PC vs Console - (It is now 2011!)

[sayers6]

I personally don't see why companies haven't looked into another idea of console gaming. Making the parts like the GPU, CPU, RAM, and son on, into removable slots. And by that I mean easily removable. So that instead of coming out with a new console way too often, and competing with computers that can easily have their ram and etc. upgraded, they could do the same with the consoles. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy with almost now hardware awareness, but I still think it would be a good idea to come up with a basic shell, and have upgrade-able parts. I've been thinking this for awhile now. Will someone please point out a big flaw in this? I know there has to be one...Because otherwise the first company to cash in on this could make quite a bit...They'd be incharge of making all the replaceable parts and such, which would earn them more money.

Compatibility and money are the first two things that come to mind. When all of the consoles have the exact same hardware components, developers are able to fine tune their games to run perfectly and specifically for that exact hardware configuration. Also, they probably wouldn't want to make it upgrade-able like that when they could just make more money by coming out with a new console (not to mention any additional costs and complications it would cause to make it upgradable in the first place). The system that came the closest to doing this that I can remember was the N64. I remember when Donkey Kong 64 came out I had to upgrade something in the front of the console with an improved one, think it was the graphics processor if I remember correctly?

Well I was just thinking along the lines of making parts that come out in tiers, and its clearly put what games run on what tiers, and for each tier you need to have upgraded your system to a certain point. The difference between say the Ps3 and the ps2 is just the hardware 9from what I understand) and is put in a shiny new shell. The tiers would be along the same lines as "you can play this on a ps3, but not a ps2." it would be the same thing with the tiers. Just instead of a whole new system, its some new hardware.

[Jake]

I personally don't see why companies haven't looked into another idea of console gaming. Making the parts like the GPU, CPU, RAM, and son on, into removable slots. And by that I mean easily removable. So that instead of coming out with a new console way too often, and competing with computers that can easily have their ram and etc. upgraded, they could do the same with the consoles. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy with almost now hardware awareness, but I still think it would be a good idea to come up with a basic shell, and have upgrade-able parts. I've been thinking this for awhile now. Will someone please point out a big flaw in this? I know there has to be one...Because otherwise the first company to cash in on this could make quite a bit...They'd be incharge of making all the replaceable parts and such, which would earn them more money.

Compatibility and money are the first two things that come to mind. When all of the consoles have the exact same hardware components, developers are able to fine tune their games to run perfectly and specifically for that exact hardware configuration. Also, they probably wouldn't want to make it upgrade-able like that when they could just make more money by coming out with a new console (not to mention any additional costs and complications it would cause to make it upgradable in the first place). The system that came the closest to doing this that I can remember was the N64. I remember when Donkey Kong 64 came out I had to upgrade something in the front of the console with an improved one, think it was the graphics processor if I remember correctly?

Well I was just thinking along the lines of making parts that come out in tiers, and its clearly put what games run on what tiers, and for each tier you need to have upgraded your system to a certain point. The difference between say the Ps3 and the ps2 is just the hardware 9from what I understand) and is put in a shiny new shell. The tiers would be along the same lines as "you can play this on a ps3, but not a ps2." it would be the same thing with the tiers. Just instead of a whole new system, its some new hardware.

Honestly, that's marketing suicide. Consoles are consoles and PC's are PC's. If I want to upgrade my hardware every few months to play the latest and greatest, I'll buy a PC. There's no way in hell consumers are going to buy a 500 dollar console and then spend 100 dollars more just to play COD.

[stick d00d]

You'd end up paying a lot more to upgrade hardware on a console you've already spent ~500$ for. So no it would never happen. Not to mention they would probably charge ridiculous amounts of money for the parts specifically made for the console.

[Jake]

You'd end up paying a lot more to upgrade hardware on a console you've already spent ~500$ for. So no it would never happen. Not to mention they would probably charge ridiculous amounts of money for the parts specifically made for the console.

Exactly. The whole point of getting a console over a gaming PC (for most people anyways), is to not have to upgrade it and still be able to play any game that comes out for a decade.