TechStuff Looks at the Next Generation Consoles

end of two thousand twelve as we record this. Yeah, you know, we usually do our predictions towards the end of the year, and I just want to say that I I predicted a couple of years ago that we would be talking about these podcasts unsuccessfully, well not not these podcasts, but the the the topic that we're going to talk about today, and they still haven't. Yeah, we're talking about the next generation consoles now. Now, to be fair, one of them has come out, the Wei You Nintendo's

next generation console. Yes, but I'm I'm I'm so far behind in points on this one now I just kind of game up on it. Yeah. It's sad because if if you had predicted this for next year, you probably would have actually won. But um, but yeah, here's here's the deal, folks. We are going to do a rundown on the next generation consoles, video game consoles. Now, that's gonna include the WEIU, which of course is already out, so people out there, so of our listeners may have

one already. I've been playing it and may know all about it. But then we're also going to talk a little bit about the rumors of the next generation for Microsoft and Sony's video game consoles. Yes, keeping in mind that there are other video game consoles that are also due to hit store shelves in the near future. Some of them are kickstarter campaigns, and we didn't really go into those. Um, those may become major players in two thousand thirteen, but we're looking at the ones that are

the established consoles yep, yep. And of course you know Saga's new con Okay, so that's that's a hip. But still, so let's start with the WU Yes, the only one that's actually out at this point, and as of the point and we're recording this, it's uh, you know, the end of November. It's only been out for a couple of weeks on store shelves here in America. Yep, and uh, it's the first console from Nintendo that actually is a

high definition consoles. One of those things that that Nintendo took a lot of flak four when they introduced the Wei, because you know, going up against the Xbox three six and the p S three graphics wise, it just couldn't

hold a candle to those systems. Now, Nintendo's argument was that graphics are great, but gameplay is king, and so they were really backing this idea that because that we use these these motion sets are controls and and and this new form of gameplay, that it would do well in the market, and in fact that we did very well. It dominated in the market for quite some time, but

it also suffered from a reputation. There were that people would say they would buy one, they play it for a little aisle, and then they kind of set aside and it would collect dust like it just it was a console that that just didn't get a lot of use after the first few months. Even after things like that we Fit balance board came out that gave new

life to the console for quite some time. But then again people just kind of from Most of this is mostly anecdotal, but you know, you hear the same story over and over again, like, yeah, you know, I haven't haven't touched in in in a year or whatever. Well, of course, uh you know, it goes without saying, really that the video games have come such a long distance from the days of early paddle and uh you know,

single button joystick controllers. Um, since it goes without saying, I probably shouldn't have said it, but um yeah, I mean they did. It's funny because they the current generation of game consoles has really sort of defined, uh you know, a brand new realm of these devices, because um, you know, they're all right in a way. I think that Sony and Microsoft decided that they wanted to put graphics before um, you know, new kinds of controllers. Nintendo did it the

other way around. But as it turns out, both graphics and gameplay are of crucial importance, and and you see that in the in the current generation. It's just that they decided to adopt them in different in different patterns well, and Nintendo also was known for aiming at a broad consumer market. The casual gamers are often the term that we use for them, although we've done an entire episode where we kind of talked about the the fact that

these names are really not entirely accurate. But but the idea of people who don't normally play video games, uh, if you make them, if you make the games accessible, then a lot of those folks will start to play. And you know, again that was true. There are a lot of people who are buying these these devices up

who wouldn't normally have a video game console. But uh, the one of the downfalls of casual gaming is that you have a limited amount of interest usually in those sort of games like they you can you can lose interest in those games fairly quickly, and if you don't

have a steady stream of them, then that's a problem. Well, so the Wi you is is the successor to the Wei uh and um it has a new controller or there's one new controller you can hook up to a console, and then further down the line, they're supposed to be support for two of them. But the game pad, now, this is the thing that you may have seen. It looks like a tablet. It's got video game controls on it,

It's got a display inside of it. It's a touch screen displays resistive touch screen, which means that you use pressure to activate the touch It's not capacitance, so you can use the stylus or really you can use anything. Anything that could create pressure against the screen will will

register it as a touch. There are some downsides to resistive touch screens, one of them being that if you're particularly rough with it because of you know, it's it's using pressure to detect that touch, it can lose sensitivity over time because you can actually damage the components inside the screen. Yeah. The UM. This sort of goes along in a way with Nintendo's earlier moves on the original we because, um, the Nintendo sort of kept the device affordable.

