In S1E3 we discussed PS4/XBox One next-gen gaming. I just bought my PS4 (amazingly, given the lack of stock) and I was wondering if anyone else is getting a next-gen console?
Not me. I do believe I was crystal clear about that 
After my xbox360 tried to sell me a Justin Bieber record I sold it and started building a Steam Box instead.
I’m skipping out this generation, the hardware is anemic compared to what you can get with a PC and the Steam Big Picture mode is about ~85% there but given that I can upgrade things instead of being stuck with the same hardware for ~7 years it seems like a better investment over time.
Also, it’s really frustrating that the new consoles don’t run the older games; starting over sucks.
I don’t think consoles are about performance though…it is about simpifying gaming. My PS4 will always be the same spec as someone else’s PS4. There are a thousand PC configs out there.
Yea but Valve want to bring the simplicity of a console (a baseline target that developers can hit) with the flexibility of upgrades. I was surprised at how “automatic” most games are these days as far as guessing what capabilities your computer has and adjusting accordingly.
It’s still not quite there (I say about 85%) but if they can pull it off then that’ll be great (there’s been a need for a strong third competitor in consoles for a long time). Also consoles aren’t immune to complexity, they can be as frustrating as normal PCs:
Given all the features for the consoles that are waiting on updates after the products ship it’s not necessarily all plug and play.
Though I suspect the teething problems will be solved for them ~6 months after launch after they get all the glitches out.
I am not sure this is possible…this is the Multimedia PC spec (and more recently, 3DO) all over again. Some upgrades will work…such as HDD upgrades…but if they differentiate on GFX, CPU etc, it will make it complex.
I think i will stick with my ps3 until at least after Christmas . I am more interested in valves future console
If done right,naughty dog games for example,using libgcm, look visually stunning.Though games on a PC are still better if you have the right hardware.Far cry 3 for example on the pc is far more visually pleasing than the ps3 version. What is the PS4 using ? At first i thought “mantel” but that appears to be for windows pc games only. I realise xbox one will be Direct3D 11.2 but what does the ps4 support? OpenGL or is it something like PSGL or just Direct3D?
No idea. I know the PS4 has a custom APU (CPU+GPU combo), but no idea what developers use to build games…I assume everything boils down to raw GL.
So bored and curious it appears at the lowest level there’s GNM which is like libGCM or mantel
You also have a wrapper API GNMX which wraps around GNM
You also have PSSL or PlayStation Shader Language
which info can be found http://twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vault/gdceurope2013/Presentations/825424RichardStenson.pdf if anyone is interested
Nope. I’m waiting for SteamOS, then I’ll probably convert my exisiting gaming box (Ubuntu desktop) into a steam box. I’ve recently been plugging a laptop into my TV and using a Gamecube controller via a USB adapter, which is great fun.
It’s a great time to be a gamer. The PC is really strong again for those that want the bleeding edge, we’ve got the last generation of consoles with a huge back catalogue and available for cheaps and then we have next gen just coming on the scene.
The 5 Xbox Ones we have at work are powerfully effed in various ways, single player putting a disk in seems to just work but multiplayer is a bit hit and miss and I hear similar things from PS4 owners. I’ll stick with my beast of a PC for the really high end stuff and we have the consoles at work to get my fix. The Xbox controller is very very good btw.
I went current gen +.5 last year with the Wii U and I’m very happy with that system too. There’s been some corking games in 2013 and Nintendo may not have shifted a million units in the first weekend but in terms of really great experiences they are serving me very well. Games seem to be fragmenting, we have a great indie scene developing along side the big name tent pole releases and my hope is that there’s room for more niche titles like the ones made by Nintendo and the like.
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Oh and while I remember, Sil, on the subject of people watching games have you come across Twitch? This is where huge audiences are watching people play games, live.
It’s a huge community and is built into PS4.
Yeah, I have. It’s nice that Let’s Play is now baked into the PS4 
You joke but I think they want to be there when esports take off like in South Korea.
I have started getting into this recently…watching people play games. I discovered this awesome YouTube channel called the MassiveNetwork at http://www.youtube.com/MilargoCorp - the guy sounds a little like Lunduke, and is really entertaining to watch.
Here is an example video:
I think the integraton with Twitch is interesting…particularly when people stream with a facecam and footage.
I tried it out the other day with our consoles here. It’s cool but there are some lame restrictions like you have to use the number of clips in the templates they provide. There’s one for one clip and one for 5 clips. If you only wanted to use three, well too bad.
It was fun though, shouting, “Xbox … record that” and then uploading it afterwards.
I currently have 2x wiis, 1x xbox 360, and an original xbox. Seeing I can play old xbox games on 360 and wii plays old games game cube and such, I will be playing on these old systems and bypassing the next gen, at least for now. I get plenty of game time on tablet and phone that I don’t have to spend the money.
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This was me on Christmas Day night, kicking the crap of out some Xbox One noobs with my epic flying skills
And some Top Gear related shenanigans on Forza 5 …
I bought an Ouya last year. I’m interested in an Ouya 2 if one surfaces this year. There are some fun couch social games for friends. other than that? Linux. Steam brings some nice new stuff. Blizzard games work in wine, as does good stuff from GoodOldGames. Why would you want a console. My steam games will likely be with me much longer than any console game i sink money into (exception, the ouya :)) and again, on the PC i can also play games from before this year.