wraggster
May 16th, 2010, 21:30
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says console manufacturers could make their consoles upgradeable, but are deterred by the prospect of allowing pirates to easily insert mod chips into their machines.
"I think that one of the problems with upgradeable consoles is that anything that would be an upgrade would have to be external."
He goes on: "I say that not because it's technologically impossible to allow you to open the box or have a card slot, it's just that the boxes right now are made to be tamper proof. They're intended to not allow people to open them up and put mod chips in them, so the idea is that if you can open it and upgrade components, you can figure out a way to overcome digital rights, put in a mod chip and then rip off all the software. The console manufacturers have no interest in allowing that to happen."
Pachter says that the 360 hard drive is an existing example of an external upgrade, and that a graphics upgrade would actually benefit console makers, over releasing whole new consoles. He also positions the upcoming motion controllers Natal and PlayStation Move as 'upgrades'.
As for graphics upgrades though, he concludes: "I don't think it's gonna happen but I think it could."
Piracy aside, console upgrades like the Mega Drive's (Genesis') 32X, or N64s Expansion Pack upped graphical capability but only worked to split the console's user base, with games that only worked with particular devices and whatnot. We hardcore gamers love (and understand) how it all works, but on mass scale, hardware expansions usually fail.
Move is hinted for a September release, while Natal is slated for October.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=246679?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS
"I think that one of the problems with upgradeable consoles is that anything that would be an upgrade would have to be external."
He goes on: "I say that not because it's technologically impossible to allow you to open the box or have a card slot, it's just that the boxes right now are made to be tamper proof. They're intended to not allow people to open them up and put mod chips in them, so the idea is that if you can open it and upgrade components, you can figure out a way to overcome digital rights, put in a mod chip and then rip off all the software. The console manufacturers have no interest in allowing that to happen."
Pachter says that the 360 hard drive is an existing example of an external upgrade, and that a graphics upgrade would actually benefit console makers, over releasing whole new consoles. He also positions the upcoming motion controllers Natal and PlayStation Move as 'upgrades'.
As for graphics upgrades though, he concludes: "I don't think it's gonna happen but I think it could."
Piracy aside, console upgrades like the Mega Drive's (Genesis') 32X, or N64s Expansion Pack upped graphical capability but only worked to split the console's user base, with games that only worked with particular devices and whatnot. We hardcore gamers love (and understand) how it all works, but on mass scale, hardware expansions usually fail.
Move is hinted for a September release, while Natal is slated for October.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=246679?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS