LIMITED EDITION: Only 1000 units of my fictive video game hardware concepts book!!

For a limited time, you can send me an e-mail at exotyktechnologies@gmail.com if you are interested in pre-ordering my future collector's book "Video Game Hardware Concepts", for $29.99 USD each + shipping (international shipping options will be available, and I will do my very best to find cheap shipping options, even if I must take care of that personnally and manually). I will open official orders via Paypal, personal check, Western Union, Moneygram or international money order only once at least 80 persons get interested to buy one. Each unit will be identified by a unique serial number, with the lower number representing the first buyer, up to 1000.

This item can be a nice gift to give to video game hardware collectors, and is part of a new series of limited-edition collectibles called "What if?", that will all be 100% fictive, but highly-inspired video game consoles or handhelds that could have been real at some point in the video game history, in a parrallel (and ideal?) world. They will definetely surprise and make very curious any gamer present in their "showroom"!

In the book, you will be able to see my vision of what the Nintendo64 could have possibly been, as well as the SNES, the Sega Neptune, the XBox Nomad, as well as the PS4 (among many others, about 16 in total), all coming with their controllers, and a 3-8 pages description that makes sense for the targetted era, describing in details both the gaming experience, the technical specifications, and the launch titles lineup.

Here is an example of the concepts quality. They will all be modelled and rendered in 3DStudioMax 2012.
Furthermore, each system will be identified with new fictive, but highly-inspired name and logo, and sometimes with a few different colors schemes.

I first thought about printing them in 3D using a 3D printer, but the cost per unit would be too high to be attractive for a small production, even if they are items intended to be sold mainly to serious video game hardware collectors. I decided to make a high-quality book that contains tons of systems, for a much lower price point, so more people can enjoy more creativity.

Once again, they are only artistic representations of highly-creative industrial design concepts, in honor to the things we love probably the most on Earth, gaming, and to the human brain creativity!

Please note that all profits will be reinvested at 100% in my own medieval/fantasy RPG board game, which I cannot publicly unveil right now. But stay tuned. Like I said, I am an independant game developer (both boards and video games).

If you have any comment, question or ideas, don't hesitate to contact me at exotyktechnologies@gmail.com.

To all of you who think I am a fanboy

I am not. I like all game experiences, and all brands. But some are simply more appealing to me, and some are doing things wrong. I would do the same if Sony or Nintendo did such a product. But hopefully, they are not. There are too many things I hate about the XBox One.

Here they are, just to name a few (and not in order):

1- The way they promote TV and sports before gaming;
2- The way they want to control your TV. This is not a bad thing to get a serious feet into this market before Apple does, but common, do it well and for everybody. Not just for American sports lovers;
3- The system's blank design and identity, as well as their logo, which is way too similar to the XBox360 logo, and does not inspire something "new";
4- The lack of innovation at the controller level;
5- The lack of innovation at the Kinect level;
6- The lack of touch input on the controller directly, at an era where the WiiU, PS4, and even Ouya has it;
7- The fact that we will need to buy a new compatible headset;
8- The lack of retro-compatibility;
9- The fact that they promote cloud gaming, while in fact it will add nothing solid to gamers until the many years to come, and the way they disguise DRM as a feature!
10- The way they promote Smartglass as an amazing and revolutionnary thing, while in fact this will work only on button-less devices like iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, unlike Sony with the PS4 + Vita cross-play.
11- No 3D stereovideo graphics, unless their AMD APU can handle it, which would be surprising. This is a big step backwards over the previous generation, and definetely something they should have pushed further instead of putting aside.

I will add more things with time.

My vision of a cool XBox console

Here is a post I did back in 2012 on my blog, http://michaeldionnecreativemuseum.blogspot.ca/2012/08/xbox-durango-concept-art-and-previsions.html 


"After the Wii-U public announcement at E3 2012, I felt like it would be nice if I opened 3DSMax and modelled my vision of what the next Microsoft game console could look like. Here are renders of the result I've come with. Definetely unfinished, but yet styled, sexy and agressive. The main system is inspired by the Master Chief's helmet, and keeps pure, curvy lines. I even modelled a tablet-like controller to go along with it.





