[aft1981]

So even though yesterday was a disappointment for some, I saw the announcements and discussions for what they were - enabling developers (at a developers conference no less) to easily have all the tools they require to properly take advantage of the Playbook (and future phones) capabilities.

It got me thinking. Some of those game demos looked genuinely impressive. The PB is a seriously powerful little device. The hardware specs (CPU, RAM etc) are already better than those in a Nintendo Wii, and I don't think they are THAT far off the Xbox 360 and PS3 (remember those consoles are now 5-6 years old).

Maybe not with this current iteration (although I still think it possible), but in a couple of years when the PB hardware will surely get an upgrade, and with developers like EA, Gameloft et al on board, I think RIM could seriously start marketing this device as a contender in the Console market.

Let's think how it could work....

I was watching the live feed yesterday while they were demoing a few of the games, and yes, its awesome you can plug it into HDMI and have it in full 1080p on your TV, but you still need to be looking AT the PB while you are playing, otherwise you lose focus on what/where on the screen your thumbs/fingers are and what they are controlling.

So, I would envision a dock that you leave plugged into your tv, that you slot the PB into when you want to play some serious games. It powers the PB and provides the hdmi link to the tv. The PB has bluetooth built in already, so you have a couple of controllers, much like the PS3 ones, which link to it via BT, thus eliminating the issue of not being able to pay full attention to the tv screen when playing.

Games could be bought online from app world, and downloaded to the PB (saving costs for developers in not having to physically produce dvd's/blu rays, also saving markup costs by retailers), and stored on the system. No ejecting discs, getting frustrated when the game you want isn't in the correct sleeve, or finding it's been scratched and no longer works. Online game play can be linked to BBM.

Storage wise, although the PS3 uses blu ray, which can store 25gb, the 360 uses regular dvd's, up to 9gb. I don't see this idea really taking off until the PB has over 120gb or so of flash storage, to enable you to store a decent amount of games. Another bonus being it's quicker to read data from inbuilt flash storage than off an optical drive.

You can pop the PB in your pocket and head over to a friends house to play the latest Black Ops that he hasn't bought yet. You're going on a long road trip with your kids, you take the PB and controller and mount it on the back of the headrest so they can play in the back (can't do that with any other consoles).

The hardware may not yet be up to standards to make a good go of Black Ops, but I think I could safely say the PB could probably easily handle every game made for the Wii, and almost 90 million of those have been sold worldwide.

I honestly think RIM should seriously consider the potential the PB has to rival other consoles, and I think the announcements yesterday giving developers the tools they need will help them realise some of this potential.

Thoughts? Or am I just being ridiculous here?!

[shootsscores]

The PB with its QNX OS is a brute.

[Foreverup]

Hahaha PB against PS3 or Xbox. RIM would crushed before they even started. Only way they get into the console market is start selling the PB as an accessory.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[soren203]

playbook does not stand a chance in a hardware battle with the ps3 the cell is something like 3.2GHz the playbook is 1GHz there is a significant difference but i do agree with you tablets are the future of gaming.

[grahamf]

I'd imagine that the PB can rival the Wii U controller, because when playing a multiplayer game all of your friends can simply link together their PBs (with one acting as the host/TV output).

And since the processing can mostly be done on each person's PB; the number of PlayBooks is only limited by the game developer.

[PhilUp]

Excellent use of the world's first professional grade tablet

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Ninjatogo]

There are a few things you should take note of.

As powerful as the Playbook is, the OS is not as lightweight as the OS on consoles. It takes up about 400MB when the Playbook is turned on. From what I have been reading, the Xbox and PS3 OS take up about 50-60MB of the RAM, much less than the Playbook.

The components of the Playbook already get pretty hot and they only run at about 1GHz with a dual core on the CPU side. The GPU performance is pretty decent, but putting something beefier in might unbalance the heat/performance output too much. I imagine, Sony has had to scale back the speed of the GPU/CPU in their upcoming PSVita, because of heat, or they may have worked together with the manufacturer to design an exclusive version of the chips that use less energy and produce less heat.

I do however, agree with your statement; the Playbook could take on the Wii, even though it's still not as graphically capable as it. If it were marketed as an all in one multi-tool, demonstrating ALL of it's potential features (software), it could possibly, just possibly become the next Wii. Then again, this is all hypothetical, this could be said for many devices today.

[aft1981]

As I mentioned, I agree the specs of the PB aren't up to those of the PS3/Xbox, but they do surpass the Wii.

The Wii has a single core processor clocked at around 700Mhz ish, and only 88mb of RAM, 0.5gb of flash memory and can't output in HD.

