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THQ boss Brian Farrell has said he believes that the console cycle as was is done and dusted, MTV reports.
“We used to always think of this industry as ‘the cycle,’” Farrell said at the Pacific Crest 10th Anniversary Technology Leadership Forum.
“I think the reality now is there are several sub-cycles,” he added, referring to the handheld market, Nintendo’s Wii, and the staggered launches of 360 and PS3.
“It’s hard now to talk about ‘the cycle’ — I think we have to talk about all of the cycles,” Farrell said. “The way we think about it at THQ is we plan our business around each of those platforms, not around ‘the cycle.’”
Thanks, Edge.
Viewing 2 responses
Robo_1 said:
It’s sure going to make games development tougher I think. If MS are out of the gate with their next box significantly earlier than Sony is with there’s, then, developers are going to be catering for a lot of different platforms, which will make the sharing of resources, much tougher for multi-platform game development.
God only knows how Nintendo are going to tackle Wii2 either, stay where they are graphics wise and keep it uber cheap, update to current PS3/360 levels, or go back to matching the next technological leap.
I don’t think we’ll see quite as big a jump in graphics next gen as we have this gen though, the success of the Wii will have pretty much sunk the tech race which previously characterised the console ‘war’, and the goal will be more about making money from the box, as Nintendo have been doing for years.
Time will tell though, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see fully BC compatible .5 machines released from Sony and MS next gen, with even the possibility of new releases being compatible with both machines, only higher frame rates/resolutions on the newer consoles.
Why piss away a 30 million userbase every 5 years when you could keep them buying software, build one game and sell it on two consoles. It’s not even that radical a concept, as it’s pretty much how PC games have been working since forever, and as long it’s still plug and play, it should still stay user friendly.
SplatteredHouse said:
“even the possibility of new releases being compatible with both machines, only higher frame rates/resolutions on the newer consoles.”
That seems like a likely possibility.