If you'll remember, UH, the early Xbox three sixty and PlayStation three consoles were very expensive, uh compared to the previous generation, and we started out at around two dollars in the United States, and it was Nintendo was able

to do this by by using off the shelf components. UM. And in this case, a resistive uh touch screen, is is more affordable when you're building a device like this and a touch screen capacitive touch screen, I'm sorry, well, and also I mean using the stylist is this is again something that Nintendo has done before, and it kind of helps keep that that experience stable throughout its its products. Not when I say before I'm talking about things like

the DS. H. Well, it kind of turns this device kind of turns your TV into a version of the DS because you know, you have the two separate screens, one of which is a touch screen, so it's it's sort of similar in that in that regards. Yeah, it's a six point two inch display inside this game pad. It's got sixteen by nine aspect ratio and uh eight or fifty four pixels. The the controller has lots of motion detection sensors inside of it, including gyroscopes and accelerometers.

It's got a front facing camera. It's got a microphone speakers, a headphone jack, and I R port for controlling a television and other elements. It's even got an NFC chip in it, although at the moment, as are as I am aware, their Nintendo has not announced why, Like, there's no as far as I know as of the recording of this podcast, there's been no announcement from Nintendo as to how this NFC chip could be incorporated into things

in the future. Yeah, NFC, your or near near field communication, is the same kind of chip that you'll find in some Android smartphones that they use to to make payments.

You store your your information and Google Wallet, which is a basically a credit card and loyalty card manager, and that information is stored in the on a chip inside the phone, and when you take it up to the register, you know, touch it to the register, assuming it's you know, compatible with this, and it helps you pay for your stuff.

That's sort of how it NFC has gotten famous. So I don't think the uh, the New Week controller is going to help you pay for your groceries, but hey, you never know, and maybe and maybe that it ends up being something where if you have your game pad out and about, because it is a wireless controller and you can play some games on the game pad itself as opposed to like you know, you can you can play it on the game pad without the television part

of the console being active. It may very well be that's so that you can share information with another player. Let's say that you've got a game pad and I've

got a game pad. We're both playing the same role playing game, and I found a powerful item, but I cannot use it because the class of character I'm playing is not capable of wielding whatever that ability or or item is and then but you have a character who could and then we tap the screen or the game pads together and can transfer an item from my game to your game. That might be one way of doing it. Now,

that's just that's just a guess. I mean, that's there's again nothing that's saying that that's how Nintendo is going to use this, if they ever use it at all. But it is a that's a possibility. Yeah, there is also a poss ability to because the if you have a Wei and your friend also has a WE and you want to uh um, you know, play a game over at his or her house, you can actually store information in the weak controller and take it with you.

Or you can take your week controller over to their house and sink it and use your controller, so even if they have only one, you can you can play games over there. This may be a way of making it simple to sink your controller to another device. Um, but I guess we'll find out. Uh So, up to five people right now can play certain games on the Wii U. Five well, four of them are using the standard WE controllers, the nun chucking and WE mote and

uh because that's what the WE could support. It could support up to four of those right, right, while the game pad is the fifth controller. So certain games allow you to play four against one type games where the person with the game pad is using the game pad to view have a different, completely different view than what everyone has on the screen, and to play a certain style of game, and the four people who have the regular the we remotes are playing a different kind of game.

And uh, this is the experience I had. I got a chance to play with a we You well before it came out way back in uh and c E s two thousand twelve. So it was January two thousand twelve where I got a chance to go into a

closed door meeting and play with the Wii You. And one of the games they played was a sort of a kind of like pac Man in a way, uh, in that it was the four players were playing these these characters who were running around the maze, and then the person with the game pad was trying to evade the four players. So with the game pad, that meant that you were taking on the role essentially a pac Man, and the people with the we remotes were playing the ghosts.

So it's stead of it being under computer control. It's under player control, and it was it was not pac Man, by the way, that was not the characters that were being used in the game. But that's the game today I thought of because it's just you know, a more of strong resemblance um in the sense that you know, you're ring around a maze trying to avoid monsters or in this case for people who are possibly monsters, they

don't know their personal lives anyway. Uh. That was one version, and that was really kind of a demo game that they were showing off, and it's just kind of a proof of concept. But there there have been other uses of the game pad too. There's been some games that have come out where the game pad acts as uh, either a way of getting additional information within the game. So you're playing a game up on the television screen, but on the game pad there's more info that can

help you in your game. In some cases, it's a specialized view. I saw there's at least one game where you could use it as a sniper scope where you held the controller up to the TV and it gave you a special view of the the the what was going on, So that way you could use that to zoom in on somebody and take them out. Um. Kind of an interesting thing. I mean, it's again very similar

