Ubisoft Says Next-gen Consoles Coming by 2012

Xbox 720 = Xbox 360 with slightly higher CPU/GPU clock speeds and BluRay drive.
Wii 2 = flop? after everyone realized that their Wii sits idle.
PS4 = commoditized / simplified console that uses standard parts. Cell is gone. R&D costs kept very small.

All this next generation stuff just means pretty graphics and visuals. They should hire bigger innovators and designers.

you could take this to mean microsoft and nintendo consoles only, not a sony console, if sony is to be believed

also, 2009 could hold the battle of hardware contracts. amd, nvidia, intel, and others, all competing and likely only one or two of them winning. intel has the biggest challenge ahead, trying to convince bitches with the FIRST generation larrabee that buying a risky NEXT-generation larrabee will be a good idea....

intel is not asleep at the graphics wheel, they are busy but quiet...
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,673899/News/Quake_Wars_Ray_Tracing-_More_screenshots_and_details_released/
http://www.projectoffset.com/news.php

when 2012 rolls in forums across the internet will be predicting THE END OF PC GAMING. But at that time PC gaming will be the only cutting edge stuff going on in gaming.

I feel that Microsoft and Sony have probably learned something from the sales from the Wii. I doubt the next "Console Wars" will be fought over how powerful the device is.

I'm willing to bet that the XBox 720 and the PS4 will fundamentally remain the same, with the only change coming from the amount of system memory and a GPU upgrade. They'll probably all use the same remotes as the last generation, perhaps Sony and Microsoft will adopt the wand-like controls of the Wii.

Who knows or cares what Nintendo does?

Next gen hardware, next gen graphics, next gen this, next gen that. Ugh, I hope it all comes with next gen tools so that we don't have to have next gen budget along with next gen production teams.

"This just in! Nintendo announces that the Wii T00 will support 1080p and mandatory 16x FSAA, 1TiB of solid state storage, and UV ray optical drives. They also announced that Mario Pure Awesome, a launch title, will require a team of 300 developers, 500 million USD, and 4 years to complete."

"Microsoft announces the Xbox 1080^2, able to render 4 1080p 3d stereoscopic signals at 120FPS, 10TiB of positronic memory, 32 quad core, 8 threaded power PCs, and 16 way SLI. Halo 4, a launch title, is said to be underway at a secret underground facility in the Atlantic. Rumour has it that this venture has been on going since early 2003 when Microsoft realized they needed a dedicated workforce of a small country, $20 billion dollars, and 10 years to complete.Andrew Ryan, the Producer King, could not be reached for a comment, but was overheard saying that the 'great chain is moving smoothly, and will be shipped when it's done' "

"George Broussard commented that with the release of the next gen consoles, 3D Realms has gone back and started updating Duke Nukem Forever to take advantage of all the new 'neat stuff' that will be possible. He also stated that this will effectively delay the release of the game to around the time of the second coming of Christ. Knowing that the development team can not live that long, it is rumored that 3D Realms has been using their franchise royalty funds in researching and developing a method of mechanically immortalize it's entire office staff. Any new employees are also subject to immediately assimilation" ;)

Ok, so maybe this is a bit of a tangent, lol! Beyond the "Bigger! FASTER!" tag lines, I hope there will be something that will make games cheaper and faster to produce, thus lowering overall production costs, which in turn lead to more creative titles as venture capitalists aren't as afraid to take risks with their money. Then again, maybe the public very well wants more of the same, just nicer O_o

i hope that the real next gen finally does 1080p in everything, fluidly, not just table tennis or mini downloadable games. this pseudo 720p crap is weak sauce.

Here's hoping for some next gen game play from the next gen consoles.

Actually if the economy is crappy for another year or two, which it looks like its going to be, I doubt we'll see a new generation of consoles in the time frame the article talks about.

I imagine Microsoft and Nintendo planning to release new consoles and Sony sticking with the PS3, because, you know, developers will have maybe figured out how to take advantage of the hardware by then.

Also, they will already be "official leader", since they could compare their PS3 numbers to the unreleased next-gen consoles and say, "See, we rock!"

Kaz believes in longevity.

What a waste, the worlds gonna end in 2012...
Useless prediction.

I'm calling this here. The next Xbox will run games using a sort of modified USB drive. It will make the Xbox faster, cheaper, and smaller than it normally would be, as there is no disc drive, and the only downside I see is that the hardware (jump drives instead of discs) would be minorly more expensive, but I think that the reduced cost of consoles would offset it. Anyone else think this will be the case?

How bout just have a PC? I love my 360 and the Wii is collecting dust, but cmon... It's funny to me that companies try to boast their new engine/core/gpu etc. as if this is ground-breaking tech. but then compare that to a modern PC and the tech actually doesn't look so good anymore.

On top of that, these companies im sure pay out the ass for proprietary hardware when they could follow the standard PC format and maybe then they wouldn't be 2.+ billion in the hole :(

Ah well, here's to hoping something innovated hits in 2012 (that is if the world doesn't end then).

Peace.

Well, obviously this confirms my belief that the Mayans knew the best gaming console ever made would be released in 2012.

Console scalpers get your preorders now!

Whoooo. UbiSoft has ramped up their "Z" production...

does this mean they will stop calling current gen games/hardware next gen now?