Yes I am quite sure games will come out that never need patching. Wait is that a pig I see flying. :-)
Why do you think the latest gaming consoles PS3, PS4, XBox360 (eventually) and XB1 came out with hard drives. Basically a 6x Bluray drive can only output at about 27MB/sec which is fine for installing on a hard disk drive so that a 50GB game can be installed in approximately 30 minutes.
I am well aware that some patches (eg. The Witcher 3) can be in the orde...
Cartridges viable again in 2016 - Sigh!
To debunk that please go to any electronics seller say Ebay and cost the price of say a 64GB or 32GB usb stick then cost the price of 50x50GB Bluray disks.
Even in Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) quantities and price, solid state devices are still very much more expensive compared to even commercial prices of say a 50GB BluRay disk and in OEM prices there is absolutely no contest.
You also have to...
It must be noted that the Global market is still predominately North America, Canada, UK, Europe, Japan and some South East Asian countries including Australia and New Zealand. These markets are ones that Microsoft sells their XB1 in as well and has done so since both consoles were made available.
Sony does sell their PS4 in more counties but sales outside of the main areas is relatively small.
As an example and I am using VGChartz (26 Dec 2015) the areas out...
Yes you may boost sales of some software for PC's although I doubt it since PC gamers already have a massive selection of games to choose from and I am not just talking about "Games for Windows" since there are games that can be run under Linux distributions (see Steam) as well.
If anything throwing more exclusives that would normally be for the XBox onto PC would be less incentive to get an XB1 although going the other way may help, however it may also help the...
Why do you say that?
Say Nintendo does come out with a more powerful console do you honestly think millions of PS4 and XB1 owners to say nothing of PS3 and XBox360 owners are going to go out an get it.
If you have a WiiU the release of the "NX" would almost be like a huge slap in the face. Still some people do have short term memories and the "NX" will sell, however "how many" is the question.
Releasing a third o...
@martinstrings
"Everyone and their mother has an Iphone 6"
Well that was an overstatement considering Android smartphones are 82% of the market with iPhone 13.9% as per 2015Q2 figures. What is odd is that allot of people actually believe that statement.
I too have a Galaxy S4 which was cheaper and only missing some of the S5 and S6 features which I don't need.
Unfortunately many games that are ported from a PC environment do appear to require patches after they are released.
Since video games are a business I do think the following attitude applies. "Get the game out early and we will patch it if any embarrassing bugs show up". Pretty damming IMHO.
I have he games you mentioned and unless you are into speed running they will take at least 150 to over 200 hours of game-play and that is assuming you don't try (in the case of The Witcher 3) to complete all the quests some of which can lead into hidden quests.
With TW3 I strongly suggest "Blood and broken bones!" difficulty and say "yes" to Witcher 2 settings since you do get additional quests. It is allot harder but it is fair just don't get sur...
When I got this game two weeks ago I installed the 15GB patch before I played it.
I actually selected "Blood and broken bones!" difficulty first and was dying allot (fairly use to that in the Souls series) but what got annoying is the re-load times so I whimped out and restarted in the Normal mode so I could get a better idea of how to play the game.
I have now restarted on "Blood and broken bones!" and except for one unusual crash (lost ...
The first patch I downloaded was 15GB and now this patch is 17GB, it is lucky that I have unlimited downloads but within two weeks I will have downloaded 32GB just for this game.
It would be even worse with a digital download since you would be downloading over 35GB and then you still have this patch to download.
I won't deny that this is one of the best open world RPG's that I have played but as someone who has had experience in software design patc...
Well The Witcher 3 required a 15GB update, Blooborne required a 9GB update and Dragon Age - Inquisition required a 5GB update. Fine if you have good internet performance and unlimited downloads, not so good if you don't have an internet connection or if you do a poor performing one and/or download caps.
Of course you can still play those games on the PS4 within a few minutes of inserting your BluRay media but at least the patches can be downloaded in the background assumi...
What a trolling click bate article.
Read the first three paragraphs and the writer is clearly trying to convince people that the XB1 is the better console when the majority of people around the world have clearly chosen the PS4 in a ratio of almost 2 to 1.
It's obvious which console out of the PS4 and XB1 you choose and that is the one that has the games and features which appeal to you.
So far 4k gaming is only available to those people who have a powerful and expensive graphics card as well as decent 4k monitor. Of course a 4K display can actually display other resolutions such as 720p, 1080p and of course 4k providing there is content for that format.
You should realise that 8k is actually due out this year and it may be possible that 4k gaming will be skipped entirely. Don't feel bad I am sure that 8K TV's and monitors will be able to display 4K a...
You are quite right going all digital would not be any different to what PC's are doing now.
At the moment Microsoft benefits from PC's with the majority running a MS Windows operating system, however that could change dramatically what with machines running OS's like SteamOS which is actually based on Linux.
You only have to look at the Android market (82% of smart phones) and the number of games available for it to see that Linux is a valid kern...
From personal experience digital games are initially cheaper than the same game on media, however over time the game that is on media drops in price much faster than the digital copy.
In addition you can lend or even give a game that is on media to a friend and while it is possible to do that with some digital games the shear act of downloading it on to a friends console is off putting.
Then there is the second hand game which if it's on BluRay it is almo...
It really does not matter what the architecture is as long as the developers have the appropriate tools. It does get harder when developers who are "pushing the envelope" start programming to the metal since you need to have a more detailed understanding of the hardware.
What takes time is actually the planning that goes into making the game. The actual implementation and testing while very important are secondary.
If you are seriously into digital downloads then 500GB is small however if you have the media then you can reinstall and be playing in a few minutes although if that reinstalled game requires a patch you could be downloading quite a few GB of data and this equally applies if you have a new digital download.
One very important fact which many people are not aware of is that putting a better performing disk such as a 1TB 7200rpm HDD gives you about 24% quicker I/O for only a f...
As far as services go such as Steam and Netflix that is operating system independent and you are effectively owned if you use those services.
Gamers have to make a decision whether to use digital downloads wherein you never own the software compared to media where you do actually own the software.
Of course if the game you purchase requires on-line services (free or even subscription) then you are effectively owned for the life of those services.
Both of you are correct but you do have to remember this is not a technical site.
Keeping it simple a computer be it a console, PC or even a smart phone is the integration of CPU, Memory and I/O. Get one of them wrong and the overall performance goes out the window.
The Bluray read on a 6x device (PS4 and XB1) is 27MB/sec which is ideal for installing data onto a 5400rpm HDD (the default) or even onto a 7200rpm HDD. Even if you have a solid state disk (SSD) it would still take about 30 minutes to install a 50GB game.
Once you have installed your game you can now play it from your hard drive although you do actually use your Bluray drive with the media in if required for authentication purposes. Once a game is authenticated the BD drive ...