to the way that we remotes were introduced. It's an innovation in gameplay, and it's it's another nod to how a lot of us have gotten used to having a second screen whenever we are consuming anything on TV, whether it's a video game or a television show or whatever. A lot of us have become used to having a second screen as part of that experience, and so this is kind of incorporating it directly into the console. Yeah. Yeah, Well I read a report that Google came out with

just a few um, just a short time ago. I don't remember exactly how long it was. Um, but you know the latter half of and yeah, I mean they they basically said any kind of you know what content that you would consume in general, pepe are are using multi screen, uh multi screen to do it. And uh, well, which probably surprises very few people who are listening to this podcast, just because we all have different devices and different sizes, and uh, it's it's obvious that Nintendo has

caught onto this too. I'm a little surprised too, because I I when I first saw photos of uh, you know, the game pad. I thought, I don't know if this is gonna catch on. That's kind of a big controller. But I get the sense from from reading uh reports and reviews that that people seem to like it. Of course. It's it's got analog thumbsticks and you know, different buttons in key places where it's ergonomically comfortable to play with. So um, and I haven't actually held one myself, so

it's a little it's a little awkward. I mean, if you're if you're using it as a controller controller, it's a big controller. Yeah, okay, so that's it's big and it's a little heavy, so it's it's not the most

natural feeling controller in that sense. And then on top of it, depending on like if you're if you're trying to use the screen fun functionality, then I haven't done any of that, Like I mean, I've used the screen to look at the view to use it as a viewfinder or whatever to or to my view within the game, but I hadn't used it as a means of inputting

controls or controlling a character. I would imagine that would be a little awkward to just from the way of having to hold the game pad with one hand while using the other hand to use the stylists or whatever. That would be a little uh, that might feel a little awkward to me. I don't know, I haven't tried

it that way. I will say that there there's some other things that are are beneficial with the WE U. It is backwards compatible to the WEAK, so that means all the games that you have on the WE will work on the WU. Of course, the game pad functionality won't really be there because the games were not designed for that. But that's a big deal. But you can

unhook the old WE and plug the new one in. Yeah, and we'll talk a little bit more about backwards compatibility when you get to get to some of the other consoles or the rumors of sty consoles. Uh. One of the big things about it, well, there's two models of it too. There's a basic model which has got eight gigabytes of storage space, although only three of those gigabytes are actually usable. Um. And then there's a thirty two gigabyte version where twenty five of those gigabytes are usable.

The reason why the rest aren't usable, it's due to operating system that kind of stuff. Things that are are dedicated to the storage, so you can't actually you can't overwrite it. Um. It's got four USB two point oh ports, including and and all four of those can act as an Ethernet port if you have an adapter, so you have to have a Ethernet to USB two point oh adapter obviously, but they can work that way, so you can hard wire it to your network. It also supports

eight to two point eleven B G or N WiFi. Uh. And it's got a st card slot. Uh. And one of the big big features that as of the recording of this podcast still is not fully integrated is the TV features. Yeah, and that's uh, that's TV with two little lies after the V. But but yeah, actually, from what I've seen, Nintendo is really seeing this as sort of a gateway to uh, multi function content too, because it's not just adding Netflix or Hulu Plus or Amazon

streaming video. It can do those things, well, not all of them as of this moment, but those are all you know coming. But it's also adding a DVR function and video on demand, so that it's significant. You can connect it to live TV, so you can have live TV streaming through the we you and that's how you can use as a DVR. Um. Yeah, this is kind of a getting into this whole idea of the console

becoming the all in one set top box. Uh. And we and again when we talk about the other consoles, you'll see that this is a theme that's going to be running strong. Um it's you know, it's it's obvious that this was gonna be the way things were going to go. We've already seen so many moves towards this. I mean, all three of the previous generation consoles have some streaming media capability Netflix or Hulu Plus or Amazon Video or some combination of all three or plus YouTube

and other other options as well. So this is the next step where where these consoles are you know, the manufacturers are saying, well, what features can we put in there that people want that will help us sell these and and give them um uh an incentive to by our console over something else, like kind of the same

way that and the p S three came out. That was the first Blu ray player in the United States that was available, you know, and it's still one of the most affordable and comparatively when it first came out, it was definitely very expensive. At the same time, you could argue, well, I could buy a Blu ray Player, or I could buy a p S three which has a Blu ray Player and it's also a video game system.

