- May 30, 2013
- 106
- 0
- 10,680
Hello everyone I wanted to start a discussion on the future of ARM based gaming systems. Yes that's right I am not here to talk about PS4 or Xbox One and how one is more awesome then the other a bunch of 12 year olds argue with me. Please save that for another form. Now to the point,
Recently OUYA launched there first gaming console which is using an ARM based processor and running android as I'm sure most people have read about. Today I read this article (just a rumor mind you) and it goes on to further my theory on the future of gaming,
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421150,00.asp
So my theory is that in 4 years ARM based consoles are going to start taking over. Whether its gradual or within a couple years I'm not sure nor care. Four years from today people will being to understand the benefits of them, they will be as powerful as the new gaming consoles today (PS4 and Xbox 1), and developers will start building games for the ARM based platform. The biggest thing holding back ARM from taking over now is the lack of content from big name publishers and the limited processing power.
However I believe this is set to change and soon,
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/153535-nvidia-analyst-day-kepler-comes-to-smartphones-and-tablets-with-tegra-5-and-more
You need not read the whole article just notice how the Tegra 5 being released in the summer of 2014 will be as powerful as the Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Sounds crazy right? You can see a Tegra 5 chip running battlefield 3 which is very impressive for a mobile CPU. The Tegra 6 which comes out a year later will be 2x the performance. By the time Tegra 8 launches in 4 years it will be as powerful or more powerful then the "next gen" consoles. So within 4 years the performance will be there. Mind you this is just Nvidia we are talking about Qualcoms snapdragon CPUs are also going to be improving which is just going to encourage the 2 companies to keep the exponential growth of there processors.
The systems will be cheap roughly $150 for a console with the latest ARM processor. They will be very small and quiet (as the ouya has leeway showed us). They will use flash memory instead of the old fashion hard drives (used in the PS4 and Xbox 1) which is going to make the systems faster. And if android moves in to become the next big OS for gaming I'm sure there will be companies that create streaming that would work very well with the consoles meaning they could be all cloud based (the always online idea presented by Microsoft was just s little to ahead of its time and very poorly utilized I might add).
So in terms of hardware these systems will be superior on all fronts. Now the next problem and perhaps the biggest to overcome, software and getting developers unhooked from the x86 architecture. As ARM grows in popularity eventually the developers will be forced to start building for ARM based systems, but what is going to make the ARM based systems get popular? Well that is where a company like google could help. Google could start building there "set top boxes" that evolve into gaming consoles. In other words as the mobile CPUs increase in performance google could pay the big game companies to develop games for there console initially. Once the public got hooked on the systems developers won't have a choice but to develop games for the systems. Which is at that point when ARM becomes the new standard for gaming and x86 lives and breathes because the PS4 and Xbox 1 are it's only life support (I'm assumin in 4 years the modern day PC will be dead or dying). Ans slowly the x86 will be phased out. Giving android a good chance to become the next big os for gaming as well. And apple with all there billions of dollars will be sure to fight back and build there own systems.
So from what I am saying in 8 years I predict the Xbox and PS will be dead, the PC will be dead, and when you go to buy battlefield 7 or whatever it's called they will be sold to you on the apple or google system as these 2 companies seem to be understanding how the future works. Microsoft maybe finally turn around and also be in the game. And don't count out valve and Linux to have something up ther sleeve.
This is all my theory on the next 8 years of the gaming industry. To summarize in 4 years arm based consoles will be out performing the "next gen" consoles and with the help of a companies like google or apple could get developers to start building for ARM based systems. And conce that happens ARM based consoles are going to be sucked up by the public due to there cheap prices and fast, quiet, performance.
So I would like to start a discussion on this what do you guys think the future holds for gaming? Will people give up the idea of sitting in the living room to play on phones and tablets or will consoles become the brain of your future house? And will ARM take over?
Recently OUYA launched there first gaming console which is using an ARM based processor and running android as I'm sure most people have read about. Today I read this article (just a rumor mind you) and it goes on to further my theory on the future of gaming,
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421150,00.asp
So my theory is that in 4 years ARM based consoles are going to start taking over. Whether its gradual or within a couple years I'm not sure nor care. Four years from today people will being to understand the benefits of them, they will be as powerful as the new gaming consoles today (PS4 and Xbox 1), and developers will start building games for the ARM based platform. The biggest thing holding back ARM from taking over now is the lack of content from big name publishers and the limited processing power.
However I believe this is set to change and soon,
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/153535-nvidia-analyst-day-kepler-comes-to-smartphones-and-tablets-with-tegra-5-and-more
You need not read the whole article just notice how the Tegra 5 being released in the summer of 2014 will be as powerful as the Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Sounds crazy right? You can see a Tegra 5 chip running battlefield 3 which is very impressive for a mobile CPU. The Tegra 6 which comes out a year later will be 2x the performance. By the time Tegra 8 launches in 4 years it will be as powerful or more powerful then the "next gen" consoles. So within 4 years the performance will be there. Mind you this is just Nvidia we are talking about Qualcoms snapdragon CPUs are also going to be improving which is just going to encourage the 2 companies to keep the exponential growth of there processors.
The systems will be cheap roughly $150 for a console with the latest ARM processor. They will be very small and quiet (as the ouya has leeway showed us). They will use flash memory instead of the old fashion hard drives (used in the PS4 and Xbox 1) which is going to make the systems faster. And if android moves in to become the next big OS for gaming I'm sure there will be companies that create streaming that would work very well with the consoles meaning they could be all cloud based (the always online idea presented by Microsoft was just s little to ahead of its time and very poorly utilized I might add).
So in terms of hardware these systems will be superior on all fronts. Now the next problem and perhaps the biggest to overcome, software and getting developers unhooked from the x86 architecture. As ARM grows in popularity eventually the developers will be forced to start building for ARM based systems, but what is going to make the ARM based systems get popular? Well that is where a company like google could help. Google could start building there "set top boxes" that evolve into gaming consoles. In other words as the mobile CPUs increase in performance google could pay the big game companies to develop games for there console initially. Once the public got hooked on the systems developers won't have a choice but to develop games for the systems. Which is at that point when ARM becomes the new standard for gaming and x86 lives and breathes because the PS4 and Xbox 1 are it's only life support (I'm assumin in 4 years the modern day PC will be dead or dying). Ans slowly the x86 will be phased out. Giving android a good chance to become the next big os for gaming as well. And apple with all there billions of dollars will be sure to fight back and build there own systems.
So from what I am saying in 8 years I predict the Xbox and PS will be dead, the PC will be dead, and when you go to buy battlefield 7 or whatever it's called they will be sold to you on the apple or google system as these 2 companies seem to be understanding how the future works. Microsoft maybe finally turn around and also be in the game. And don't count out valve and Linux to have something up ther sleeve.
This is all my theory on the next 8 years of the gaming industry. To summarize in 4 years arm based consoles will be out performing the "next gen" consoles and with the help of a companies like google or apple could get developers to start building for ARM based systems. And conce that happens ARM based consoles are going to be sucked up by the public due to there cheap prices and fast, quiet, performance.
So I would like to start a discussion on this what do you guys think the future holds for gaming? Will people give up the idea of sitting in the living room to play on phones and tablets or will consoles become the brain of your future house? And will ARM take over?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram