James Delahunty
25 Jan 2005 21:12
The next generation of gaming consoles are coming very soon and gamers all over the world are wondering what to expect from these new machines. Details are very slim with no major companies wanting to give away their secrets. Within the next eighteen months, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are expected to release new gaming consoles. Sony are offering the Playstation 3 (PS3), Microsoft are offering the XBOX 2 and Nintendo are offering a so-called Revolution console. "We know maybe what the PS3 will do, but we can only guess," said Rory Armes, studio general manager for video game giant Electronic Arts in Europe. "It's a horrendous effort in the first year," he admitted.
Mr Armes said that Microsoft has already delivered development kits to EA but they are still awaiting kits from Nintendo and Sony. He said although details are scarce, EA are getting a sense of what these new machines are capable of. "The rumours are that PlayStation 3 will have a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2]," he said. "Microsoft is obviously a software company first and foremost, while Sony has more experience in hardware. I think Sony will be able to push more into a box at cost." All the new consoles are expected to make major improvements on processing and graphical power and are also expected to expand from simple gaming consoles to little entertainment systems as well. Bill Gates hinted as this prospect at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He painted a picture of a machine that would complement a PC and offer "great video gaming but video gaming for a broader set of people, more communications, more media, more connectivity".
Sony also has similar plans whereas Nintendo seem to prefer a machine solely for gaming purposes. Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, said that he believed that the introduction to real-world physics is a major part of the new consoles. "The environments will be much more believable and dramatic, growing and changing as you play. There will be a breadth of effects, more involving worlds to play in. It's a bit like being an artist and being given a bigger canvas and a smaller brush. We're being given more tools. For the average consumer, we can get things of a more filmic quality." he said.
Source:
BBC News