[IndustryGamers would like to thank EA Sports for sponsoring our trip to GDC this year]
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Certain industry watchers, particularly venture capitalists, think that traditional packaged media forms of gaming content are going the way of the dinosaur. Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein, however, disagrees and commented to Gamasutra, "How'd that Modern Warfare 2 do?"
While Rein demonstrated how Unreal Engine 3 was staying at the cutting edge with “ribbon” particle systems, he was also quick to note how they were going to expand onto the iPhone and Palm Pre. "We’re making our business do more things," said Rein.
"Our move into mobile games has nothing to do with the mobile games of today… it’s about the mobile games of tomorrow," Rein explains. "Every year, the phone handset is two times as powerful as the one before. Tim Sweeney will tell you we’re only 3, 4 switches away from being able to run AAA content on mobile."
"Content and tools like ours are more relevant and more important," Rein surmised. "AAA's not going away. AAA's going everywhere."
Even if AAA content doesn't come to social networks and mobile phones, Rein sees them as merely a different choice and not a replacement. He noted that if movie studios took a similar philosophy, there'd never be blockbuster films like Avatar and they would only concentrate on more small budget works. As for those VCs predicting the end of consoles, Rein said, "I don’t understand the relevance of it. These are guys trying to make their investment pay off – more power to them."
Rein also talked efficiency for Unreal Engine 3, noting how a spline deformation tool can help developers create objects in real-time using a single mesh. "When we can come up with a technique that makes us more efficient, our customers can be more efficient as well," says Rein. “I think technically for the number of minutes of gameplay on the screen, we're either able to make better quality in the same [amount of] time, or make more minutes for the same price. Better tools let you do more with less."
Despite concerns of increasing budgets for AAA development, Rein says that better tools can make such games cost less ever year, not more.
On the subject of cloud computing, Rein said that he saw Unreal Tournament 3 running using OnLive. "I was just blown away how well it plays," he says. "If you're that super hardcore player who plays it on the most asskicking-est PC money can buy, you notice lag… maybe everything isn’t turned up to 12, but if you’re a gamer who doesn’t want to go erect a big fancy pc like that… it’s really fun."
As for motion controls, Rein commented, "Microsoft is making a bunch of Natal games with our tech," he says. "They showed me some that they haven't announced, and they were really cool. The one game that I played the most blew me away -- I would definitely buy that game, and I could see me and my kids playing it in front of the TV. But it doesn't have to be one or the other; you can have a great Natal experience, and then you can go play Modern Warfare 2 or Gears 2," he says.
An Unreal Engine 3 tech demo was also shown off in in stereoscopic 3D with customizable field depth, which was apparently amazing. He thinks that the advancement of this tech will determine the arrival of the next hardware generation. "I think a good justification for the next console would be to take a game like Gears of War, play it at a full 1080p, 60 frames per second with twice as much stuff on the screen, and a gig of RAM instead of half a gig -- but I want to play it stereoscopically," hypothesizes Rein. "Think about the PC you’d have to build. But that’s the beauty of the console… they build it with the future in mind, so you can put in all these great parts. The justification for another big hardware spend is… they’re gonna wait until they can build something like that at $300 or $400.”
Conjecturing some more, Rein thinks that the industry will focus on Move and Natal for the next few years, and after they finally get a good feel for how this new technology works, they'll launch the next-generation. "Motion control, gorgeous 3D, more hardware power," enthuses Rein, "And there’s no reason not to do it. You can’t do it any other way. You can't do that without building another console. You can never deliver that [on the cloud] without a client computing system like a console."
25 Comments
6 months ago
"How'd that Modern Warfare 2 do?" ROFLMAO!!!
Let's think of it from their HOPEFUL/WISHFUL, pie in the sky, absolute best case scenario of a business perspective. Lets assume for the sake of argument that they are right, and casual software becomes 2/3's of the console market, and even more of the entire market.
Will core gaming go away if this happens?
If your EA, and there is 1 billion to be made in casual gaming for them and only 200 million for you in core gaming, What will you do, are you going to stop making core games, and only make core games? Not if the CEO does not want to be fired for gross in confidence. That's a 20% drop of profit.
