New Console Developer? Ian Bell Announces 'Mad Box'

[Paul Jeffrey]

Slightly Mad Studios Ian Bell has confirmed on Twitter that the developers behind Project CARS are working on a new and super powerful console.

Intending to pitch right into the fight for console supremacy with the likes of Microsoft and Sony, Bell has confirmed that SMS are working on the provisionally titled 'Mad Box' device, with plans to significantly move the console marketplace forward with what has been described as "the most powerful console ever built...".

Although plans are in the infancy at this moment in time, Bell has stated that the new Mad Box console should be VR compatible from the off, with a proposed 90fps per eye, 180 FPS internally expected at the point of the consoles release - expected to be two or three years away at this stage.

Although much of the internal spec is still under consideration by Slightly Mad Studios, the overall design of the console has surfaced earlier today, as can be evidenced by the screenshots in this article, and Bell has been in very bullish mood during much of initial reveal discussions on social media - coming straight out of the blocks with some very impressive statements about the consoles capabilities once launched - easily putting the new Mad Box in the frame as a potential Xbox and PlayStation 4 beating piece of hardware.

Of course it is still early days in the development of the new Mad Box, but if the initial plans for the console do come to fruition this will be a very impressive piece of kit indeed. One of the key features mentioned briefly by Ian is the desire to open up the game engine to developers, presumably allowing game developers to access the engine platform in which to develop new games. Furthermore, Bell has stated that this will be a free facility for developers, which should be a powerful incentive for game studios to create content that works well with the new console.

All in all this is certainly a surprise move from SMS, and one very interesting topic to keep an eye on in the coming months..

 

 

[Deleted member 6919]

I find it ironic their logo is a bug considering PC1 and 2...

Also that Pcars is a anagram of Scrap..

 

[ermo]

Added some more quotes to my "speculation post" from an earlier page.

 

[TheGrunt]

Its not always about how powerful its gonna be, but instead its what are the exclusives going to be? xbox has forza mororsport, forza horizzon, halo, etc Playstation has Gran turismo, god war, etc So whats this going to have that those 2 don't?

This.

Consoles are about exclusives which are the backbone of their ecosystems. If MadBox or whatever is just another Linux box, it will be just a restricted PC without any real a ecosystem. On the otherhand, if they want to develop a whole new ecosystem with their own OS and services, it will be a monumental (and expensive) task, one that currently three corporate giants, MS, Sony and Nintendo have enough resources and are also willing to invest in billions of dollars. And just as a refresher, I believe it was just in the second year of the X360 when MS was able to make profit from Xbox franchise, so if Ian wants to create something similar, he should prepare to be in red for a long time.

Linux box way isn’t that much easier as we could see with Valve and their partners developing Steam Machines. You are competing with PCs so what is the incentive there?

Good luck, but I will admit that my first reaction when I heard of this project on friday(?) was ”pfffft”. This is just not going to work.

 

[RufGTI]

Hey guys,

Ok I know SMS based topics often result in some.... heated opinions... however please try to stay civil in here, and steer well clear of personal insults. Come on, I don't want to have to spend time debating if I post SMS related news in future for fear of the way the comments will go - so work with me here please and keep it respectful!

Cheers

P

When Stefano Casillo had his meltdowns on the official AC forum he was criticised by the same people who now are mocking on Mr Bell. Some people (including me) might have gone a bit too far but generally imho this is not a case of making fun of SMS for no reason.

 

[RKip455]

Going to be an interesting thread......... My respect for Ian Bell has gone up ... It's a Crazy Mad idea but he's got balls...... Hate or love SMS/Pcars it's got people talking . In the mean time SMS brand/Pcars 3 hype will stay alive

View attachment 284524

Yes he does and whats wrong with new optimism from Ian... I'll get one and maybe you never know... he just might pull it off. I always felt the gaming industry needed a reset... this may just make them improve their equipment and unit specifications.

I truly believe pCARS push Forza Series to release more tracks with their game.... 6 release!

 

[Andy_J]

No one

I mean you can take out ISI and insert KUNOS if you feel AC/ ACC is better physics engine or any other studio .......of course, I am not that egotistical

My point is most be happy if they don't build this yet keep the same engine just so they can complain about physics all over again

No one understands me

What has your ranting got to do with the is new console?

 

[MarkR]

Over on Twitter Ian Bell is offering a prize of 10k and free games for life for the best slogan for the ‘Mad Box’, if they use the slogan you win. It has to be better than the official ‘You’d be Mad to not buy the Box’ he got from some marketing co.

Show him how it’s done and for those who dislike pcars a great way to get yourself a significant refund!

 

[Pixelchaser]

Over on Twitter Ian Bell is offering a prize of 10k and free games for life for the best slogan for the ‘Mad Box’, if they use the slogan you win. It has to be better than the official ‘You’d be Mad to not buy the Box’ he got from some marketing co.

Show him how it’s done and for those who dislike pcars a great way to get yourself a significant refund!

Mod Edit: Please refrain from personal insults.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Bugs in our box will drive you mad.
How about that, where I collect the prize?

 

[snyperal]

Mad box! More entertaining than your girls box....