Here is the whole idea: "The console itself is a 6-cores AMD CPU clocked at 3.9Ghz and embedding 16Mb of cache, associated to 8Gb of DDR3 RAM and an AMD Radeon 6550 GPU + a custom AMD Radeon GPU with DirectX12 support in crossfire mode. The system also embeds 4 USB 3.0 ports, Wi-Fi N, a GPS chipset, a multi-band RF chipset, as well as a custom optical drive with writing capabilities that is supporting proprietary 30Gb media discs. As the reading speeds of the optical drive are very high, the access time to data is lighting-fast and the discs can be used directly as the storage media for savegames, just like Nintendo DS cartridges, and for DLC. No more need for huge Flash memory or for hard disk drives.

The console is a processing powerhouse that can stream games down to the tablet controller via Internet, acting like a personal server, and is optional to the tablet controller. Just like Onlive and Gaikai, at the exception that, in order to make ping time better (audio/visual responsiveness to the input controls), the server is not located at the other side of the country. When using the tablet controller, the controller conducts an automatic, silent, unobstrusive and quick test to determine if the connection to the home console is better or worst than the connection to a remote Microsoft cloud gaming server, and connects to the best one for the best experience possible. User can also force either mode manually in the tablet controller's menu. This capability to connect to your home console wirelessly, anywhere, allows the tablet controller to remotely access any of the home console's memory content or system features, like media player features (remote recording, playing music for your dog while you are out, playing back real-time audio out to your speakers at home, etc.).

The tablet controller has inferior, but independant, OS and gaming capabilities when used as a standalone mobile device on the go. It can either play technically-inferior games directly from its integrated Flash memory, or connect to your home XBox via a Wi-Fi/3G/4G internet connection to play high-quality games (continue your progress while on the go). It embeds a 2.3Ghz dual-core AMD CPU, 1Gb of DDR3 RAM, 16/32/64Gb HDHC Flash memory, a custom quad-core AMD Vision GPU capable of outputting a 60fps video stream at 1280x720px resolution, as well as dual rumble actuators, a GPS chipset, 6-axis gyroscopic sensors, an accelerometer, a noise-cancelling stereo microphone, one front and one back HD 720p cameras, two amplified headphones jacks, a bluetooth chipset, a wrist strap, stereo speakers, one HDMI out jack (to play on another TV somewhere else), dual analog shoulder triggers (L2 / R2), dual digital analog buttons (L1 / R1), 4 front action buttons, 2 pressure-sensitive analog controls sticks, and a D-Pad surrounded by a circular, rubber-coated and force-feedback enabled scroll wheel that provides steering-like controls for driving games, or that allows to switch weapon quickly in first-person shooters (like a mouse scroll wheel). Up to 4 standard XBox360 controllers can connect wirelessly to the tablet, which comes in handy for multi-player when you are visiting somebody else.

The screen is supporting 3D auto-stereoscopic effect thanks to a lenticular lens system similar to the one of the Nintendo 3DS. When 3D is activated, the horizontal resolution is split in 2, outputting a perceptible 640x720px resolution per eye.

The controller also embeds on its back a miniaturized and wide-angle version of Kinect that is scanning the environnment surrounding the player in 3D at a native resolution of 1280x720px, which represents a 1:1 pixel ratio with the screen resolution. Embedding Kinect into the tablet controller allows the user to move around freely in the house or on the go, and scan his surrounding environment into a virtual 3D world.

Also, thanks to the GPS units that are embedded in both the system itself and the tablet controller, the game knows how close you are in meters from the system, and in which exact direction. As an example of possible fun and innovative applications offered by this new Kinect and the GPS chipsets, imagine a game like Luigi's Mansion where you can leave the living room and move around freely in all rooms of your house in search of a ghost hidden under a bed or in a wardrobe. Since the environment would be captured in 3D by Kinect, this would be an unmatched augmented reality experience because this system has the ability yo hide, partially or totally, the virtual objects behind real-world objects. Imagine running in your friend's home, trying to defend the place against hordes of invading zombies in a game like Left4Dead; they try to break windows, they roam in the house, etc. That would open an endless new world of gameplay possibilities! When the user wants to play with Kinect at home, he can simply rest the tablet controller near the TV, with its back aligned to point towards the players in the room. Anyway, when using Kinect to track your body, you don't need to hold any controller because your full body becomes the controller.

