ziran said:
Great show, really entertaining. The best podcast out there imo.
Interesting comments about the next Wii. I'd agree with the tech spec, it's going to be roughly where 360/PS3 are now only with ease of programming as a priority, and I wouldn't be surprised at 720p only. However, I wonder if this is going to matter much because I don't think MS's or Sony's next machine will be much more powerful anyway. The dev costs are already too high, so creating an even more powerful system where games cost even more to make just isn't going to be worthwhile imo. Like Nintendo this gen, MS and Sony are going to be big on easy to program so I think any improvement in technical ability is going to be minimal, like the GC to Wii.
I wonder what even sparked them to talk about the next Wii? To me, I think Nintendo will go low/easy/different again, but just how they're gonna work the actual specs depends more on when they're gonna launch it. If they're comfy with this current generation they'll keep it alive longer and they'll have longer to shrink, cut costs, update the technology of the day thus making the successor more powerful, if this generation is somehow shortened due to lack of support (or whatever other ideal's the anti-Wii agenda is mounting) then the successor will probably be less powerful. Power spec-wise aside, I think the IGN guys are assuming too much too early on things like digitial audio/1080p/HDMI...afterall they thought (going into this generation) that the "Revolution" was gonna be more powerful than it ended up being and the other side of the coin is some are not expencting industry standerd stuff like HDMI which is silly to assume one way or the other 'cos Nintendo has more embraced industry standerds with Wii (BT, WiFi, Opera, USB, SD, DVD, etc.) than they ever did with any previous system.
The more important question is, what will be the next phase in interface? Nintendo knows (as do their opponents now) that everyone will be cooking up new things in this area of gaming next-generation 'cos of the success of things like Guitar Hero, NDS & Wii...also, because I don't think much in the way of graphics/computing power will be made in order to "sell" the next set of machines (diminishing returns and all that). Therefore Nintendo (in the possition they're in now) is going to have to think two steps ahead here regardless of whether they fully support HDTV/industry standerds or not. I think every system will come with an improved wireless Wiimote/nunchuck as well as a more advanced sensor bar (built-in mic/camera system) and I think there will be something more like an earclip/eyepeice for head tracking, eye tracking, gesture control, communication & 3D...something that may seem crazy at first (like Wiimote), but will be all the rage.
I do agree with IGN about storage, probably a 5GB flash drive for internal storage is all, with maybe an iPod-like checkout system with the next generation NDS for Wiiware/VC/portable games. I maybe even suspect Nintendo will do something radical like hardware licensing and/or making a flash card format of their own that work in their home & portable systems universally (so the same game can reach both markets, notably lessy quality on the portable end) and maybe even forgo things like DVD or Blu-Ray in order to save money/space...there would be a seperate drive that would attach and play discs for Wi/GCN games though.