So that's kind of the same approach here is saying, well, for some people, they're gonna be looking at this as oh, it's a video game system. Oh and I can also do these things on TV, whereas there are other people are gonna be oh, we need a ti Vo essentially, but hey, if we get one of these, will have a ti Vo that plays games. So and it is the TiVo dv are apparently, Yeah, that they've partnered with. I didn't see that. Yeah, that was according to a

seen it. So yeah, it's um it. On paper, it sounds like a pretty strong console, even though I will say also that the reports I've read, the reviews views I've read have suggested that the HD quality stuff really just brings it in line with the current generation of the Xbox three sixty and the p S three. Well. Yes, so, in other words, it doesn't look like they've leap frogged the other consoles and gotten a head start. They're more or less in line with the other consoles. As far

as the graphics quality goes right. Well, to be fair, we haven't moved to ultra high definition yet. So well, that's that's about as far as they could go in that department. I do I do hear that we're gonna see a law of ultra high definition TVs at CS. Interesting. I hear that, Well, there is there is one crucial piece of the puzzle, if you will, That is uh, that is Nintendo's and um, the others haven't have had varying degrees of success matching, and that's the Nintendo specific characters.

Having the license and and link um really helps Nintendo same as UM. So yeah, I mean there's so many properties that belong to Nintendo that you can't get anywhere else. Um. And of course that was sort of a criticism in a way. It's funny how that has been leveraged against Nintendo too. Well, well, it's just you know, family games. It's not the hardcore, serious gamer type stuff. Really. It's kind of unfair in a way to say that because

the hardware itself is game agnostic. But you know, people, people haven't been the developers haven't necessarily gone after that market encoding for the we the original we so Nintendo may need to to court those kinds of titles if it wants to be to reach out to a broader base. Now that it's got the graphics capability and a different kind of controller, what will they get? Well, the biggest, the biggest, The biggest criticisms I tend to hear are

that the only gay games. This is over generalization, by the way, but that the games that are worth playing on the Nintendo systems are the Nintendo games, the ones that have these these characters who have been on Nintendo's roster forever. But that people say, well that gets hiring. You know, I don't know how many times am I

going to have another Mario game. On the flip side, you know, if you look at the games that have been ported over to the Nintendo that are also available on the other consoles, the argument I tend to hear, or frequently anything else, is oh, well, if I'm going to get that, I'm going to get it for my PS three, or I'm going to get it for my

Xbox three sixty. I'm not going to get it for the Nintendo um because that I prefer the experience on these other consoles, which means that Nintendo has to rely even more heavily upon the it's it's proprietary characters because those are the ones that are selling games. Um. On top of that, one of the one of the downfalls of having these interesting controllers is that, uh, it does create a challenge for developers who have to figure out

how to develop a game that uses these sort of controllers. Um. And again this isn't something unusual. I mean, Sony with their move and and Microsoft would connect have had issues with developers creating games that really take advantage of those devices and that appeal to gamers. I mean, that's that's the real trick, is not just making it so it works with the hardware, but also that the gamers want

to play whatever it is they create. So, um, you know, Nintendo has definitely got some challenges ahead of it, and I'm honestly, I am not certain if the WEIU is going to be up to uh to meeting those challenges. It's early days yet, so it's hard to say. There may be games that come out that are so innovative that it really turns things around. But let's let's talk a little bit about the next one. Let's talk about the the successor to the Xbox three sixty. I've heard

three different names so far besides the code name. The code name for that console is Durango. Apparently, Yeah, they've they got that from a developer who posted something about that on on Twitter, and that post was later removed, so apparently that that may be accurate. Of course, people have been calling it the Xbox seven twenty. That's the most That's the name I hear most frequently, just the double of the three sixty. He worked for Atari, With Atari did it, I don't know if it worked well?

What about so then yeah, that's one of the names I hear. I also hear Xbox Infinity. Yes, and I've also heard that it would just be called the Xbox, so kind of like Apple's iPad is the new Xbox, it's just the Xbox. Um. I don't think the Xbox part is going away, so I think we're safe with that. We the rumors. Now, this is all based on rumor. There's been no official announcement from Microsoft. As the recording

of this podcast, it is clear that they're working on it. Yes, no that that we were all sure of anyway, but now we know a little bit more of the or at least we suspect a little bit more about it. For example, UM rumor has it that it will have a sixteen core CPU UH and probably UH and possibly dual graphics cards running off of a m d S seven thousand series of graphics cards, so dual GPUs to

help handle all that graphics processing. Although some of that the wording around that is a little confusing, but this is not unusual. I mean there are plenty of folks out there have gaming rigs that have dual GPUs in them. On top of that, supposedly going to have eight gigabytes of RAM UH that it will have incorporated into the console. Again, based on rumor, UM the successor to connect, so it'll