One tablet controller comes bundled with the system. However, the tablet controller can be bought seperately as a standalone mobile device that can connect remotely to the XBox Live Cloud servers to play high-end games. The tablet controller (named "XGo") is likely to be sold for 229,99$US, and the XBox Durango is likely to go on sale for 429.99$US. If registering for a 36-months membership to XBox Live Gold at 14.99$US per month, the system can be yours for only 99.99$US, while the bundle can be yours for 159.99$US. A 150$ gift card in free game credits for the XBox Marketplace will be issued to all customers that complete their membership without skipping a payment, at month 37 of their membership."

Anyone can now comment without logging in.

I invite you to react and add your grain of salt.

Microsoft are trying to impress you with big numbers, but...

Right after the XBox One unveil, Sony shares went up and Microsoft down, I think this is indeed a good indicator of the general perception from the public.

But why??

Because there is no big innovation outside of the TV features, whose are cool, but won't make people like me buying a XBox One over a PS4, especially since Sony claimed that their price will be highly compelling to customers.

One single PS4 will still be faster than 300 000 Microsoft cloud servers for cloud gaming. Cloud gaming is a fantastic concept, but is also all about latency. Gaikai is allowing your PS4 console to be that cloud server, which is totally brilliant, because chances are you will always be closer geographically to your home, rather than from an official Microsoft server farm, especially in remote (as well as not-so-remote) countries around the world, thus reducing the latency consistently and by an exponential factor. You will stream your AAA PS4 titles faster, more comfortably, and more reliably to your Vita, than you will ever be able, technically, to stream your AAA XBox One titles to any other device via Smartglass.

You can guess that the 300 000 cloud servers are there first to:

1-DRM everything;

2-Delivering fast downloads/updates/DLCs over night;

3-Provide you with cloud storage for your saves, files and preferences;

and THEN, in the last place

4- Enhance/leverage your game experience/quality, if any company see the interest of using this partial architecture, which is highly unlikely to happen in many years from now. We will start seeing the benefit of cloud computing only when XBox One will start to become technologically obsolete (so, towards the end of its lifespan), because since an Internet connection is not mandatory (standardization being the main advantage of consoles over other gaming platforms, like personal computers), developers won't see the financial benefit of exploiting cloud computing, even if the platform to do it is available and standardized. The market will always be fragmented between those who have an always-on Internet connection, and those who don't. Even in 2020.

Anyway, if at some point in time Sony feels the PS4 should also be able to do cloud computing in order to boost your PS4 power, they now have the backbone (Gaikai) to do it. But right now they focus on concepts, technologies and architectures that really add something innovative, appealing and useful to the end user experience.

Smartglass will allow us to stream games with more latency, to 3 types of devices (iOS, Android and Windows Phone) that don't have physical buttons. Why should we want this? How can I expect the new Halo, Call of Duty, Forza, Alan Wake or Gears of Wars to play nice with touch controls, when the XBox One controller is now the only controller of that generation to NOT feature any touch input hardware? The WiiU has touch controls. The PS4 will have touch controls. But not XBox One. That means that in order for a AAA title to be correctly and decently supported on Smartglass-powered devices, the developers need to design two completely-different control schemes at the same time, or then we will begin to see even more fragmentation within the XBox One ecosystem. But the hard truth is that developers will not do it, since not all XBox One users will use Smartglass. When they will do, they will:

1-Release the Smartglass support later, with a delay;

2-Release the Smartglass support at an additional fee;

3-Not always release any Smartglass support, it will depend if the game is successful enough with the default controls scheme.

A PS4 + Vita combo will be much more adapted and optimized for gaming, and the Vita will be better established than even a future and yet unannounced XBox Surface mobile device.

Don't be fooled by big numbers. 

Unveil highlights

TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. SPORTS. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. CALL OF DUTY. DOG.DOG.DOG.DOG.DOG.DOG.DOG. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. XBOX GO HOME.