Thoughts about the new video game hardware...

[Chocolate Pi]

I've begun to notice a few things: if the PS3 and Xbox 360 have such incredible, magical technology, that they can outmatch a $2000 PC in power for hardly a tenth the cost:

Why haven't these technologies been in the market before?

Seriously, sounds like PS2 Toy Story graphics all over again. If IBM could make triple dual-core 3.2 Ghz processors that were truly above and beyond Intel and AMD's offerings for half the price, why aren't they taking over the hardware industry with them? If ATi and nVidia have their next-gen chips ready to go and they cost 1/5 the price of this generations chips, they should be scrambling to see who can impale the other first.

In reality, we just have marketing hype.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is thrilled. While its competitors try each others hands in a marketing war over "power", Nintendo's marketing team has an open field to advertise to as many other regions of the market as they please. More game, more experiences, more ways to play.

Meanwhile, their hardware itself will not suffer due to a different marketing focus. Nintendo has the same partners as the others do; none of the three have a large advantage over the other as it stands. (Unless you truly believe that the Cell is the Holy Grail of all things electrical...) Nintendo has shown their hardware know-how in the past; the Gamecube was powered by some fine chips, with deticated L3 cahce if I'm not mistaken as well as speedy 1T-RAM. (Which Anandtech is quick to point out.)

All said and done, the new consoles will all be fantastic, and show power that will be very impressive for their price point. But to think that they will kill PC gaming, well, that is just what Sony and Microsoft's marketing people would like you to think.

 

[Sforsyth]

they need free multiplayer games !!

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Nintendo Revolution is going to be backwards backwards backwards backwards compatatible with NES, SNES, N64, and Gamecube

 

[n0cmonkey]

The playstation 4 will kill PC gaming!

 

[The Pentium Guy]

YACT.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Any discussion, perhaps?

 

[Cheesetogo]

THey lose money on these systems, and then gain it back on games. It probably costs them at least twice what they are selling it for. Then they make money off of the software. I remember sombody saying that xbox just turned it's first profit around the time halo 2 came out.

 

[SynthDude2001]

In before the flamewar.

 

[MobiusPizza]

hmmm I am getting tired of the console threads. No offense not your fault. But I think many people are already

They are cheap because they can be mass produced in a continuous process; because they are all the same.
PC is different. Vendors like HP, Dell have to buy components and assemble it. It's not a continuous process. There is simply no company that makes CPU+motherboard+RAM+HDD+PSU+cables+chipsets+controllers. If there's a supergiant company that can handle all that themselves they might be able to mass-produce a PC; which would be cheaper.

Also there are immense R&D which had gone into the technological aspect of the consoles; otherwise they won't sell.
PC however is different; Researching high end components doesn't yield a lot considering the fact that the market of enthuastists is small.

Also the consoles are optimised for gaming and specific programs and applications. They hence have a performance advantage that'd be hard to find on PC. Simply because PC is so versatile that it is customisable, can run any codes, any hardware configuration; This makes hardware general purpose and cannot be optimised.

Let me guess, directX and Windows alone consumes 20% of computer resources when you are running a game.

 

[Bateluer]

Somebody should sticky a thread explaining why they can sell consoles so cheap. (because they are selling a major $$$ loss, hoping to make up for it with game royalties and, in MS's case, online fees)