be a more advanced version of connect. Some people are just calling it connect to I don't know what they're connecting it to what. Apparently it's already part of the console UM. I've also heard that it will support some form of second screen capability, which doesn't surprise me. I've got UM Xbox smart glass on my Android tablet. It's I'm not supposed to have it on my tablet, but I do. Thank you side loading, but a smart glass lets you control your Xbox somewhat through the tablet, so

you can do things like navigate to various features. Um. I can see that being built in more from the ground up with the next Xbox. Also, there's rumor that I might one day support something similar to the Google Project Glass, where augmented reality glasses will become a possible uh peripheral for this. Um. Whether or not that becomes something that is worth picking up or if it remains in the realm of a curiosity, remains to be seen.

We've seen plenty of video game peripherals come out that promised to really revolutionize the way video games are played and then not often to dough power glove cough, well cough, virtual boy cough. Okay, okay, well they'reeically that was its own thing, that wasn't an add on. Well, this the next Xbox, whatever it is. There are some also very interesting rumors that there may be a version that is

not really aimed at the hardcore gamer. There might be two versions of this device, one of them being a more simple set top box that is capable of gaming, but isn't really a gaming dedicated gaming console. Interesting. I have not heard that part. Yeah, um, from what I have read and they don't really know, but they're they're looking at the possibility that it will be more of a sort of a casual gaming version of the next Xbox.

So I might have like it might have some access to apps that you might find on say Windows phone, right, but it's you scaled up to be on a television experience, so you can play you know, Angry Birds on your on your Xbox. Yes, and I've I've also been been reading that there may be some pieces of Windows eight that find their way into the DNA of the next Xbox.

That one surprised me too much. I think that they would definitely try and and get a sort of cohesive look across all their platforms so that you have a very identifiable experience. Again, like if you look at a Windows eight machine, or you have a Windows phone, or you have the Xbox, that you can tell that all three of these things belong to the same general family of of operating systems, even if they aren't, you know, completely seamlessly connected. At least the I can easily imagine

the look being similar. And that that's kind of Again, if you look at the Xbox interface right now, it does not it looks similar to the Windows eight tiled UH interface. It's not not quite the same, but you can tell that they are, you know, related. I've also heard that it might have a Blu Ray player, which would be a big change. Now that's a big thing because of course Blu ray is UH is technology that's

licensed by Sony. Sony owns it, so Microsoft would have to license this technology from Sony to have it included into their consoles. And historically Microsoft wasn't too crazy about the idea of giving money to a competitor in order to use this technology. In fact, Microsoft backed a different high definition standard, you know h d DVD back in the day. They had an HD DVD external drive that you could buy for the Xbox UH. Now, granted that standard did not last the test of time. Chris and

I got to watch the Death of That firsthand at Cees. Yes, amazingly enough, you can if you go way way back in our archives you can find one of our early five minute episodes on on HD DVD versus Blue Ray. I really wouldn't bother although it's five minutes. I mean, come on, what else are you gonna do. Some people think it may be priced very competitively too, around two. If that happens, that is crazy, I would I am. I am highly skeptical that they're going to be able

to deliver. I mean maybe maybe the most base model they can manage, like a four gigabyte you know, although even then you are you're talking about the device again. This is also a device that's got supposedly going to have an a V port, which would allow you to watch and record broadcast TV. So we're using it like a DVR, just like you know, we talked about with the we you it looks like the next generation of

Xbox will have similar functionality build into it. And um, that means to me that that you would want to have a nice, big hard drive because in many cases, at least on the in the case of content that you're buying from the uh the Xbox Store, you are buying it and normally downloading it to your device, so you wouldn't have enough storage space there. So you can

do that a few times. I mean, I've got games that require downloads of a sizeable nature, or at least a saving information of a sizeable nature to my hard drive in ordered me to play it. For example, Halo four.

If I want to play multiplayer on Halo four. I had to install a rather sizeable file on my hard drive, and I have one of the My Xbox three sixty is an older one that has a very limited hard drive space, so I actually had to go in and delete stuff so that I could play on multiplayer and have ten year olds kill me and yell at me and foul language. I had to delete things for that privileged people anyway, so I could I could see maybe

the lowest tier possibly coming in at three. But man, I mean, that's it's hard for me to imagine based upon the things we're talking about here. Well, yeah, that and that underscores the difference in taking off the shelf components versus going cutting edge like these specs suggest to us.

