Should consoles be upgradeable?

[mikerossuk]

The question is straight forward, do you think consoles should be as easy to upgrade as a PC. Lets ignore the business point of view as I know they will never be because it will cost Sony and Microsoft too much money, lets look at it from a gamers point of view. Would you prefer to upgrade CPU, graphics card, RAM etc once a year or would you prefer to stick with a console for 2-4 years, then buy the new version?

The way I look at it is, from the second the console is put into production, technology if forever moving forward so it is outdated by the time you get it home!

If my vote counts, I'd like to be able to upgrade my console to stay at the peak of its powers!

 

[Pickicool]

Absolutely not! If that were the case, there would be no advantage to buy a console rather than a PC.
Then it would mean that games will not turn on all the consoles?

I would not want that to happen. Then the majority of people do not know much there computer and components!
Then it's good to go to the Next-Gen for new.

 

[RockSauron]

That kind of defeats the entire purpose of consoles :/

 

[lindbergh]

I think the upgradeable HDD is okay. But I think everything else shouldn't be able to be upgraded. The home gaming consoles are meant to make gaming accessible without ever thinking of upgrades and stuff. I'm afraid that if they make consoles completely upgradeable, it would be like the PC wherein different games would need different requirements.

 

[BlackSolaris]

I think the upgradeable HDD is okay. But I think everything else shouldn't be able to be upgraded. The home gaming consoles are meant to make gaming accessible without ever thinking of upgrades and stuff. I'm afraid that if they make consoles completely upgradeable, it would be like the PC wherein different games would need different requirements.

Pretty much this. HDD and storage amount upgrade is always welcome, but other stuff defeats the purpose of a home console. The last thing i would need is to upgrade my graphics card of my console so i can play the latest games.

...now that i think about it, the Nintendo 64 had this kind of thing, with the memory expansion, and that wasn't that much of a bother, so i don't know anymore.

 

[Mudgee]

The logistics of doing so would be far too difficult, and people would just stick to pc gaming.

 

[mikerossuk]

I wouldn't want consoles to become like the PC. I was thinking more along the lines of having the parts in card slots for easy swapping. The minimum specs would always be whatever the console was first designed to have. My idea was to have the games exactly the same for everyone, the upgrades would only change things like loading times, view distance, detail etc. If I paid 400 somethings for a console I'd be happy to buy an upgraded CPU card and an upgraded graphics card for 100 somethings to make it better!

I thought it would be important that developers weren't allowed to demand certain upgrades before your able to play their game just like on the PC as Lindbergh said.

After seeing your posts I can see I'm way out on my own in this one

 

[4justice]

If it were for me alone, then I would have said yes.

But home systems shouldn't be too upgradeable because unlike the personal computer market of gaming, systems are meant to be plug and play. Plus majority of the people that buy these systems don't know the first thing about changing video and sound cards.

I mean hell, people have to go to youtube to do something as simple as a HDD swap. It would be a customer service nightmare for any company that makes their home system fully upgradeable.

 

[RaggaJungle]

I agree with the main focus of the replies, I think consoles are great as they are, and if they are to be heavily modded, then they may as well be a PC!.

I think it would upset a lot of people if that were the case because it would mean more money being spent, unless it was option to upgrade or not. Either way I think it's a bad idea.

 

[Medza]

Upgradeable consoles already exist, they're just called PC's. Seriously though, in this day and age all you need is a decent HDMI cable and you can connect your PC to your TV, hoop up your favourite controller and play whatever the hell you want to play. Leave consoles as they are, there is no need to change anything.

 

[Pandsu]

No, that completely defeats the purpose of consoles.
Consoles are popular for their ease of use and rather level playing field in multiplayer. Games are designed for one specific hardware configuration, getting the most out of that, ensuring it works about the same in each and every household, with the only variable being display and input devices. Any upgrade possible should be a comfort thing and completely optional. Like a bigger HDD, provided the stock HDD is still good enough for ANY feature of the console without an upgrade. Anything else just makes the experience frustrating and splits the community into two. Even things like mandatory installs that exceed the size of a stock HDD, like on older Xbox 360 models. Or the N64 Expansion Pack (that already split the player base, even without online multiplayer, and even with it being pretty cheap to buy and even included with certain games). Or the Sega CD. Or the 32X.
Shall I go on?

These things just don't work. If you want a constantly improving piece of gaming technology, buy a PC!

 

[hotshot]

No, because the game developers and console companies would just agree to launch every year a new slight upgrade where they could just tax you for basically the same thing, like it's happening with the PCs. Every year a new videocard, chipset and so on. It's better to have a console with the same configuration for a few years, where the game developers just make games for that setting and nothing more.

 

[rcg2222]

I think the point of consoles is to be a standalone, reliable, predictable unit. Look at the expansion pack for the N64. There were certain games that REQUIRED it. It's just a way to make people spend more money. They could even be encouraged to make the console underpowered to sell upgrades.

 

[brad]

Id prefer to just have a console for 4 years, because i take care of my stuff and for my ps3 i never needed more memory or RAM etc so as long as you don't go mad installing stuff and not dropping it you won't need.

 

[ozadin]

This just proves how prone consoles are if PC's can easily dominate them. In my opinion, consoles have much better graphics card. If you were to add more graphics card, the console would be a lot faster, and I don't see any harm in that. Instead of buying a 16GB+ console for how much, you can easily spend another 60 bucks on a 1TB hard drive, don't know the specific cost if it were to migrate to consoles though. Overall, I don't really care if consoles were to be upgrade-able, I simply wouldn't mind.

 

[fantanoice]

I would be okay with it if it were something easily attachable/detachable like the N64 Expansion Pack but if they were to start releasing cycles with better graphics/hardware whatever then I'm not really cool with it because the games developed for it will ostracise the people who own the previous versions.

Though if they start doing all that then you may as well go with PC.

 

[Pandsu]

Id prefer to just have a console for 4 years, because i take care of my stuff and for my ps3 i never needed more memory or RAM etc so as long as you don't go mad installing stuff and not dropping it you won't need.

That's not the point of having more RAM or even really anything in this thread, especially when it comes to consoles. Because you can install whatever you want (at least while moving within non-hacked boundaries) on a console, it won't affect your system's performance.
It can be different on PC though if you don't know what you're doing.

This is about raising performance as a whole.
Making games run and look better, lowering load times, giving way for more enemies on screen, bigger levels, etc.
Basically what a new generation of consoles does, just not as big of a jump but in turn more frequent.

 

[wowtgp]

Wouldn't it be same as PCs then? Why would would buy a console over PC? The sole reason why people buy a console is, because there is no need to upgrade, fix or change anything. Just insert the disk, and you are pretty much guaranteed that , the game will be playable. No hassle to look for a fix like what happens in most of the cases with PCs.

So, I'd say no.

 

[DrRipley]

I like being able to expand the storage size, but that's about it. In general, I prefer not to have to tinker with my gadgets and would rather just have them be well made enough that they would last through years of technological upgrades. I believe it's roughly how it's done now, and I personally don't have much qualms about it when it comes to this part.

 

[mareebaybay]

I think they should make consoles upgradeable. I think consoles should be upgradable at an inexpensive cost, such as $100. I think new updates should come out every year. It would increase sales, and it might give companies a reason to lower initial prices.