Originally Posted by
Raype
More or less. Any "jump" is a gradual improvement that takes a long, long time. It's a building thing. There were a lot of consoles released between the SNES and the PSX. Most of them shit. And then when the PSX launched, it was shit. Then that changed over several years.
It doesn't, and I didn't say it was. Although there are a hell of a lot of examples where it was. But it's the same today. Technology just gradually increases. You can't compare this generation to much of anything until we actually see some quality product. As console launches go, this one is shaping up to be one of the best, and the tech shows loads of promise. Being down on it seems hilariously silly given that compared to the last gen this is a huge improvement. And that one wasn't even that bad, people just see it that way because the previous gen was pretty great and still cranking out quality product right up til the end. It managed to bypass a lot of the awkward years the PSX/N64 went through and, similarly, the PS3/360/Wii did.
In computers, yes. But then again so was the invention of the OS, SATA, multi core processors, vaccuum tubes, the mouse, microchips, etc. etc. Computers have been growing by leaps and bounds almost since their inception and almost everything that happens winds up totally revolutionizing the whole thing within a couple years. If it wasn't CDs, it'd be something else. The modern optical disc was a byproduct of the need for advancement, not the cause.
Discs were important for consoles, but it's not really the discs themselves. If people just shoved HDDs into their consoles earlier (and the internet was as robust then as it is now) we'd probably be full digital by now. Hell we're moving that way as it is. Games these days have hundreds of gigabytes and even a terabyte or two to work with if they aren't limiting themselves to disc based media. And even then, the jump to BRD (or the Nintendo knockoff version) is bound to have pretty neat repercussions now that DVD is finally put out to pasture. Having over 10 times the space to work with is a pretty big jump for developers, and that's not factoring in that we can go multi-disc now. It's not really the tech itself anyway. Again, a lot of early disc based systems used discs for the sake of using discs, and so they can be all "LOOK, DISCS! LASERS! IT'S THE FUTURE! NOT LIKE THAT NINTENDON'T DO CDS! SHIT CHECK OUT THIS SEWER SHARK GAME BRO, PHOTOREALISTIC AS FUCKBALLS". Instead it's how it's used. Those early disc based systems never used even a fraction of the potential, and there's barely any games out there now that fill up a multi-layered BRD (which can hold the entire N64 library a half dozen times over). All the tech in the world doesn't really mean squat if the games aren't good. And the games are pretty damned good right now. So I'm not about to turn up my nose at this generation just because of some supposed inability to live up to what came before. Because, if anything, it's a hell of a lot better than a good chunk of it.
Also, the 3DS is shaping up to be a physical game-less media along with the Vita. And PC gaming has been that way forever (look for a PC gamer with a couple boxes on his shelf. They're practically unheard of). So really discs are just a means to an end. More space and another way to get you the code. Selling a system based on the media it plays is like selling a car based upon which courier service moved the parts.