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Is there even a point to buying a PS3 right now?

M

ManBearPig

Diamond Member
Aren't they only going to be around for another year or two before a new one comes out? Just curious...feel like im entering this generation of consoles late if i buy one right now. Looking at this from a maximum value perspective.
 
Blu-ray was reason enough for me to buy a PS3, but movie watching is one of my main ways to relax.

The 360 will probably not be replaced until at least Fall 2010, and the PS3 most likely not until Fall 2011. Both are "good enough" technology for now and both companies want to make profits from their gaming divisions by selling them as long as possible.

There is also a good chance that both companies will follow Nintendo's lead and make the new models "two (old model)s duct-taped together": A 100% backwards compatible design with just more RAM, more and faster cores, and more / faster cores in the graphics processor.

Both companies are also fairly likely to not be so bleeding edge: since TVs will stay at 1080p for the forseeable future the 720 and PS4 only need to be 3-4 times as powerful as current models to move from the current 720p for most games to a solid, stable framerate at 1080p with a bit more eye candy.

So: buy now and you'll get at least a couple of years of new games, probably more like 3-4 years since there will be an overlap between old and new consoles. Microsoft owns the rights to cost-reduce the 360 (unlike the original xbox) so they have no reason to kill it off as fast as they did last time, and there are still good PS2 games being made.

With backwards-compatible hardware it may even be cost-effective to keep making more games for all of 360/720 and PS3/PS4: a scalable engine like in the PC Half-Life just has 2 code paths for graphics with all other code shared. With duct-tape new consoles the work of supporting 360 and 720 might just mean building the game code twice with different switches for the graphics code.
 
Sony has stated and continues to state that the PS3 is meant to have a 10 year shelf life, so the PS4 may be a ways off. 2010 or 2011 is probably a good estimate on the 360 replacement (the 360 came out in 2005 or 2006, right?).
 
There's still plenty of time at least 2-3 years for either of them. New consoles haven't even been announced yet.
 
Originally posted by: tdawg
Sony has stated and continues to state that the PS3 is meant to have a 10 year shelf life, so the PS4 may be a ways off.
Click to expand...

I know that's the company line, but I just can't see how it can possibly be true. Or at least, I don't see how the PS3 can be a top-tier system for 10 years. It could have 5-6 good years in the spotlight and then be the second banana power-wise ala the PS2 for a few more.

When MS comes out with their next (presumably more powerful) system in 2010 or 2011, is Sony really not going to put out something new until Fall 2016? They would be handing a ridiculous amount of sales to MS if they allowed that kind of headstart with superior 2010 technology. There's no way Sony's going to let that happen.
 
Originally posted by: RandomFool
There's still plenty of time at least 2-3 years for either of them. New consoles haven't even been announced yet.
Click to expand...

That and there are a lot of great games that have already come out and will be coming out soon.

Even better, we've reached the point of this generation's lifecycle that you can start finding great games on the cheap either used or sold new.
 
New ones won't come out in a year, maybe two years. Plus they don't usually have many great games for the first year. So you're looking at a minimum of 3 solid years of use with a good game selection. I would absolutely buy one now and not wait. Think of all the fun you'd miss out on in 3 years...
 
Don't bother buying anything... there will always eventually be something better in a few years. Just keep waiting.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Blu-ray was reason enough for me to buy a PS3, but movie watching is one of my main ways to relax.

The 360 will probably not be replaced until at least Fall 2010, and the PS3 most likely not until Fall 2011. Both are "good enough" technology for now and both companies want to make profits from their gaming divisions by selling them as long as possible.

There is also a good chance that both companies will follow Nintendo's lead and make the new models "two (old model)s duct-taped together": A 100% backwards compatible design with just more RAM, more and faster cores, and more / faster cores in the graphics processor.

Both companies are also fairly likely to not be so bleeding edge: since TVs will stay at 1080p for the forseeable future the 720 and PS4 only need to be 3-4 times as powerful as current models to move from the current 720p for most games to a solid, stable framerate at 1080p with a bit more eye candy.

So: buy now and you'll get at least a couple of years of new games, probably more like 3-4 years since there will be an overlap between old and new consoles. Microsoft owns the rights to cost-reduce the 360 (unlike the original xbox) so they have no reason to kill it off as fast as they did last time, and there are still good PS2 games being made.

With backwards-compatible hardware it may even be cost-effective to keep making more games for all of 360/720 and PS3/PS4: a scalable engine like in the PC Half-Life just has 2 code paths for graphics with all other code shared. With duct-tape new consoles the work of supporting 360 and 720 might just mean building the game code twice with different switches for the graphics code.
Click to expand...

i can see that working with bluray (due to storage space), but i cant see microsoft using dvd9 again for the 3rd xbox. personally, i am hoping they go towards putting games on flash drives. they are cheap now, let alone in 3-4 years time.

