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John Carmack is a smart man. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, the id Software mastermind and industry legend mused on the present development methods and how streaming games is a realistic option in the distant — but not too distant — future. Carmack gives quite a heady interview laced with graphical terminology I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. It’s still an eye-opening interview since Carmack is so easily able to move between technical jargon and layman’s terms.
The battle between the PC, consoles and handhelds has more or less been a product of the “lamestream” media and fanboys (yeah, I’ll lump myself in there) while developers see great opportunities. Despite the fact that PC gamers are able to upgrade their systems exponentially, Carmack says that developers are still tinkering with the consoles to see exactly how much power they can get out of them.
It’s interesting in that I don’t feel this current generation is close to tapped out. It’s different from previous console generations. If you go back a couple of generations, like a PSone or something, there were hundreds of programmers that knew what every bit in that machine did, and really had tried all the different reasonable directions you might go on there.
I don’t think there is a person in the entire world that even knows one of the current generation of consoles to that level.
I think it would be interesting to see exactly where developers like id take the present generation of consoles in the future. I’m completely open to a new generation, but then another side of me wants to see exactly what Carmack wants to do with today’s consoles.
I’m also tremendously excited to see what sort of hardware boundaries and innovations Sony and Microsoft are going to push in the coming years. I’m secretly — well, not too secretly — a huge proponent of the Kinect, and the move is also a strong motion controller. Furthermore, developers need to centralize their gameplay mechanics on motion control and not just tack it on.
The bottom line is, motion control can’t be tacked on to a lot of different types of games. You need a game designed for motion control. While local touch-screen is something practically any game could derive some value out of.
A Console Experience On The PC? Tell Me More…
I had a conversation with a friend of mine yesterday about The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings and its porting over to the Xbox 360. He’s also a smart man, and he’s also second to none in my social circle as far as historical knowledge as it relates to video games goes. I often try to see things from his perspective, and I sort of assumed he’d talk down the game since there’s such a divide between PCs and Consoles. However, he dropped a bomb on me saying that he plays the game purely with a controller, and it works just fine as far as he’s concerned. So, perhaps it’s not so far-fetched to say that PC and console gaming aren’t as diametrically opposed as I originally thought.
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A barrier of entry for me is the Games for Windows platform, and how much everybody more or less thinks it’s trash. However, options like Steam, GOG and Impulse Driven offer easy to use download mangers for the convenience of digital distribution. It’s an interesting prospect to me. But then we get to the other barrier of entry, and that’s maintenance. I’m going to come off as extremely lazy, but I like that I can basically leave my consoles alone. Sure, there is the possibility of them breaking down, but I can just ship them off if I’m still under warranty or I can deal with a nominal fee. However, maybe upgrading and maintenance is easier than I think, and I’m just not facing the facts like I should
The Big 3 Exit The Hardware Arena
I then asked my friend to muse about the future of “the big three” and his answer still left me surprised. I figured, for the most part, that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would still be going at it, but he saw things differently. He thought it would be smarter for Sony and Nintendo to drop out of the hardware battle and focus squarely on great software — which are consistently solid titles. However, I had trouble digesting this opinion since I can’t imagine Nintendo nor Sony going toward pure software development. They both have incredibly talented R&D teams, but my friend assured me that this was simply a pipe-dream.
To be honest, I would love a unified console experience, or perhaps even ditching consoles to go with a PC rig (quiet yourself before you tell me to do so, I’ll hit you). The thing is, I’m getting old, and I’ve never been quite attached to the PC platform. I don’t have the capacity, nor the will, to memorize hot-keys or other silly nonsense which is inextricably tied to PC gaming (and the egos of its denizens). However, my friend did light a spark when he explained how well The Witcher worked with a controller.
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Part of me really likes the console experience. I own all three systems, a DS, a PSP and even an Android phone. I like my gadgets, but then there’s part of me that would really like it if all the major hardware companies just made nice and consolidated into one box. Moreover, what if the PC really is the ultimate console? Maybe us console kids have it all wrong, and we’re throwing our money away? Perhaps, we were groomed to cling to our guns and religion Playstations and Xboxes without question.
It’s all up in the air as of now whether steam becomes a centrailized hub, the hardware manufacturers dissolve or PC becomes the de facto gaming console. I would like for the clutter to be cut down, but I just don’t see these manufacturers changing their ways. I might be too focused on the short-term, and this is more talk reserved for fifteen to twenty years down the line. Maybe OnLive is the absolute perfect gaming experience.
(John Carmack interview with Eurogamer)
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