Well, not really, but still... Current-gen consoles have very weak hardware parts relative to performance compared to PCs. As a result, developers are basically forced to try their best to optimise the games and make them run as best as possible.

With the next-gen consoles, so much power is given to developers, that they won't have to do such a great job at optimising their games. Thus, the games may not be as stable as they are in this generation, and ports to PCs may be even worse as a result of that non-existing optimisation.

Biggest example of this, giving power to developers, are the smartphones of today. I honestly had no comment when a radio application told me that it cannot run on my WP8 device with 512MB memory, because it apparently needed 1GB of memory for some totally stupid reason (like, the developers doing a terrible job at writing code).

For crap's sake, I was able to run WoW and listen to music at the same time with 256MB of RAM back when it was released. /rant

I know _exactly_ how you feel! Worried, right?

People had the exact same worries with current gen consoles, remember that their hardware wasn't so backwards when they were first released. Nothing came of that.

I actually think next gen will be a lot more positive than current gen since next gen consoles use the same x86 architecture that PCs use and as a result should be much easier to port over.

Lots of things "worry" me about the next-gen, but optimization is not one of them. I don't think many people understand how many millions (yes, millions) of dollars in game development is used up these days by developers using every trick in the book to try and fit their game onto a console disc and make sure the game has a decent framerate.

Someone has to question this practice eventually, I mean technology is advancing at such a great pace that I think developers should put the maximum of their time into actually making the game better and bigger, not constantly tweaking it so it can run on an Xbawks toaster.

What's next, trying to get Halo to run on a Commodore 64

The hardware is fairly weak compared to high end gaming PCs, especially the Xbox one. Even if games aren't very optimized at first, both of them being X64 based should make it not much of an issue. The big thing will be how many cores/threads each machine has so sooner than later games might start needing 4+ cores as a minimum.

Sorry, cant resist :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo4OnQpwjkc

Actually, I believe it will be the opposite. Currently the optimization that is done on consoles means that developers write platform specific code for each console bypassing the standard library calls to get better performance. That optimization can't be easily ported to PC so be end up with awful ports like GTA4.
Next-gen consoles have an architecture more similar to PC than previous consoles so porting to PC should be easier.

Also, your problem is that you bought a Windows Phone :P

Developers right NOW are only just learning how to utilize 2 cores for their games, so fat chance of that. Console devs just love shoveling everything onto the GPU, so the new focus of the next-gen consoles on memory of processing speed probably won't see results for years

I've pretty much given up on consoles. The last round was embarrassing to me. Consumers don't win when the companies battle out over exclusives. The PS3's potential was arguably never reached because its cheaper to work on a common denominator. -1 again for the fans. Sony proved that there are significant cons to having an online device when they removed functionality with updates... then got hacked. Both the Xbox and the PS3 have years of life left, but non-backwards compatible systems are already on the way sending everyone to the "store" to buy HD throw-togethers of games they have already bought.

color me unimpressed. I like the PC. Everyone understands RAM, pixels, shaders, resolution. Make the game you want and sell it to EVERYONE... we can determine what type of system we want to play it on.

I'm fully planning on skipping the next "gen" altogether. The DRM issue is also getting out of hand. I get the impression that hardware manufacturers really believe that they still own that device after you buy it.

The thing that worries me the most about the next gen consoles is the price of the games themselves. With the new consoles I believe that the games will have to have better graphics, sound, and framerate. With all of these things being upgraded, the cost to make them has to go up, right? This could make the cost of games go up to $70-$75 dollars and, for some, the cost of games is already really high. Along with that, the Xbox One (at least) is not backwards compatible, meaning all those games you bought for your Xbox 360 won't work on the new system. Even the games in your digital library won't work on the new Xbox. Personally I think this is crap. They have basically crippled their own console and, with more and more people buying the new Xbox the people remaining on the 360 will have less people to game with. Anyways, that's my rant, but it really bothers me that people will still buy it and buy the games.

(btw could you tell I own an Xbox?)

Not really, since now I am using another radio-related app that requires only 256MB of memory (as in, the minimum the OS can run on). :p And, there is no justifiable reason for a non-game app to require so much memory, unless it has been coded by 2 year old kids.

I hope it is the opposite, like you say... I guess I have been just way too disappointed by crappy web and mobile developers. :)

I'm only speculating, but I think the reason console games are so expensive (and stay high for so long) probably has to do with the fact that the digital download market for games on consoles is still very underdeveloped. Two main reasons for this are the small size of console HDD, and the retail sale of physical games. You'll never see Steam-like sales on console until they embrace digital sales fully.

Its the same like with every other generation before.
The developers must get a feeling for the machine. That takes time. The first bunch of games may eyecatchers but the first real games are years away. Look at the first games for the PS3 or X-360 and compare them to those from this year.
What worries me more is that the customer wants to see an quantum leap with the next gen and so the developers must do
something.....that means it will cost more money. More money means that the risk of a failure is higher. More risk means that
the publishers demands for games that are sure to archive a profit. In the end we will see more *Game XX* than new concepts.
But thats not bad, both current consoles (the x360 more so) are not well established within the Indi scene. Not bad for PC gamer.

You likely won't see Steam-like sales in the near future. The driving force of such large price reductions is competition; Steam may be the dominant force in the PC digital distribution market, but it's still got competitors and it has to work to keep its dominance. Steam has had competitors of one sort or another since its early days, so you simply cannot compare it to a console where its digital distribution market has grown up almost in isolation. So long as the console libraries have lots of exclusives, I doubt you'll see significant price drops.

I expected http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdk-rHAndNc