Some of the things for next gen can just be deduced with logic.
I've been reading a lot of stuff and not posting much, but the amount of BS thrown around is incredible.
There is no need to read leaks to get an idea of how things will be on next gen. The companies themselves are giving us official tidbits, such as Sony interviews, their focus on CES, Microsoft PDF file leaked, their last three E3 conferences... i could go on and on but some basic stuff we can list:
1 - There's a reason why devs have not come out and said one system is better. They are 3rd party publishers. They won't say that, specially this early. If they have a basic spec target to reach, they will ensure games will work on both and that's it. Only 1st party devs will actually benefit from the singularities, because they don't have to worry about ports. Of course they are port buddies, it's AMD all over the place and they look like closed PC's. I would be shocked to see one 3rd party dev come out and say, this early, that one system is clearly superior. Doesn't make sense and TBH, they don't have to worry about this.
2 - If people are still not convinced that Microsoft is going for the living room, they should examine past history once again. It's clear the Durango will be more than just a games console and it's also clear that some compromises are made in order to achieve that. But here's the catch: since Sony is also pushing stuff we, core games, don't give a fuck right now, they won't be able to take much advantage because they will be too busy trying to say that 3D done right now is possible and that we need 4K.
3 - If you don't think 4K gaming is real, then you are crazy. I'm willing to bet (but we can't et too much here) that GT6 will support 4K in some form. Why do you think they keep showing GT5 in 4K? Do you really believe it's just a coincidence? Bookmark this shit and call me after E3.
4 - Why would Sony acquire Gaikai if they couldn't use it in some way to provide BC?
5 - Microsoft is going hard on casual stuff and other features. This SHOULDN'T surprise anyone. That doesn't mean they are abandoning core games. Let's be honest and pretend to be Ballmer for a second. Hey, i want to own the living room, and our games console is a way to do that. We already have the core COD, Madden gamer with us, so as long as the system is good enough, we won't lose them, so we can focus on other things that are interesting from our POV. We can make some sacrifices without gimping the console. Why are people still surprised by this strategy?
6 - Move flopped and this is the best thing to happen to Sony. If it was a hit, they would go even harder on casual crap, but since it's not, they have nowhere to go but for the hardcore gamers first. They know casual gamers are not a guarantee and can end up biting you in the ass (see Nintendo) so they have to make sure to deliver a good, great hardcore console to not risk losing the marketshare they have.
7 - Read the info people give you. Jeff Rigby is not pulling things out of his own mind. Sony is obviously trying stacked memory, and they will only go GDDR5 if they can't have the tech ready. People are too fast calling it GDDR5 when the basic info is "192gb/s bandwith".
8 - For the love of god, stop saying these systems are not on par with mid range PC's. It's so stupid it's not even funny. I've learned in GAF that if you don't know stuff, you better off just lurking and reading. There's a reason for that meme with the cat on the keyboard saying "stop posting".
9 - Everybody knows one system will be technically better, but people won't call it because few know the whole picture, and also, it usually doesn't matter much. Despite the memory issues, the PS3 has a technical advantage on the 360 that has amounted to little this gen. It's God of War, Killzone, GT and Uncharted. There's your advantage. Again, if you're Ballmer, you might as well say "let them have that, it's what? one better game once in a while? they can have this marginal benefit as long as we keep hitting our other bigger goals".
This, of course, assuming the specs are right and the wizard jizz and the friendly dev tools don't put the Durango on par with Orbis. It's not like it's a WiiU situation. Even with a few Gflops more, they will be in the same ballpark.
10 - there's a lot more stuff after reading too much without commenting, but let's end with the memory discussion. 3.5 GDDR5 or 6.0 DDR3? I'm trying to use logic here, so i'm gonna ask this without trying to be a smart ass. If DDR3 is cheaper and has some benefits, why don't the high end video cards come with it. Why 2gb GDDR5 instead of 4gb of the cheaper DDR3?
I think a tech guy answering this would help the discussion. I've always assumed GDDR5 was the best to get, but if people are saying that double the amount of DDR3 has some benefits, i wonder why the cards in the market don't support this theory.
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