a rumored slimline revision of the Xbox One, one which possibly removes the disc drive, which we have been hearing about for over a year now. Look, what we are getting at is, new Xbox hardware is definitely in the pipeline- we just don’t know what it is.

But we do know it is coming, and today, some substantial evidence for it emerged. NeoGAF user ekim has discovered filings for two Xbox One models identified with model numbers 1682 and 1683 in the Federal Communication Commission’s database. We don’t know what these models are, but we do know we can’t access these filings in full until the end of June- which indicates that there might be a new model being announced at E3.

What will it be? We don’t know yet, but hopefully Microsoft go big, much like Sony did with the PS3 Slim last generation, after the PS3’s less than stellar start.

As time passes, it becomes more and more evident that revised PS4 and Xbox One consoles,with enhanced and upgraded hardware and capabilities, are indeed going to be coming soon. As the time has passed, we’ve gotten more and more acclimatized to an idea that admittedly seemed radical at first, but in the end is a very sensible path of progression for consoles to follow.

But what do people on the other side of the gaming equation feel? Do developers appreciate the idea of these kinds of mid cycle revisions, especially considering the kinds of extra resources they get in terms of hardware to work with as a result? Or are they resentful of changing specs, which is exactly what console game development is meant to avoid in the first place?

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk seems to fall on the side of the scale that doesn’t approve of these upgrades- in fact, in an interview with Gamespot, he went as far as to call the entire idea a ‘gigantic pain in the ass.’

“I’d say that’d be a gigantic pain in the ass that flies in the face of the purpose of consoles,” he said. “It’s funny, there’s actually some stories behind that. For example, the original Xbox…Microsoft actually had multiple different DVD drives. They didn’t tell anyone that, but as a developer you discovered that you have different performance and sometimes you’d have these boxes of refurbished drives and different brands and different equipment. It caused incredible variability.

“The whole purpose of consoles is the set of requirements that you work against from a hardware perspective,” he said. “To change that is complete lunacy.”

The idea, he feels, is not suited to the console market as a result of this.

“I just think it’s bad,” he said. “I think, ‘lock it’ and let developers do their thing. But at the end of the day, if you can focus your development effort on one set of hardware requirements and target, you are going to get a better result. It’s easier than having to split it, adding more people, having to port things across.”

“It’s like dipping your toe back into the PC pool where you have to consider all these things. It was nice on console not having to consider like performance sliders. But it’s just crazy. I guess maybe [Microsoft and Sony] feel the need to.”

Personally, I am not sure I agree with him- I think iterative consoles are a very logical evolution for consoles in a changing market.A market where technology evolves rapidly, and consoles either need to keep up,or risk being left behind in the dust.

At this point, it seems very likely that the promise that Sony and Microsoft first nebulously made back when they announced the x86 hardware platform for the PS4 and Xbox One will be coming to fruition, and that iterative, upgraded consoles will be a thing soon. Microsoft have already referred to potential future Xbox hardware, and rumors of PS4K are getting hotter by the day.

Of course, developers probably have their own take on the matter- do they welcome this move, or are they resistant to it? Given that one of the appeals of consoles has been a fixed hardware spec that all developers can target, surely they are unhappy about this move towards a rapidly iterative platform?

Andy Tudor from Slightly Mad Studios, the folks who brought us Project CARS, at the very least, seems to be enthusiastic towards the notion- at least somewhat. While discussing future projects in an exclusive interview with GamingBolt, Tudor brought up the PS4K and Xbox 1.5 himself- noting the potential they offered to developers. 

We asked him whether for Project CARS 2, Slightly Mad Studios would look into targeting a resolution of 1080p on the Xbox One (the original game ran at 900p on Microsoft’s console). Tudor’s answer gave us an insight into where developers stand on upgraded consoles, should they come to pass.

“Yeah, certainly, [1080p on Xbox One is] something we actively are looking at, definitely,” Tudor said. “And it’s interesting to hear the news from Sony and Microsoft about upgradeable consoles, essentially. So, whether that is the PlayStation 4K or Xbox 1.5 or whatever you want to call it, that’s certainly interesting from a development point of view, what we can take advantage of, when those consoles or add-ons or whatever they may be, come around.”

“You know, higher frame rates, or getting a game to run at 4K on a console, as opposed to just a PC, or getting full parity on a console, so it’s running at 1080p on both, PlayStation and Xbox… so yeah, it’s something that we will always be looking at, and it’s always our goal to get parity across every platform that we release on, absolutely. It’s just that sometimes there are, you know,restrictions, or things that we need to overcome in order to reach that, so yeah. It’s definitely something we’ll be looking at for Project CARS 2.”

So what are his thoughts on these upgraded consoles from a consumer’s perspective, we asked him. Did he think that there was a potential for fragmentation of the userbase, and alienating the millions who had already purchased the 60 million PS4 and Xbox One units out in the wild?

“I think it’s too early to tell, to be honest,” Tudor said. “The full information is not released yet, so I think it would be wrong of us to comment on rumors at the moment.”

Which was a fair response- so we decided to return to the development side of things- did he think that PS4K and Xbox 1.5 represented a good move for developers?

“It depends on how it’s done,” he answered cautiously. “I didn’t say that it’s a good idea, necessarily, but that we will always look at- if there is more power available, then we will be there to look at how to use it, yeah. But, there are good ways and bad ways of doing that. Would it be a good thing to bring out a brand new console which is more powerful and that annoyed the 10 million people who bought the original one? That wouldn’t be a good thing.”

“Equally, would it be good to bring out an add on that, you know, attaches itself to your existing PlayStation, and if you have an add on, you can use it, and if you don’t have the add on, then we can’t use it- okay, well maybe, that’s a bit like mobile development, in that we have to cater to the people who have the iPhone 6s, but also to people still on an iPhone 5. So there are pros and cons. But like I said, we don’t know the full details, so it is kind of too early for us to speculate on what our stance would be. But if there is more power available, however it may be, we will certainly look into using it somehow.”

It is interesting to hear his responses- they seem to be more positive, on the whole, than the responses we have gleaned from a lot of other customers and developers. Then again, Slightly Mad Studios are a studio that have always striven to be on the cutting edge, so is it a surprise to anyone, really, that they would be enthusiastic about new technology?