GamesIndustry.biz interviewed executives from EA, Ubisoft, and Take-Two on their thoughts about the Xbox Scorpio, PlayStation Neo, and iterative consoles in general.
You probably won't be shocked to learn they love the idea, since they're presumably a large part of why this is happening.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...playstation-neo-incredibly-positive-evolution
EA (Laura Miele, Global Publishing Chief):
Ubisoft (Alain Corre, Head of EMEA):
Take-Two aka 2K/Rockstar (Strauss Zelnick, CEO):
You probably won't be shocked to learn they love the idea, since they're presumably a large part of why this is happening.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...playstation-neo-incredibly-positive-evolution
EA (Laura Miele, Global Publishing Chief):
GamesIndustry said:"I perceive it as upgrades to the hardware that will actually extend the cycle," she told me. "I actually see it more as an incredibly positive evolution of the business strategy for players and for our industry and definitely for EA. The idea that we would potentially not have an end of cycle and a beginning of cycle I think is a positive place for our industry to be and for all of the commercial partners as well as players.
"I have an 11-year-old son who plays a lot of games. We changed consoles and there are games and game communities that he has to leave behind and go to a different one. So he plays on multiple platforms depending on what friends he's playing with and which game he's going to play. So the idea that you have a more streamlined thoroughfare transition I think is a big win... things like backwards compatibility and the evolution," she continued.
"So it's not my perception that the hardware manufacturers are going to be forcing upgrades. I really see that they're trying to hold on and bring players along. If players want to upgrade, they can. There will be benefit to that. But it's not going to be punitive if they hold on to the older hardware... So we're thrilled with these announcements. We're thrilled with the evolution. We're thrilled with what Sony's doing, what Microsoft's doing and we think it's phenomenal. I think that is good for players. It'll be great for us as a publisher about how they're treating it."
Ubisoft (Alain Corre, Head of EMEA):
Ubisoft's head of EMEA Alain Corre is a fan of the faster upgrade approach as well. "The beautiful thing is it will not split the communities. And I think it's important that when you've been playing a game for a lot of years and invested a lot of time that you can carry on without having to start over completely again. I think with the evolution of technology it's better than what we had to do before, doing a game for next-gen and a different game from scratch for the former hardware. Now we can take the best of the next console but still have super good quality for the current console, without breaking the community up. We are quite big fans of this approach," he said.
"Each time there's a new machine with more memory then our creators are able to bring something new and fresh and innovate, and that's exciting for our fans who always want to be surprised. So the fact that Microsoft announced that they want to move forward to push the boundaries of technology again is fantastic news. Our creators want to go to the limit of technology to make the best games they can... so the games will be better in the years to come which is fantastic for this industry. And at Ubisoft, it's also in our DNA to be [supportive] early on with new technology. We like taking some risks in that respect... We believe in new technology and breaking the frontiers and potentially attracting new fans and gamers into our ecosystem and into our brands," Corre continued.
Take-Two aka 2K/Rockstar (Strauss Zelnick, CEO):
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick pointed out the continuity in the communities as well. "The ecosystems aren't shifting as much. We essentially have a common development architecture now that's essentially a PC architecture," he said. And if the console market truly is entering an almost smartphone like upgrade curve, "It would be very good for us obviously. To have a landscape...where you put a game out and you don't worry about it," he commented, "the same way that when you make a television show you don't ask yourself 'what monitor is this going to play on?' It could play on a 1964 color television or it could play on a brand-new 4K television, but you're still going to make a good television show.
"So we will for sure get there as an industry. We will get to the point where the hardware becomes a backdrop. And sure, constantly more powerful hardware gives us an opportunity but it would be great to get to a place where we don't have a sine curve anymore, and I do see the sine curve flattening but I'm not sure I agree it's going away yet... That doesn't change any of our activities; we still have to make the very best products in the market and we have to push technology to its absolute limit to do so."