Without hardware BC, new consoles will have a hard time justifying their existance.

They need to be upgraded versions of the PS3/360 with full hardware BC, much akin to the Wii's BC with the GameCube. That will allow developers to easily upgrade, and not squash creativity, and publisher wallets, for years.

If any console dev chooses to change architecture significantly, and the others don't, the one who changes will fail, due to the extreme costs of developing on that platform as compared to the other.

the closer a console gets to the end of it's life, developers are forced to do more with less and that's not necessarily a bad thing. i'd hate to see somebody hit the proverbial reset button just as we're finally (imo) getting great games.

i simply won't be buying a next gen console if it looks like we're still going to be drowned in shooters and the like again. modern warfare 2 may have sold 10 million copies but theres 70 million ps360 owners out there who DIDN'T buy it. clearly the majority doesn't want these games.

Having new systems now will only lead to crappy launch games with one good game in the first 6 months, it will take an additional year or 2 for decent game to roll in.

do we really want that. those new games wouldnt look much better then the games we have now until they learned the new systems. it would be a real slow start.

no thanks.

I don't believe we have even come close to a graphical ceiling, being that we STILL have games with clipping, shoddy ai,poor animation, etc. Even the AAA titles fall somewhat short of what is possible.

Amen, more 3rd person and innovative RPG's please.

with unbelievable graphics like uncharted 2,god of war 3 & killzone 3 i think PS4 wont be needed for atleast 5 years from now even though we would like to have another playstation sooner because Sony playstation machine's are truely Irresistible gems.

Who gives a crap if the next gen will swallow the small, independent devs? Bring on the graphically intense, action packed, eye bleeding shooters and action titles that make me foam at the mouth.

The problem with that frank , is that while we all want that, it would be the same circle jerk all over again.

games cost to much and take years to make. if the devs have to learn new systems every 5 years then eventually they wont make those big games we want.

a 7 year cycle is just fine leaving another 2 to 3 years of that console cycle to go on while the new system is introduced at the 7 year mark.. giving every console a ten year span.

also if you let ms and sony go with consoles that will last 7 years or longer then they might make them more powerful, instead of gimping on them knowing a new console is around the corner anyway .

lol @ this shit article.

It's the developers. Developers didn't start going out of business when the economy went bad. They did when they started making games that suck though. More power for the consoles raised the expectations for the games. Most couldn't keep up. The video game industry is like life in general, adapt or die. Companies the come up with new ideas will always be around. Some will be around because they hit on something big. Others last because they are business savvy. But good companies will always come up with a game that will sell no matter what the economy is. Those companies do things like Portal, ForgeWorld and Tech 5. Companies like those look forward to new consoles because they give them the opportunity to do the things they wish they could have done with the old console. Halo:Reach doesn't look better just because it's late in the cycle. It looks better because Bungie doesn't have Microsoft breathing down their necks rushing the game out. Bungie team members complained in articles about not being given enough time to do the things they wanted to do with Halo 3. Maybe the original Forge would have been ForgeWorld if they had been given the chance.

720/ps4 will have dx11 & Pc will have dx13 :( (future sigh)...