The bottom line is, if there are always customers for a product there will always be companies to serve them. Don't believe me? Look at illegal drugs. These drugs are illegal, and yet companies (cartels, mob, drug dealers) will risk life, and limb, and jail, and social scorn to serve those 'customers' and they think core gaming is going away? HELLO! Core gaming is like crack! I have seen people lose girlfriends over crack, I have also seen people lose girlfriends over games! I have not seen people so addicted that they lose girlfriends over casual games. But my point is if these executives believe there own 'words' about core gaming going away, then it's Time to bring out the drug test!
Will there always be people that want core games? The answer is the same as the answer to the following questions.
Will there always be teenage boys?
Will there always be 20-55 year old men?
Will there be cooking mama, and Sim's loving females?
Did Modern Warfare 2 do good?
Look at illegal drugs, those are illegal and yet companies (cartels, mob, drug dealers) will risk life and limb and jail and social scorn to serve those customers and they think core gaming is going away? HELLO! Time to bring out the smelling salt.
6 months ago
I really liked that article David Radd, thanks! Keep em coming this is the most informative site on the net even when there is SUPPOSE to be nothing leading up to E3.
6 months ago
Ha, glad you liked indysurfn. What I think we'll see with AAA is fewer, more high quality titles. There might be less innovation, but they'll be solid - the innovation will come from smaller indie titles that will come to consoles via download. The way people game now, there are many "tiers" for developers to work on - there'll be plenty of games, whether its a huge, big-budget like Gears of War or smaller titles like Shadow Complex.
4 months ago
They are pretty bright business people, and developers. free driver scan
4 months ago
But back to consoles, this is about to be a heavyweight fight! Because I know Sony is not going to let Microsoft have the lead all the way up until the launch of Natal, and MOVE (Arc). They will drop the price of the PS3 before E3 as a bomb shell! They will make a valliant attempt at gaining the sales momentum over Microsoft. It's good to be the consumer! online fax
4 months ago
But back to consoles, this is about to be a heavyweight fight! Because I know Sony is not going to let Microsoft have the lead all the way up until the launch of Natal, and MOVE (Arc). They will drop the price of the PS3 before E3 as a bomb shell! They will make a valliant attempt at gaining the sales momentum over Microsoft. It's good to be the consumer!online fax
4 months ago
I am not sure if it's a good idea matching Bioware with a company that lacks originality like Bungie....
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4 months ago
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4 months ago
They will drop the price of the PS3 before E3 as a bomb shell! They will make a valliant attempt at gaining the sales momentum over Microsoft. It's good to be the consumer! online fax
4 months ago
But I didn't complain about that during the PS1 days so I won't complain about it now. best ecommerce cart
4 months ago
They will drop the price of the PS3 before E3 as a bomb shell! They will make a valliant attempt at gaining the sales momentum over Microsoft. It's good to be the consumer!ecommerce site
4 months ago
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4 months ago
They will drop the price of the PS3 before E3 as a bomb shell! They will make a valliant attempt at gaining the sales momentum over Microsoft. It's good to be the consumer!
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4 months ago
thought mine was clear. playstation eye and eyetoy were lame. because camera based controller free gaming is lame, and thus natal will be lame.identity protection programs
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3 months ago
And even though that sub might imply that the players are "returning", that could or could not be true. Many players keep a sub going just to keep up with skill learning. It's really the same with any game that has the developer never tells "unique players" but "Active subs."standing coat racks
3 months ago
Very few have ever even tried, Crimson Skies being the most notable and recent example. Fortunately this is why we have independent game developers.id theft protection system
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3 months ago
To be honest Natal concerns me just as much as the others, because of the lose of tactile feeling. Humans are creatures of touch, and the lose of that connection might be a problem. Even controllers provide some form of direct link to the game, even if it is just pushing buttons.online fax
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3 months ago
He frequently posts on the Gears of War official forum, and he is regarded as a Comrade of Awesome.
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2 months ago
They will drop the price of the PS3 before E3 as a bomb shell! They will make a valliant attempt at gaining the sales momentum over Microsoft.
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