TotalRoundTable: The Generation after That
Peering into the depths of (next year’s?) Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 from a development perspective.
Published: March 30, 2011
Thomas Grip, Frictional Games:
I agree – downloadable games are the big thing this generation. Not only have they let small games meet a large audience, but they have also let being an indie developer become an actual career. Just a couple of years ago, being a successful indie meant being able to do it as a day-job. Now there are even indies that can afford to fund other indie games. It is really a spectacular development!
This means that there will be more indie games with larger production values, which is a very good thing. But it will also mean that there will be more copies and cheap knock-offs trying to make a quick buck – pretty much what is going on with the iPhone right now. XBLA and PSN are putting up requirements to get around this, so it does not seem like it will be the same with consoles any time soon. But with many parties wanting in, many good games might be lost in the noise.
In either case, I think we have only seen the beginning of this, and we have some extremely interesting years ahead of us – both developers and players.
MNK, features editor:
I really do hope the downloadable services will rush in to fill the yawning void that the major publishers are leaving behind in their mad rush to consolidate their resources around a small handful of large, "blockbuster" titles. To quote Princess Leia, they may be our only hope for an increasingly bleak next generation.
Speaking of which... just when do you think that next generation will arrive? I suspect that the first new console will ship next November, and I also suspect that it will come from Microsoft, but Nintendo may also be a likely candidate.
Sam Bishop, EIC:
Honestly, I think that's exactly what's happened. Would someone like Chair (sorry, ChAIR?) have been able to do Shadow Complex as a retail product this gen? Would any of thatgamecompany's stuff have worked as a disc-based game? World of Goo? And what would have been the pressure to add more to the game when it didn't really need it? Sure, the race for AAA has affected plenty of games, but it's crazy to think that we aren't already seeing a massive deepening of the available ways to play games. Digital distribution has completely changed the PC side of things; on Steam, major retail releases live alongside smaller projects like Audiosurf, and other emerging platforms in that space like Stardock's Impluse – to say nothing of direct publisher platforms like what EA is doing – are all indicative of what we'll see going forward.
I agree – downloadable games are the big thing this generation. Not only have they let small games meet a large audience, but they have also let being an indie developer become an actual career. Just a couple of years ago, being a successful indie meant being able to do it as a day-job. Now there are even indies that can afford to fund other indie games. It is really a spectacular development!
This means that there will be more indie games with larger production values, which is a very good thing. But it will also mean that there will be more copies and cheap knock-offs trying to make a quick buck – pretty much what is going on with the iPhone right now. XBLA and PSN are putting up requirements to get around this, so it does not seem like it will be the same with consoles any time soon. But with many parties wanting in, many good games might be lost in the noise.
In either case, I think we have only seen the beginning of this, and we have some extremely interesting years ahead of us – both developers and players.
MNK, features editor:
I really do hope the downloadable services will rush in to fill the yawning void that the major publishers are leaving behind in their mad rush to consolidate their resources around a small handful of large, "blockbuster" titles. To quote Princess Leia, they may be our only hope for an increasingly bleak next generation.
Speaking of which... just when do you think that next generation will arrive? I suspect that the first new console will ship next November, and I also suspect that it will come from Microsoft, but Nintendo may also be a likely candidate.
Sam Bishop, EIC:
Honestly, I think that's exactly what's happened. Would someone like Chair (sorry, ChAIR?) have been able to do Shadow Complex as a retail product this gen? Would any of thatgamecompany's stuff have worked as a disc-based game? World of Goo? And what would have been the pressure to add more to the game when it didn't really need it? Sure, the race for AAA has affected plenty of games, but it's crazy to think that we aren't already seeing a massive deepening of the available ways to play games. Digital distribution has completely changed the PC side of things; on Steam, major retail releases live alongside smaller projects like Audiosurf, and other emerging platforms in that space like Stardock's Impluse – to say nothing of direct publisher platforms like what EA is doing – are all indicative of what we'll see going forward.
