[sandGorgon]

this is a solved problem - the PCIe interconnect for desktop graphics and MxM for laptop graphics give an extremely tested and viable way to upgrade graphics cards. Hell, even the latest Sony Vaio Z comes with an external graphics card (http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/sony-vaio-z-with-external-graph...)

It is completely viable to create an upgradable platform that does not obsolete itself by the time it is released - the problem is not technology itself, it is the console manufacturer management notion that it is a good idea to have planned obsoletion every 3 years or so to get people to buy new hardware.

Give me an upgradeable PS3 with an SSD and Steam (rather than the 10 times slower Bluray) - and tell me that it wont kill desktop gaming.

Nintendo, MS and Sony will be killed by mobile gaming - the latest Kal El pre-production silicon has a 12-core GPU and a 4-core CPU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBvaDtshLY8&feature=playe...

Just a matter of time before Crysis 2 works on your big screen TV through mini HDMI - what remains to be figured out are the controllers

[illumin8]

It won't kill desktop gaming. Upgradeable consoles have been tried before and they don't work. When only a percentage of your customers upgrade you just fragmented your market. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to buy PS3 games if you had to check the box to see which of 3 different graphics cards were supported?

[sandGorgon]

this is accepted practice. All games come with an indication of minimum system recommendations ("nvidia 9800 or greater").

Customers already accept that they cannot play certain games (Crysis?) if their system is not upto mark. Windows 7 has the notion of a graphics "score" as well to figure out whether to turn on Aero.

The only reason why this is not done is forced obsoletion - the customer behavior has existed for a decade or more.

[etha]

Actually, Nintendo's old cartridge-based games already did this to some extent. You were simply plugging in a circuit board, which could, and often did have additional processors, memory, etc on it.

[illumin8]

Usually they didn't. Zelda was the first NES cartridge with battery backed memory for save games, which was unique at the time, but all games still had to run on the 6502 processor.