I mean, when you when you're gonna put that kind of hardware in there, you would typically expect that, you know, uh, cutting edge hardware has gone and cost you know more than Hey we've got We've had these for five years now, it's no big deal. Sure you can. You can have these for twenty bucks. Um. They've also said that they would support ten A DP three D content, which is, you know, that's that's pretty impressive. Downside, did you hear about the DRM. No, I did not hear about the

DRM rumored. Again, sure wouldn't surprised me. It's unfortunate. But there's rumor that the games you purchase will be linked to your Xbox. Yes, yes, I did hear that, right, so that it essentially kills the second hand game market. You would not be able to you know, you could sell your games to someone else, they just couldn't play them. Yeah, this is this is actually probably going to be a good segue into the next generation PlayStation because they're saying

the same thing about Sony's next console. That these that Sony and Microsoft are both looking at this UM as an option. Yeah. Now, now, the information I read about Xbox suggested that it may even require you to have a persistent Internet connection in order to play these games, which I object to. I don't think that's I don't like the idea of having to have a persistent Internet connection to prove that the game I'm playing is one that I bought. Now, this one also kill the rental industry.

You wouldn't be able to rent a game because once someone had liked that game to an account, that's it. Yes, but it does offer a convenient um alternative to uh to the doctrine of first sale. That's part of the copyright laws here in the United States. So you know, literally, if you buy something here, you know, off the shelf, you have the right to sell it to somebody else if you want to. You give them your book or your DVD and they give you, you know, whatever you

ask for it and that's it. You know, you have the right to do that. Now, Um, this is there's nothing illegal about doing this. It's just kind of a sneaky way of getting around it. Um not even really all that sneaky. It's it's right there out in the open. But it's a clever, let's say, clever alternative to that. But yeah, Sony has has been um, you know, rumored to be thinking about that. They even you know, in the current generation. I know that a lot of people

have said that they are looking at that. But you know, this is not unheard of in PC gaming as of now either. Well, we've and we've heard plenty of stories of people getting up in arms over these kind of practices where you know, the idea of having to continually have a persistent Internet connect in order to just play a game, even if the game itself has no Internet connectivity element to it, like a single player standalone game, and yet you still need an Internet connection because of DRM,

not because of the game. Uh seems to some people,

I include myself among them, to be excessive. Also, it does tend to encourage people to find ways around it because they don't want to deal with that sort of stuff, which arguably you could say that in certain cases, DRM in fact encourages piracy, and in the sense of, hey, you know, if I have to go through great lengths just to play this game that I have legally bought, or I could just go through this other way and the easy way where someone's cracked it for me, I'm

going to take the easy way, because why would I put myself through that kind of frustration? And I mean, I mean, I know people who have gone and purchased a legal copy of a game and then downloaded the

diversion because they wanted the DRM free one. They didn't want to cheat the company out of money, but they didn't want to deal with the DRM right, and then there are always going to be a handful of people who do it, not even though it may be harder for them to crack the system simply because they're irritated at the people who put it out. Yeah, there's some people who will do it. They're always people like that. And then of course there are always people who just

don't want to pay for stuff. I mean, there are people like that, and those are the those are the people that DRM is supposed to be targeting and targeting the people who would just steal. But there's so many people who don't want to steal. They just don't want to deal with all that frustration. So it's it's a it's a complicated issue. Of course, we've talked about d r M in the past, so well let's let's really

we've done. Do you have any more about the Xbox that you wanted to talk about before we move on? We can make this a transitional point again. Um. Rumor has it that this device, the the next Xbox, could be out as soon as the end of the holiday shop, but I'm seeing that it's more likely that it will hit in like the next PlayStation. I haven't seen anything that suggests it will be out in but um and in fact, I've seen rumors that Sony may be packing

it in after the PS three. But the PlayStation four, or there is another code name for it, Orbis Orbis, which you might wonder, why would you call it orbits? Well, you know the PlayStation has Sony has the PS vita, alright, so it's just life. That's the that's the handheld. Yes, that's life, and that Orbis's life. Orbis is a circle, so Orbis Vita would be circle of life, yes, and

it moves us all. Yeah. So when you when you get the console, the first thing you have to do is climb to the end of a precipice and then hold it up and all the animals will bow down before you, and then jeremy irons will attempt to to take over the throne, as we have seen so many times before. Anyway, down in there yet anyway, So the PS four or orbis, Yes, Um, we don't have as