 

[ermo]

whilst its a joke yeah that kinda happened already.

If you're referring to Austin and PRC, I'm afraid your argument doesn't have a leg to stand on. Austin himself has noted that it is much more fruitfui for him to be able to offer his feedback directly to SMS with the benefit of internal access. PC2 was also improved in certain areas as a direct result of his feedback and criticism.

If you're not willing to accept this as fact, then I submit that you might not fully appreciate how software development and physics model correlation works in practice.

 

[ermo]

Mad Box - Crazy Good Gaming

... except somebody already suggested it before me :/

 

[whip]

 

[Pixelchaser]

If you're referring to Austin and PRC, I'm afraid your argument doesn't have a leg to stand on. Austin himself has noted that it is much more fruitfui for him to be able to offer his feedback directly to SMS with the benefit of internal access. PC2 was also improved in certain areas as a direct result of his feedback and criticism.

If you're not willing to accept this as fact, then I submit that you might not fully appreciate how software development and physics model correlation works in practice.

yeah, if you like besides the complete spin is not fact. prove to me that pcars was better because of austin and ill accept it as fact. for this you need to show me pcars without austins help. so how can you prove this fact that you proclaim ? you cant. its just more fancy nonsense in the form of text.

Mod Edit: No personal insults please.

 

[Kjell81d]

Kind of waiting for the roadmap announcement...
https://www.techradar.com/news/amd-to-announce-7nm-processor-and-graphics-cards-at-ces-2019

With Ryzen they fixed the single threaded performance & perform better than Intel Sandy Bridge clock per clock which most people can live with without drawback.

Vega isn't what I would say a proper overview, but you can see the database of the RX 580.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-580.c2938

Same memory bus width as the GTX 980 & the die size is smaller on the 580. It also perform about the same for mobile spec. When you compare clock per clock, it give you a slight idea how close they are to the competition.

Pascal & Turing benefit from higher clock speed boost & don't expect that kind of speed in mobile devices.

I'd love to AMD produce a high-end graphics cards (Nvidia *80+ equivalent) but that's likely going to take years. The last two generations were just OC'd 300 series cards. Even the 590 is just an overclock on an overclock of the 480. And I don't see Intel graphic cards even coming into play. From some rumors, they'll like be focused toward server and rendering rather than consumer graphics.

As for their CPUs, they are moving fast. A little too fast to drop money on Threadrippers. Gen 2 just released and was a huge step over Gen 1. Now, Gen 3 is coming soon.

 

[callumjtc]

Also that Pcars is a anagram of Scrap..

Mhm, I wonder what it'll be like playing one of their games on there, buggy games on a buggy console = max frustration.

 

[Pixelchaser]

ok I find these edits on me a bit strange. as i can only think the world just changed on me over night and the social rules concerning discussion about the actions of 3rd parties too. its all a bit fishy really given varying contexts. some relationships there maybe ? anyway i care not. enjoy the console. id be delighted to be proved wrong. and id be respect full of that as "he" would have earned it (pending its quality of course) you see that's all i care about, the reputation people "earn". surely its not insulting to discuss the negative reputation someone earns ? everyone gets a chance but its not plural. yet i gave him 2. so who is insulting who here exactly ? that's not a question from me, its what you might need to ask yourselves. the edits are fine really, i understand and wont participate further. but please keep it real ! coz this is bordering into something other than a freedom to discuss things at face value which i thought was fine here as far back as the day before yesterday.

 

[Haiden773]

Upgradable GPU?

Yeah.. because all GPU are the same size. I'm sure they'll slide right into that slot...LOL

 

[whip]

the worrying part is the amount of ppl sucking up to him on twitter, the worlds IQ really is lowering

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

For any next-gen console to work, whether it be from MS/Sony or a rogue company trying to enter the market, it's really not on the hardware developers to provide a good console, but rather devs to provide good games.

And I'm sorry, but after the absolutely insane state of AAA-games this generation, there's no reason to be excited for any new console. SMS could pull off the impossible and put out a good console, but it wouldn't matter at the end of the day because devs are just completely losing the plot.

Fallout 76? Complete disaster from top to bottom.

Battlefield V? Missing 40% of features at launch, with black female Nazi soldiers. Oh and they're not actually Nazi's because that's offensive I guess. CEO lashes out as fans for being "uneducated" when they draw attention to any of this.

EA Sports games? Ultimate team has completely taken over. Franchise modes with broken AI logic EA doesn't care to fix. Go to Ryan Moody's YT channel if you want a breakdown on Madden. Promise it's worth it.

Battlefront II? Lootboxes so bad Disney had to step in.

Need for Speed Payback? Rehashed open world w/ lootboxes. Sorry, "prize cards."

Fortnite? Horrid netcode. This game is actually kind of fun when it works though.

Blops 4? Sorry, we ran out of ideas, here's our take on Fortnite. Also the beta had better netcode by 33% because we wanted to sucker people in lmao.

Horizon 4? Here are useless Fortnite emotes and this annoying prize wheel mechanic. Also we haven't changed the game since Horizon 1.

I will do my part to ensure it's the best possible console we can release, but will I purchase any next gen console to play at my own leisure? lmao no.