Mon, Feb 25, 2013 | 00:38 GMT
BioWare dev: next-gen transition too expensive for major graphical leap
PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox console won’t enable as dramatic a graphical leap as the previous console transition did, BioWare art and animation director Neil Thompson believes.
Speaking to OXM UK, Thompson said it comes down to economics – the industry can’t afford to ramp up development to meet the new hardware’s potential as it did last time we got new consoles.
“Clearly we still hammer up against the limitations of the hardware on a daily basis and if you push those parameters back, as I’m sure the next-gen will do, we’ll hit them again,” he said.
“I think the main thing is that the industry doesn’t get itself into a corner where it becomes economically unviable to make a game. The last technology iteration caught folks by surprise – especially the number of people you needed and the skillset jump that was required to do the work that people expected.
“In the last generation the perception was that it was going to be a ten times improvement over the previous generation. For the next generation there will be a big leap, but it won’t be as obvious
“People will do things in a cleverer fashion. I think they’ll be better prepared, shall we say – but we can’t see a ten-fold team increase again as the budgets would just be ridiculous. You’d have to sell 20-30 million copies before you broke even.”
Dragon Age 3: Inquisition is a rumoured next-gen release; Thompson said in the past that it is “stunningly beautiful” thanks to making the jump to DICE’s Frostbite engine.
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Posted in: EA, PS4, RPG
Tags: bioware, Dragon Age 3: Inquisition, Durango, Neil Thompson, Xbox 720
9 comments
#1
voxelman
25/02/13, 3:25 am
Lol Bioware making excuses again, CDProjekt make games that look and play better than them with a fraction of the resources that Bioware have already.
#2
Phoenixblight
25/02/13, 3:30 am
@1
Go read the article again and then make a comment. They aren’t making any excuses.
#3
Vapsyvox
25/02/13, 7:24 am
@1
Did you play TW1 with your eyes closed, or what? Did you even play it?
#4
mistermogul
25/02/13, 8:41 am
So have we reached a point now where devs won’t make full use of the hardware available.
The PS4 looks nice but maybe the 8Gb RAM is overkill and will never be utilised?!
#5
ps3fanboy
25/02/13, 8:48 am
so they are saying they are just gonna make games of ps3 graphical quality and not bothering using any of the ps4′s powers…. ok… no point in buying a ps4 then… IDIOTS!
#6
ps3fanboy
25/02/13, 8:51 am
@4
they will need every ram they can have in that ps4, because they have put in this social media crap, that these facebook whores have cried for. it will eat 4gb fast i can promise you that…
#7
roadkill
25/02/13, 11:20 am
Hah! Of course there can be no major graphical leap. PS4 has a worse card than my 2 year-old PC has.
#8
mreko3230
25/02/13, 11:47 am
@6 Who’s crying for Facebook intergration? I can say I, I haven’t heard one gamer say “Thank God, its going to have Facebook intergration. I really needed that.”
I can’t see even your most devote Facebook user wanting this. 97% of the people on my Facebook could give a damn about the games I play or what I’m doing with them. Most people’s reaction is like yours. I feel like they are shoving it down our throats more than we actually want or need it.
#9
xino
25/02/13, 9:18 pm
very true.
we can not expect graphics like Killzone 4 or Deep Down from many 3rd party dev.
We can only expect them to pull off graphics like Knack:/