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Epic: Nex-Gen Consoles Must Be "Fundamentally New"

What to expect from the next generation of consoles? Well, Gears of War producer Epic Games says we need a "dramatic leap in quality."

During a recent VentureBeat interview, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said we shouldn't get new hardware until we can see a pronounced jump in terms of technical capability. "It has to be huge and fundamentally new," Sweeney said.

He also spoke about the extended console cycle this generation. On the one hand, he says it's great for business because they can ship three Gears titles on the same piece of hardware. And with each new installment, more people own 360s, so the games can sell more. But on the other hand:

"...it gets harder to generate the same excitement from the same hardware. That is when the new hardware is justified. But then you reset the installed base to zero and it’s a lot harder to sell a lot of games again."

Obviously, Sweeney is talking from a Microsoft point of view as his company exclusively supports the Xbox platform, but these are general comments that can apply to any new piece of gaming hardware. On Sony's side, it's difficult to imagine a "dramatic leap" in quality but then again, we said the same thing about the PS2 when it first arrived. Heck, we've been saying that for decades...it's tough to see the future, you know?

Tags: next-gen, next generation, next gen consoles, ps4, xbox 720

2/2/2012 8:26:44 PM John Shepard

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Comments (10 posts)

playaplus
Thursday, February 02, 2012 @ 9:54:29 PM
Reply

so basically they want a ps3...w/o having to learn new shit...um...not gonna happen bro...

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Beamboom
Friday, February 03, 2012 @ 5:32:03 AM

What part of "fundamentally new" do you think indicates they do not want to learn "new shit"?

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BigBoss4ever
Thursday, February 02, 2012 @ 10:20:18 PM
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..."Epic: Nex-Gen Consoles Must Be "Fundamentally New"... to me, it means, Blu-Ray get phased out, the elusive Ultra-TV is popular in the market...until then, don't expect me to even look anywhere else beyond the PS3...as said many time.




Last edited by BigBoss4ever on 2/2/2012 10:24:49 PM

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Qubex
Friday, February 03, 2012 @ 1:47:05 AM

I have to disagree... I think we need to see a PS4 handle full HD 1080p at 60 fps with ease. Then we have leaped forward quite bit. Think of "Heavy Rain" at this native resolution - how realistic would the characters look?

I mean, it is amazing what the current PS3 hardware can do. The Sony exclusives prove this. Now if we take what the PS3 can do now... increase this power 5 fold, we will be in very nice territory for the next generation of hardware...

Full HD 1080p in stereoscopic 3D. Then all basis are covered I would say for the foreseeable future.

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

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___________
Friday, February 03, 2012 @ 3:03:15 AM

thats not enough, we need more then 60FPS and 1080p.
especially since thats what the ps3 was suppose to do from the start!
releasing new consoles capable of just that would be a disaster, especially if there expecting them to last the usual 6 or so years.
real time ray tracing is what ive always had my eye on, and considering indie developers are doing exactly that now with a PC project i cant see any reason why next gen systems shouldent be able to do it!
this is probably going to be the last generation of consoles, afterwards will probably go cloud gaming like onlive making high powered systems redundant.
so might as well go out with a BANG!
Last edited by ___________ on 2/3/2012 3:04:18 AM

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Temjin001
Thursday, February 02, 2012 @ 10:56:31 PM
Reply

I suspect down the road devs will have to push away from relying on powerful hardware upgrades to make strong impressions on promoting their software. I say this because the rumored GPU spec for the next Xbox represents a relatively marginal leap in performance. This suggests to me a bundling of a KINECT-like controller, where horsepower will have been curtailed because of other ways to motivate consumer interest. A 6x leap in graphics performance factored in with the law of diminishing returns stuggests to me the next gen, at least MS's vision of it, will be one of the smallest generational leaps we've seen by way of processing advacements.

Concering Sony, on the hand, I have hopes they release another technological beast, where gamers are given the option to support peripherial components at their own discretion, with premium produced content designed by the most skilled designers money can buy as it's lead attraction. And lastly, I wonder if the next-gen will mark a deeply entrenched gaming format for a couple decades to come. Where Sweeney and Co. will have to face it getting "harder" by having to rely on working with what you got to generate exictement rather than relying on massive hardware increases to do the talking.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 2/2/2012 10:56:51 PM

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___________
Friday, February 03, 2012 @ 3:00:59 AM
Reply

obviously, no point ushering in new systems spending millions on R&D for a slight upgrade.
it is pretty easy to see the future though, just look at epics samaratan demo.
whole point of that was to demonstrate what UE4 will be capable of, and what they expect next gen systems to be delivering.
im expecting next gen systems to be exactly what they always have been, a big leap forward in technology simply because they have to!
a small upgrade today, means outdated tech in a years time, especially at the rate video cards and such are advancing lately!
almost like were getting new cards every few months!

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raptassassin
Friday, February 03, 2012 @ 6:47:16 AM
Reply

I dont really want Nex-Gen consoles yet im still happy with my Ps3. Between my backlog & my yet to purchase backlog i got enough games to keep me busy. I wont buy the nex-gen playstation console till my current Ps3slim yellow lights and the new console are out then i will replace my ps3.

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JackC8
Friday, February 03, 2012 @ 8:49:14 AM
Reply

They can make the hardware as powerful as they want, but I always have to wonder about how the developers are going to deal with it. The game industry isn't exactly swimming in profits to start with, and to really take advantage of a "pronounced jump" in processing power means longer development times and higher costs. Are publishers really going to take a chance on games that have to sell 5 million copies just to break even?

I can certainly see removing the limits placed on games by current gen processing power, but this quantum leap stuff...I dunno.

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Axe99
Friday, February 03, 2012 @ 3:24:00 PM
Reply

Nice article. On the by, Epic aren't 360-only - Bulletstorm and Unreal Tournament 3 both came to PS3 (UT3 on a timed exclusivity deal for consoles) :).
Last edited by Axe99 on 2/3/2012 3:24:16 PM

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