Then why did Todd say, in the Inside Gamer video interview posted yesterday, that they've learned so much in 5+ years what you can do with current hardware that its amazing and he hopes the current consoles are around for years to come?

Personally I do not really care which system looks better or if they are all the same. Beth has said that the PC version will have higher resolution, Tectures, ect. on a PC. The PC will have a simmilar menu but more hotkeys and the PC has the Creation Kit that lets you do anything that you want with the game as a PC owner.
I take "Parity of performance" to mean that they are not making a game that will use every new tech to the max because then they have to pay people to redesign it to work for the 90% of people who use consoles.
Parity of performance means they are saving money and developement time by by creating an awsome looking game that will work on all systems the 1st time.
As to the use of things like Dx11 I do not really care since my PC (and probibly many on this forum) is not capable of running it.
I think Bethesda is making the right call and I can not wait till November for my pre-ordered copy to arrive

Probably because when you have a static platform to aim for for a long period of time, you get used to programming for it. Also you get to start focusing on plenty of other things than graphics (AI, inventory system, size, scope). When the hardware is the focus, then what people care about most is graphics, and that often hurts the quality of the games.

Compare the existing console games with the ones that came out early in its life (say, Battlefield 3 vs Perfect Dark Zero). You'd hardly think they were made on the same console

Except that isn't how business works, which leads me to believe the number isn't anywhere close to accurate. You don't improve sales on a product by ignoring untapped markets. If PC sales were really only 10% of OB sales that means they sold just over 500K PC units. That is an incredibly small number for PC sales. Take a look at games like DA:O or ME2 or some other popular rpg on the market and you are easily seeing PC sales in the 1.5 to 2 million or more range. Bethesda isn't going to simply write off easily accessed sales in that volume.

If that 10% is even remotely true you would see Beth marketing folks out there literally salivating while proclaiming how improved the PC experience is over OB and how much effort they have put into that PC platform this time around.

A better comparison (in my opinion) is Oblivion and Skyrim. Skyrim looks much better, in my opinion.

does it really matter? the game will look good anyway, i think it looks great and honestly it's the content and fun of the game that matters the most, sure i enjoy good visuals for the immersion factor but im happy they arent spending more time making the pc version look better for the 10% of their customers and are focusing on making the game better for everyone by focusing on things everyone can benefit from.

The entire engine is designed with modding in mind. No other game engine would be able to just "release" it's SDK the public because those engines aren't designed for non-programmers to use because all other game engines have their data bundled and closed to outside manipulation.

Actually, Skyrim would be a game of MUCH higher quality, because ALL gamers would be on PC, and the quality bar for games would be significantly higher. If there were no consoles, Dell/HP/etc would sell small PCs with good performance that were designed to be hooked up to HDTVs for gaming, and w'd still have gamepads. Gaming would be more expensive (meaning probably 10% less gamers overall), but all games would be of much higher quality if consoles did not exist.

so it seems that the problem in general for gamers, is that most people bought consoles instead of PCs for their gaming needs,
so now, everyone suffers by not having games that could potentially be much further ahead in quality than they are now.

How do console players feel about this? Do you want a new generation of consoles now?

They should spend more time on making the game look better in general, for all platforms. The shaders and lighting isn't that great. Compare how the shaders and lighting look to Crysis 1-2, RDR, Witcher 2, BF 3, and so on. They do it heaps better imo.

Too much platform bashing to leave this open.

I really wish people would read the forum rules, whether they play on pc or console.

This is closed.

Trolling is not allowed here.

In Internet terminology, a troll is someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community such as this forum to bait users into responding. They may also plant images and data that others may find disturbing (usually indirectly relating to the individual in person) in order to cause confrontation.

Flaming is not allowed.

Insulting individuals or groups of members and name calling are flames. Any remark that is made to insult another member or group of members will be considered a flame and thus you may receive a warning for it.
Calling people a troll or an apologist for instance can both be considered a flame as can calling someone stupid or ADD. Attacking Xbox players, PS3 players or PC players is not allowed and calling them "console kiddies" or in anyway indicating someone is in some way a lesser person because of their choice is considered a flame here.