Square Enix the publisher behind the Final Fantasy series and Epic Games the development studio behind Gears of War each produced a tech demo during E3 (well not really at E3 but during the same time) showcasing the kind of tech we can expect from the next generation of games. I suggest watching both videos in 1080p. I think it is clear that there will be a new xbox and a new playstation by at least the end of 2014 and that several studios have been at least planning out or beginning initial development on titles for these systems. Here is Square Enix's tech demo. Agnis Philosophy Final Fantasy Real Time Tech Demo E3 2012 [HD] - YouTube Here is Epic's Unreal Engine 4 tech demo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZmRt8gCsC0 Unreal Engine 4 - GT.TV Exclusive Development Walkthrough - YouTube Just to give some clarification of what these tech demos mean as far as future games. Currently when games want really high end graphical cinematics they use pre-loaded CGI elements that use up a lot of CPU and GPU requirements. Though these CGI scenes look the best game developers often opt to use the game's engine to produce cinematics to save resources and keep the world persistent. In this case cinematic scenes are given more resources as the game does not have to render anything other than the scene being shown but it is still limited by the capabilities of the engine and the hardware that engine runs on. These tech demos show off seemingly pre-loaded CGI asset quality graphics but built using the game engine. Currently, Unreal Engine 3 is the most prevalent engine behind current games and I wouldn't be surprised to see many games we're playing in 2014 and beyond using it.
I liked the Unreal 4 video better, mainly because we were shown what was going on and what kind of graphical elements were being showcased. The Square Enix one was still impressive, but I found the latter to be better value for money, so to speak. Also, holy ****. One million particles? I better leave whatever games use this up to my next console. Buying a computer capable of running that ***** would likely bankrupt me.
I'd geek out if I could run through that room with a lightsaber and destroy basically anything <- would be sweet! The lighting and everything looks very realistic. I can't wait to see what else they can do
Here's a new benchmark tech demo video for Directx. This relates more to PC gaming than what we'd see on consoles but I'll throw this here anyway. 3DMark DirectX 11 Tech Demo (1080p HD) - YouTube
The new Panta Rhei engine Deep Down (working title) GAMEPLAY trailer [Playstation 4/PS4] - YouTube And another Unreal Engine 4 demo Unreal Engine 4 Playstation 4 Elements Demo - YouTube