many details. Again, it's probably gonna have a a CPU that's capable of up to uh sixty four threads, which probably be again, probably a sixteen core processor with multiple threads per core if I had to guess. Um supposedly a twenty eight anometer based a m D Southern Islands GPU, although other rumors suggested a m D A ten a p U. So it all depends on which set of rumors you're looking at. And that's sort of an off

the shelf part. Yeah, and in fact that's that's an older that it's an older it's an older chip, and it's one of those that I've read some reviewers who say, if that, in fact is the chip that goes along with this console, I don't see how they can deliver upon these other promises they've made without without some other

heavy duty graphics processors thrown in there. Um, it's going to have probably going to have between eight eight and sixteen gigabytes of RAM, so possibly more RAM than the Xbox uh two fifty six gigabytes of storage, a blue ray drive, which is no big surprise. On One thing that could be a surprise is that it could possibly support four K resolution playback. Four K is ultra high definition. This is the step above what are HD sets currently

are able to display. There's some people out there who have four K sets already, very few because they're incredibly expensive. We're talking like dollars for a TV set. But the one of the big problems is that there's not a whole lot of ways to get content to display at four K doesn't do you any good if you're you know, if your computer can or or television can display a four K image, but you're only getting ten A resolution feeds in there, it doesn't help you. I'm not sure

my eyes will even go that high. Everybody looks like eight bit blocks to me right anyway. Um, so that's but that's the big rumors that it could support four K. That doesn't really surprised me either. Sony is big on on high definition TVs and it would. What would surprise me is if I go to c E s in and if I don't see a lot of four KSE sets over in the Sony booth. I'm imagining that several of the boots will have four K sets. We've seen them already in previous C YES shows. I've seen four

case sets already. Um. They tend to be the you know, prototype model that's standing alone. It's something that's not necessarily meant for mass production, but it's more like a sign of the things that are to come, like a like a concept car, yeah kind of. Yeah. It's one of those things where like, okay, well these are this is these are features that we will eventually roll out into the sets that we put on the on the store shelves, but right now it's just kind of this is a

an example. Um. It also would be the first Sony console that could support ten a d P three d uh. The PS three could do seven twenty P three d um, and Uh. Beyond that, you're talking about a lot of potential performance issues anyway. Um. It's one of the big warning signs is that, uh, you know, if you've got a p S three and you want to play PS two games on it, you're kind of out of luck. It sounds like the PS four or Orbis or whatever is going to follow that same trend and that it's

not going to be backwards compatible. So if you have a lot of PS three games and you get a p S four, you're still gonna need that PS three if you want to play those old games, because this one is not going to be able to play them, or at least again, that's according to rumor, and just like we were saying a minute ago, it does sound like the games will have to be authenticated through the Sony Entertainment Network when you purchase them. So when you purchase a game and you load it into your your

PS four for the first time. It's going to prompt you to to authenticate the game through the Sony Entertainment Network. That game will then forever be linked to your Sony identity essentially, which means that you will not be able to play that on someone else's device signed in through their identification. So yeah, that's that could be a problem.

I mean, I would imagine that you would be able to sign in under your I I D on another machine and bring the game with you, so you can still play it on another person's machine as long as you were signed in under your name. I believe that's that's the way I interpreted this. But you would not be able to purchase a used game and play it on your machine just or rent a game. You wouldn't be able to do either of those things, just like with the Xbox UH disturbing trend. In my mind, I

don't like that. I mean, I understand entirely why the companies want to do this, because that's a market they do not make money off of. Right, So if I buy a game brand new and then I sell it to UH to to read, you know, a store that turns these around offers pre owned games and then Chris comes in and who buys that pre owned game. Well, the the shop makes money, but the games distributors and manufacturers they don't make any money off of that second purchase,

not directly, all right. They can through other means, like if there's downloadable content that can continue the game's um functionality and features, then the person who buys the second hand game may go on to buy DLC that could that could help. Or if the company owns stock in whatever the retail establishment is, they could make money that

way too. But yeah, of course, um there's uh that also sort of overlooks the people who buy older games to complement their newer the stuff that they buy off the shelf too, or somebody who wants to get into a universe and they start with game one in the series and they go, oh my gosh, I love this, this is great, and they go out and buy the new ones. You know, when they come in, they that that those are the intangibles that I think these companies

overlook that. Um, it's spreading the property around, it's spreading the the intellectual content around and gets other people hooked on it. But there's you know that that's that's their decision. Um, there's not a lot of long tail when it comes to video games. I mean, yeah, there is some. I mean, I'm I'm one of those video game owners who very frequently I end up buying games well after they've been out for quite so. I mean I got Skyrim a