I'm betting that microsoft is trying to figure out alternatives to using BD for their next gen console
 
Originally posted by: CKDragon
Originally posted by: tdawg
Sony has stated and continues to state that the PS3 is meant to have a 10 year shelf life, so the PS4 may be a ways off.
Click to expand...

I know that's the company line, but I just can't see how it can possibly be true. Or at least, I don't see how the PS3 can be a top-tier system for 10 years. It could have 5-6 good years in the spotlight and then be the second banana power-wise ala the PS2 for a few more.

When MS comes out with their next (presumably more powerful) system in 2010 or 2011, is Sony really not going to put out something new until Fall 2016? They would be handing a ridiculous amount of sales to MS if they allowed that kind of headstart with superior 2010 technology. There's no way Sony's going to let that happen.
Click to expand...

It doesn't mean that it will be 10 years before the next console, just 10 years before the console is retired.

They're still releasing games on the PS2, you know. This is the system's 8th year.
 
I know it seems like a stupid post, i was just thinking about it and it seems like you get screwed if you buy early (buggy hardware...happens to many consoles) and kind of ripped off if you buy too late. Doesn't mean I won't buy one.
 
Originally posted by: CKDragon
Originally posted by: tdawg
Sony has stated and continues to state that the PS3 is meant to have a 10 year shelf life, so the PS4 may be a ways off.
Click to expand...

I know that's the company line, but I just can't see how it can possibly be true. Or at least, I don't see how the PS3 can be a top-tier system for 10 years. It could have 5-6 good years in the spotlight and then be the second banana power-wise ala the PS2 for a few more.

When MS comes out with their next (presumably more powerful) system in 2010 or 2011, is Sony really not going to put out something new until Fall 2016? They would be handing a ridiculous amount of sales to MS if they allowed that kind of headstart with superior 2010 technology. There's no way Sony's going to let that happen.
Click to expand...

I think you'll be surprised to see just how long the PS3 will remain a "top tier", viable console option. The PS2 came out in early 2000 and wasn't replaced until Xmas of '06, and there are still PS2 games being regularly released and the system still sells really well. Sony stated that the PS2 would have a 10 year lifespan as well, and right now, they're very much on track to make that a reality. I don't see any reason why the PS3 won't fare as well.

My theory has always been that Sony makes their consoles difficult to code for because over time, as developers continue to unlock the potential of the system, you will be better and better from it. While MS has stuck to a largely Windows based platform development system, making a majority of the technology immediately accessible. While we have seen pretty significant jumps on the 360 over the past 3 years, I think with games like GTA4 and Bioshock, you're seeing about as good as it gets on the platform. I've been surprised before tho.

Regardless, I think if you buy a PS3 right now, you'll be looking at a good 5+ years of development support for it at the very minimum, which is plenty IMO for any good console.

So yes, being a PS3 owner myself since summer of last year, I would definitely recommend a PS3 🙂.
 
Now's as good a time as any. The consoles are mature enough to be past the 1st-year problems (most of them anyway). They still have at least a couple years of being in their prime. Prices aren't insanely high.
 
Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx
Originally posted by: CKDragon
Originally posted by: tdawg
Sony has stated and continues to state that the PS3 is meant to have a 10 year shelf life, so the PS4 may be a ways off.
Click to expand...

I know that's the company line, but I just can't see how it can possibly be true. Or at least, I don't see how the PS3 can be a top-tier system for 10 years. It could have 5-6 good years in the spotlight and then be the second banana power-wise ala the PS2 for a few more.

When MS comes out with their next (presumably more powerful) system in 2010 or 2011, is Sony really not going to put out something new until Fall 2016? They would be handing a ridiculous amount of sales to MS if they allowed that kind of headstart with superior 2010 technology. There's no way Sony's going to let that happen.
Click to expand...

I think you'll be surprised to see just how long the PS3 will remain a "top tier", viable console option. The PS2 came out in early 2000 and wasn't replaced until Xmas of '06, and there are still PS2 games being regularly released and the system still sells really well. Sony stated that the PS2 would have a 10 year lifespan as well, and right now, they're very much on track to make that a reality. I don't see any reason why the PS3 won't fare as well.
Click to expand...

The reason PS2 games are still coming out is because it was SO dominant. It sold over 100 million vs about 25 million each for the Xbox and Gamecube. It's not looking like the PS3 will be a repeat of that.

My theory has always been that Sony makes their consoles difficult to code for because over time, as developers continue to unlock the potential of the system, you will be better and better from it. While MS has stuck to a largely Windows based platform development system, making a majority of the technology immediately accessible. While we have seen pretty significant jumps on the 360 over the past 3 years, I think with games like GTA4 and Bioshock, you're seeing about as good as it gets on the platform. I've been surprised before tho.
Click to expand...

