Revenues are up. Earnings are down. Their lackluster has more to do with poor financial decisions than sales. I'm guessing that they invested a bunch of money to develop games that aren't performing too well, and that they're still making quite a bit of money off a handful of their 'cash cow' games
But would updated hardware really bring anything new and compelling to console gaming other than better graphics? We've reached a point, even within the realm of PC games, where the creativity of developers has not kept up with the progression of the hardware. In other words, beefed up hardware offers little real value to the core gameplay experience itself. The gaming industry is flat-out stagnant from a creative standpoint, and updated hardware will do very little to inject life into it. Unless console makers can develop something that truly evolves the core gaming experiences beyond delivering better graphics, I have serious doubts that an upgraded console would have any chance of succeeding.
@ Redemption80 Games may run and look better on a PC, but the price of a high end PC doesn’t add enough to the experience to justify the high end price…considering that you can pick up a 360 for under 350 bucks, and a high end PC will run you about 2-3k. I understand the perks that high end PC’s can provide from a graphical standpoint, but can you honestly tell me that you’re better off spending 3k to play a game on a PC on a so-so display with so-so audio is better than playing the same game on a 360 hooked up to a home theater-grade Audio/Video set-up? To me, 3k spent on a 360 + a good TV + a good sound system will provide a much better experience.
At cs_mp Loudness doesn't = good quality....particularly if you're using car subs, which are horrible at producing bass detail. Frankly, those subs probably drown out any audio detail...and audio detail is important in gaming! A set of car subs hooked up to a stereo is nowhere near as good as a family of home theater speakers hooked up to a proper AV receiver. Personally, I spent a little over 1000 bucks for my set-up (onkyo 606, polk TSi8 fronts, CSi3 center, PSw10 sub, and 4 monitor 30's for the rears)......but for 600 bucks, you could still assemble a home theater system that would blow your bootleg set-up out of the water.
At RodoggX360 3 grand could get you a kickass TV or a kickass home theater audio set-up to play a 360/PS3 on. Hell if you really know how to shop, you could find a 50 inch plasma/52 inch LCD, a good audio receiver, and a good family speakers (and I'm not talking about those home theater in a box BS systems either). The marginal improvement in graphics that a PC provides as of right now add far less to the gaming experience than a good TV and sound system.
mastertien, The xbox 360 actually has a more powerful graphics processor than the PS3. The PS3, does however, have a more powerful processing core and has more potential when it comes to handling tasks like physics. That being said, as of today, there is marginal difference between the graphics in the PS3 and the xbox 360. Quality of titles (which the 360 has been killing the PS3 on) is much more of an important factor. I will say that although the xbox 360 has a more powerful graphics processor, the PS3 has far more display options than the 360. My PS3 usually has better picture quality than the xbox 360 after I've tweaked all the settings. The black levels look all wrong in the playstation 3 screen shots...makes me wonder if this is a matter of the actual graphical output of the system, or if its biased one way or another due to the settings they're using.
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