year after it came out. Yeah, and you know what, if you haven't played it before and you still love it, I'd see no problem with it. I got Portal after Portal two came out. Yeah. It just it just it makes it difficult because the way the video game industry works is they're trying to turn through those games pretty quickly and hit that initial big rush where you get a lot of people buying the game, and then you want to do that again with the next title. And

there's limited storage space. I mean, there's limited limited shelf space and stores and although I mean I buy almost everything online, but never mind that anyway, there's limited shelf space. So you don't you don't you know, you can't have every game that was ever published out forever, right right, Well you you could, but not on a shelf. Um. And that that's the problem is that, you know, because

of that whole nature of the industry. Then you've got this uh this this quick turnaround, and it means that you know, once you have a game come out, a few months after the game's come out, you're already thinking, Okay, we gotta get something else out there, because uh that that one's going to get pushed off the shelf pretty soon by all the other games that are coming up from all the other other companies. And I do see Sony and Microsoft both being touched by this in ways

that Nintendo wouldn't because Nintendo is more of a closed system. Um, you don't just become a Nintendo developer. If you want to sell a Nintendo game, you kind of have to get Nintendo's blessing to do it. Whereas with Microsoft, there very familiar with people copying Windows, making pirated copies of Windows, making pirated copies of uh, you know, computer games, because of course it makes games for for Windows machines as

well as for the Xbox. Sony has Although Sony is famous for its units not working very well together, Sony has music, Sony has movies, and are they familiar with people copying those very much? So, so it makes sense that, um, the companies that are more likely to tie these these titles into their con souls. Um, you know it makes sense that they will be first to do that over

a Nintendo. Now, Um, there are people who thought, or still think in some cases that, um, the PlayStation three and Xbox three sixty are the end of the line for consoles. Um will this be then? Will this be the last the last generation of consoles? Will this will the next generation be the last generation? It's hard to say, but it's clear that they're this convergence between the set top box and the gaming box the gaming console. Um,

they're moving together. Now. I don't know that people like Boxy or Roku are likely to release a gaming console. But and then there's also the question of could this eventually move to the next step where it's all incorporated

directly into the TV set? Yeah? And which case? Then you think, all right, does this mean I have to figure out which set I want to buy because I happen to love playing the Xbox version of games for Sony version, or or our computers where we're going to be watching our TV, in which case you could make a computer game which appears on the same screen as your TV. Or will it all go to a tablet. I think that these things are still very up in

the air right now. Yeah, I think I think it's good for another I think we're we'll have another another generation, other generation, and that these questions will all be asked and and prodded. We're gonna see a lot of experimentation in the in the industry to see how consumers respond and do they like the idea of having this sort

of portable experience across multiple devices or does that not matter? Yeah, and I think too, I think that this this generation will come out Yeah, yeah, until we until we see how those questions are are answered. I think we're pretty safe knowing that there's gonna be another another series. So it would be interesting to see if and this is

just fooling around on my part. I don't know anything about this, and I'm not saying that there will be, but it would be interesting to see if Apple is interested in doing this simply because well, they had the Pippin, which built miserably um, but they also have, of course, the the iPhone, the I Pod, Touch, and the iPad, so could those be used as a second screen for a console. I mean, they're already talking about their pretty

heavy heavily weighted rumors. Let's say that there will be an Apple television, could be rumors for a couple of years, but yeah, exactly, just like they were for the iPad. So I wonder, could there be I've learned that lesson. Yeah, well,

and I don't know. I have no idea, but it's just kind of you kind of wonder, with all these weird things that are happening in the industry, whether Apple might consider it at some point, well, at any rate, were with all I think that I think that pretty much sums up all the rumors and news we can we can say at this time for the next generation of consoles. I am very curious to see how it plays out. I've definitely been holding off on buying a new Xbox three because you know, I've said, like I've

got a limited hard drive space line. I thought about buying a new one because they're not that expensive right now comparatively speaking, and especially during the holiday season of

two thousand twelve. But but the knowledge that there could be a new one out by next year, a new console, and hopefully one that's backwards compatible, although we don't know for the Xbox one right the other um that has me hold holling off a bit because I kind of want to see what comes out and uh and maybe I'll just use that money towards the new console, especially if it's because that would be insane. Alright, guys, well,

that wraps up this conversation. If you have any topics you would like us to tackle here tech stuff, please let us know this this no alright, just is tech stuff at Discovery dot com or drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter or handled. There is tech stuff hs W and christ and I will help you again really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot Com Brought to you by the two thousand twelve Toyota Camera