I think that theory is pretty illogical, but I think you're right that 360 games probably won't be getting much better than the best games out right now (graphically I mean). What they're able to do with the PS3 remains to be seen.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
I think that theory is pretty illogical, but I think you're right that 360 games probably won't be getting much better than the best games out right now (graphically I mean). What they're able to do with the PS3 remains to be seen.
Click to expand...

I dunno man, Gears of War 2 looks significantly better than part 1 did. Tonight when gametrailers.com shows off the first single player footage of it, we may be able to tell even more.
 
If your looking for maximum value, I think there's a good chance they might cut prices this fall. Upcoming die shrinks should make the consoles cheaper to produce.

Jasper is also coming out, which should improve reliability.
 
Originally posted by: purbeast0
Originally posted by: mugs
I think that theory is pretty illogical, but I think you're right that 360 games probably won't be getting much better than the best games out right now (graphically I mean). What they're able to do with the PS3 remains to be seen.
Click to expand...

I dunno man, Gears of War 2 looks significantly better than part 1 did. Tonight when gametrailers.com shows off the first single player footage of it, we may be able to tell even more.
Click to expand...

The PS3 and Xbox 360 can pull off years of graphical goodness. Neither are tapped for potential power. The problem with the Xbox 360 is that there just isn't enough space on the disks to make games sprawling without making concessions in texture and audio compression.

As for graphics power... the Xbox 360 has 3 full featured PowerPC cores and basically an stripped down HD2900 ( is probably on part speed wise with an X1800GTX but coded like an HD ) and the PS3 is 1 simple high speed PowerPC, the PPE, with 8 SPE's ( 6 in effect because 1 is turned off because of yields and 1 is reserved for the operating system ). The graphics are like a 7950GTX.

So they offer similar capabilities. Good programming at the hardware level makes either platform really, really powerful. PS3 has the upperhand in future games because it has a BR for game storage AND every unit has atleast a 20g HD. HD's are user upgradable and cheaper.

I'd say the Xbox 360 has about 2 years before they either make a new box all together or offer an large disk HD's cheap with a BR disk player to help install games to the HD OR just use multi DVD9 disks to install to the HD. Then the only real thing the PS3 will have over the Xbox is its own exclusives, wifi, keyboard/mouse, 6axis, and a bit more convenience.
 
Originally posted by: hooflung
The PS3 and Xbox 360 can pull off years of graphical goodness. Neither are tapped for potential power.
Click to expand...

Both console are already tapped out. I doubt there are going to be games coming out that look noticeably better than what's already out. Maybe a few tweaks, but it's mostly maxed out already.

Look how many big titles can't even run at 720p. Lookt at GTA4, there's definitely serious graphic compromises made to get the game to run on both consoles. You won't see a port of Crysis. Neither console has anywhere near enough power. A remake maybe, but not a straight port.
 
Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Originally posted by: hooflung
The PS3 and Xbox 360 can pull off years of graphical goodness. Neither are tapped for potential power.
Click to expand...

Both console are already tapped out. I doubt there are going to be games coming out that look noticeably better than what's already out. Maybe a few tweaks, but it's mostly maxed out already.

Look how many big titles can't even run at 720p. Lookt at GTA4, there's definitely serious graphic compromises made to get the game to run on both consoles. You won't see a port of Crysis. Neither console has anywhere near enough power. A remake maybe, but not a straight port.
Click to expand...

There's always a way to get more out of a system. Especially with the PS3 which most developers admit is hard to program. By the end of the 360 & PS3s lives developers will be used to programming for them and know more tricks for getting every ounce of performance out of them. The game at the end of a system's life always look way better than anyone expected they could. It's happened with just about every successful system out there.
 
Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Originally posted by: hooflung
The PS3 and Xbox 360 can pull off years of graphical goodness. Neither are tapped for potential power.
Click to expand...

Both console are already tapped out. I doubt there are going to be games coming out that look noticeably better than what's already out. Maybe a few tweaks, but it's mostly maxed out already.

Look how many big titles can't even run at 720p. Lookt at GTA4, there's definitely serious graphic compromises made to get the game to run on both consoles. You won't see a port of Crysis. Neither console has anywhere near enough power. A remake maybe, but not a straight port.
Click to expand...

im sorry but that is just wrong.

if you look at any consoles timeline, compare any games later on in the life span to the earlier part of the life span. they are noticeably better.

i mean compare madden that launched w/the PS2 to the latest version of madden on it. it's light years better in every aspect.

hell god of war 2 looks better than some xbox360 games.
 
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