Microsoft files a patent for console upgrades

Category: News Wire Published on Wednesday, 11 July 2012 14:10 Written by scaR Hits: 265

As plans roll forward towards the next generation of consoles, Microsoft is looking to own a key patent. Engineers at the tech giant have been looking at creating a base platform for consoles, similar to a motherboard in the PC world. This would be a much simplier system and have the option of replacing a few key parts fairly quickly and easily. Most notably the CPU and graphics chipsets for starters.

This development may signal the end of the console life cycles as we know it. The current 10 year life cycle may become much larger or very likely non-existant. Backward compatibility problems would be an old wives tale. You would buy upgrades to suit what you play. Consoles would finally be able to keep the pace with PC games. This would allow developers to push hard against technological limits without the consideration of a lowest common denominator.

Would you prefer to upgrade your old console or continue to buy into new generations?

[ source : http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-microsoft-scalable-platform-patent ]