Topic: How would the PS4.5 and XB1.5 change the prospects of NX success?

They might not do it at first, but I think this is a situation in which Nintendo has real power.

If the NX is of comparable power to the PS4.5 and XB1.5, then developing games exclusively to the 3 platforms suddenly makes a lot more sense, as they now have 3 install bases across which to experiment with greater power.

Sony and Microsoft will likely respond to the demand rather than attempt to induce it.

Actually I think it would make more sense to develop for the larger install bases, PS4/XB1 currently, then have extra optimization for the NX/PS4.5/XB1.5 versions.

@rallydefault: meh they'll probably end up upgrading anyway. people have that desire to have the latest and greatest. it'll just be basically a 4k media version.

Yet I hear Nintendo fans complaining all the time that if the NX is released in 2016 that they feel ripped off because the Wii U has only had a 4 year cycle instead of 5. So it will be interesting to see what Sony and Microsoft fans think. Like you said People want the newest and best of what is available.

Yep. Plenty of people complaining about a 2016 NX right on these forums, and these are mostly pretty solid Nintendo fans.

At any rate, it seems like the PS4.5 announcement is a "more sure" thing than an upgraded Xbox One, right? I mean, one of IGN's main headlines today is "PS4.5 Announcement Incoming?" But I didn't know the Xbox One was also supposed to get an upgraded version. Was that assumed from that interview with Phil where he was talking about evolving hardware or whatever?

@rallydefault: and they'll end up buying whatever nx is at some point anyway.

Do you really expect the NX to be 4K? That'd be stupidly expensive and pointless. Nintendo's not going to be in a position of power here.

If the NX is on par with the PS4.5 and XB1.5 (regardless if it supports 4K resolutions for games or not), then I honestly think that Hyrule Warriors Legends could be a bit of a foreshadow to what developers will do - optimized on NX/PS4.5/XB1.5, and poorly optimized on the PS4/XB1.

@TomJ: For those that currently own a PS4 or XB1? Yes. Means the multiplat games may run horribly on those systems, getting them to eventually cave in and buy a PS4.5/XB1.5/NX/PC.

Might be good for Nintendo though, as they could potentially get at least some of those people to switch to the NX. That being said, a lot of them may follow their friends to the PS4.5/XB1.5.

I think it depends on a few things. If the NX takes off, then cross platform support will make more sense than NX exclusivity. Or if all 3 have a substantial power upgrades, developers could straight up treat the systems as a new generation altogether.

My ultimate point is that all 3 present is a better situation than only 1 or 2 existing.

@bolt_Strike I don't think the PS4.5 will be 4K, and I don't think Nintendo is dumb enough to make a system weaker than the previous generation.

When current-gen hardware can barely render games at 1080p (most of them are upscaled from lower resolutions), I strongly, strongly doubt that the next wave of consoles will support Ultra HD, at least not natively.

Incidentally, many of the first wave Ultra HD Blu-rays (currently available in the U.S.) are mere upscales from 2K (1080p) masters. I understand that they still look better than the Blu-ray versions due to a higher bitrate, storage capacity, and dynamic range, but they are essentially what Blu-rays should have looked like in the first place (and their quality will be comparable to in-store demonstrations of HD TV sets back when they were trying to wow us into upgrading). Some films are indeed sourced from 4K masters, however, this varies on a case-by-case basis, and it seems that about 50% are just upscales.

As much as I'd love to see a console capable of UHD, I would anticipate that it is still two console generations away before we will see native UHD rendering of AAA games. While UHD TVs are widely available nowadays, and quite cheaply, the availability of UHD content is sparse, and will remain so in the foreseeable future; after all, the market for DVD still eclipses that of Blu-ray.

It's speculation on all three so how they'll all sit in the market is anyone's guess. It's hard enough guessing whether or not a console will do well when you know exactly what it is. Even harder when you have no idea what any of them are. That said here's my guess at what they are:

PS4.5:
A basic upgrade and at most the Playstation equivalent of the New 3DS. There was an article I read which said they could push the CPU and GPU spec up marginally and add 4K support. Just enough of a bump that some games run a bit smoother. Maybe have some games run at 1440p. But the main selling point would be the ability to play 4K media with all of the bells and whistles. Games would not run at 4K. My guess would be that the original model would not be sold anymore. That said, games would still be built with the original PS4 spec in mind. Sony don't want to burn their existing users.

XBOne 2.0:
This is harder to guess because it's not like Microsoft has done well this generation. The interesting thing is that they're starting to play with the idea of moving the XBOne closer to Windows 10. So what might end up happening is that they start to allow you to play XBOne games on PC. It might be a crazy theory but at the end of the day the XBox was originally about trying to get Windows under your TV. I wouldn't at all be opposed to the idea of XBox being kinda like the Microsoft equivalent of Steam Machines. That'd effectively mean there are three platforms (Sony, PC, Nintendo) rather than four. That could be a win for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

NX:
We literally have no idea. My guess is that Nintendo's next home console will not try to compete. It will be able to hold its ground in terms of specs, it will be a significant upgrade from the Wii U. But people won't buy it for any reason other than the fact that it has Zelda and Mario.

only the XboxOne and WiiU struggles with 1080p Since most of their games are renered at 720p or 900p but in PS4 almost all of the games run at native 1080.

@diwdiws: and honestly who cares? If the game looks good and runs well that's all that matters.

@WebHead: im replying to his statement. Im just correcting his misconception.

It depends on how you see it. A quick search shows that they struggle to have more than 30fps on most 1080p games. So in that sense, they do struggle.

@WebHead: @diwdiws:
I know you're talking about something else entirely. But surely there are ways they could still improve performance on the PS4. If a higher spec GPU/CPU and more RAM means 1440p for some games? Then if you have an UHD set surely that's a good thing. Or maybe the game can run at 1080p at a more consistent 60fps? Something I'm sure many would appreciate especially given that PSVR is a thing.

@skywake: yeah or being able to use PSVR without the breakout box. I highly doubt we will be seeing 4k native/exclusive games. It's too expensive. Not like 3ds where it's only a few million bucks.

@Therad: the was specifically talking about native resolution and how most of them wer upscaled to 1080p.

@skywake: they could include native PSVR support without need of the proccessing box. They could then sell headset as a stand alone unit at a much lesser price?

@WebHead: i dont think it will add that much to the expense, you can already play most PC games at 4k with just the original HD maps whos to say the same cant be applied to consoles.