PC Game Console ?

[TransformX]

The biggest problem is how are they going to take care of patches and game updates (since most stuff on the PC world comes out half-baked at best) ?

[rugger]

Originally posted by TransformX
I disagree since all those games will be played on a TV which means they will run at a native resolution of 640x480.
Take a P-III 933 with a Geforce 4200 and run the latest games at 640x480 with all eyecandy enabled and you'll still get better fps than a normal TV set can deliver.

For now, yes ....

For the latest games in a year's time, I doubt it.

[Fat Tone]

And what happens when people see these cheap consoles, and buy all the 3 for £10 pacakges from the supermarket only to find they want to install DX3?...They are never going to be simple enough and the target market won't be able to hack it.

[rugger]

at $300-$400 US though, this console is not cheap either.

I could buy a playstation 2, an xbox, and maybe even a game too for that price.

[rugger]

Reading anandtech's preview, there are actually scripts produced for the console that instruct/control the install process for each game.

Games that want to install directx 3 will either:

1) be so obscure that a script isn't written for it
2) have scripts that will disable/bypass this part. The games will run fine using the directx 3 interfaces in directx 9

[Gurm]

I haven't found a single DX3 game that runs properly with the DX3 interfaces in DX9. *shrug*

- Gurm

[High_Jumbllama]

Originally posted by TransformX
I disagree since all those games will be played on a TV which means they will run at a native resolution of 640x480.
Take a P-III 933 with a Geforce 4200 and run the latest games at 640x480 with all eyecandy enabled and you'll still get better fps than a normal TV set can deliver.

You are right there with the tiny resolutions,, it will be more than powerful enough to drive PAL or NTSC and probably HDTV with all the eye-candy. The problem will be in native software, pricing, confusion on what it is and name brand recognition.

Some games will work but the chances are that the people that have these games will already have a computer leaving the enthusiaist to be the main if not the only type of person that will support this so-called console past the first couple of weeks.