Yes the PS3 has a faster processor @ 3.2ghz, but it is 6 years old and single core, as opposed to the PB 1ghz dual core. Also, although the PB OS itself uses 330mb of RAM (mine does anyway), that still leaves 670mb free to use for games/apps. The PS3 has 256mb of main RAM and 256mb of video RAM, while the xbox has 512mb of unified RAM. So even with the OS using up 330mb on the PB, there is still more spare than the consoles have in total.

Also as mentioned, the PB has the advantage of not having to read game data from an optical drive.

I know current specs aren't as good as the PS3, but in the not overly distant future, who knows.

The PB can however definitely compete with the Wii spec and potential wise. If RIM can persuade game developers that the new set of tools they have really can make it worthwhile building games for this platform, then I think the PB can go far. Look at how successful the Wii has been, if we get the games for the PB, who wouldn't want a portable, better version of one?!

[lnichols]

I think that unless RIM gets something like the Cyclone (Blackberry TV) that would allow the Playbook to be used as a controller to a TV like AppleTV and Airplay, then it can't even think of competing with a game console. Maybe with DLNA, but not everyone has DLNA TV's (I have two fairly new ones and neither supports DLNA). Can't see keeping an HDMI cable in and playing games on a big screen. I was really hoping they would announce the Cyclone at DevCon as there was a release date sheet that showed Oct 31 as a date.

[nextlevel88]

I know current specs aren't as good as the PS3, but in the not overly distant future, who knows.

The PB can however definitely compete with the Wii spec and potential wise. If RIM can persuade game developers that the new set of tools they have really can make it worthwhile building games for this platform, then I think the PB can go far. Look at how successful the Wii has been, if we get the games for the PB, who wouldn't want a portable, better version of one?!

Well, in the not too overly-distant future, the PlayBook still won't cut it. On February 2nd, Sony will release the PS Vita. It has a quadcore processor and has 512MB of RAM, and 128MB of VRAM, and it's more portable than the PlayBook. The Wii is weak spec-wise, but it's immense popularity is because it has new and unique ways to interact with games. The Vita has that too, with a multitouch screen and multitouch rear panel, as well as a standard dual shock setup. And, perhaps most importantly, it's only $250 without 3G. That's really the whole thing about it. The entire business model of mobile tech like phones and tablets is quite different from that of game consoles. The consoles are initially sold at a loss, then the companies profit through licensing the games for the console.

So, while I think you're on to something when you say that games on the PlayBook have the potential to blow people away, even console gamers, I don't think it's a market that it can compete in right now. If it were, Apple would've done it a long time ago. Their install base is huge.

[esqlaw]

Tablets won't be as powerful as consoles... ever (atleast within the next 10 years). Playbook doesn't hold a candle to the xbox360 or playstation 3. At all. The next generation of consoles will have much higher specs and tablets will be left in the dust again. And even the average PC will be in the dust for a short while. Talking of PCs... tablets will never dominate in gaming.

And gaming won't be all digital in the near future. Either way... each of those mentioned consoles have better digital markets than the PB. Higher quality than apple's market. Xbox live actually has quality control for their content.

[grahamf]

There are a few things you should take note of.

As powerful as the Playbook is, the OS is not as lightweight as the OS on consoles. It takes up about 400MB when the Playbook is turned on. From what I have been reading, the Xbox and PS3 OS take up about 50-60MB of the RAM, much less than the Playbook.

the PB has 1GB of RAM
Wii: 64MB (the Wii reboots to get in and out of the Home Channel)
XBOX 360: 512MB (shared with the GPU)
PS3: 256MB

The components of the Playbook already get pretty hot and they only run at about 1GHz with a dual core on the CPU side. The GPU performance is pretty decent, but putting something beefier in might unbalance the heat/performance output too much. I imagine, Sony has had to scale back the speed of the GPU/CPU in their upcoming PSVita, because of heat, or they may have worked together with the manufacturer to design an exclusive version of the chips that use less energy and produce less heat.

That I don't know. It's possible that when developers optimize their code it runs more efficiently and doesn't heat up the PB as much.

I do however, agree with your statement; the Playbook could take on the Wii, even though it's still not as graphically capable as it. If it were marketed as an all in one multi-tool, demonstrating ALL of it's potential features (software), it could possibly, just possibly become the next Wii. Then again, this is all hypothetical, this could be said for many devices today.

How positive are you that Hollywood>PowerVR™ SGX540? the Wii's GPU is five years old, and times have changed. The incremental upgrade of PowerVRs powers the PS Vita, which Sony claims to be as powerful as the PS3.

Obviously that most likely means the PB is not as powerful as a PS3, but it's easily more powerful than the Wii.