Epic's Tim Sweeney: Expect Game Platform Consolidation

[exfileme]

Tim Sweeney predicts that the technology market will eventually produce only three or four platforms.

Epic's Tim Sweeney: Expect Game Platform Consolidation : Read more

 

[erunion]

3 platforms! Is this guy traveling through time in the wrong direction or something? Right now we are seeing an explosion in the number platforms after experiencing a long decline in the number of platforms. The smart TV market hasn't even gotten going yet .Sure, some platforms will die off but how does he defend the idea that the new "normal" will be even fewer platforms than ever?

 

[-jonez]

Bring on the competition.

It's nice not having juggernauts that inflate prices like crazy.

Maybe if Windows had some more competition their OS wouldn't be hundreds of dollars.

 

[stingstang]

Don't hate on the head-jack, bro. Madd props for the original virtual reality platform. Old-school for life!

 

[QEFX]

So PC gamers will get more crappy console ports of games that are so bad only console players would buy them .... Hurray.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]-jonez[/nom]Bring on the competition.It's nice not having juggernauts that inflate prices like crazy.Maybe if Windows had some more competition their OS wouldn't be hundreds of dollars.[/citation]

How does $99.99 become hundreds of dollars? I'd like to see the math on that.

 

[fuxxnuts]

[citation][nom]-jonez[/nom]It's nice not having juggernauts that inflate prices like crazy.[/citation]

apple?

 

[jhansonxi]

I'll survive as long as it's something other than iPhone, iPad and Wii after the consolidation.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]erunion[/nom]3 platforms! Is this guy traveling through time in the wrong direction or something? Right now we are seeing an explosion in the number platforms after experiencing a long decline in the number of platforms. The smart TV market hasn't even gotten going yet .Sure, some platforms will die off but how does he defend the idea that the new "normal" will be even fewer platforms than ever?[/citation]

What I think he is getting at is that the platforms will be something like Microsoft/Apple/Web. And your tablet, PC, phone, console/iTV would all run the same games either on the devices hardware or through streaming.

So instead of Microsoft having Xbox as a platform, WP7 as a platform, Windows x86, Windows ARM, they'd all become one platform, which you develop for it, and then the game runs on any device either on the hardware directly or by streaming it from a server or your own console/tower.

 

[Soul_keeper]

The solution is not to support fewer platforms.
The solution is to support open standards, like OpenGL, then all platforms can be supported with the same code base. Epic has failed to do this, supporting directX and proprietary/closed code. There is a difference between programming, and portable programming.

Excuses won't make poor programming practices/ideologies work.

 

[zybch]

[citation][nom]Soul_keeper[/nom]The solution is to support open standards, like OpenGL, then all platforms can be supported with the same code base. Epic has failed to do this, supporting directX and proprietary/closed code. There is a difference between programming, and portable programming.Excuses won't make poor programming practices/ideologies work.[/citation]No, its a difference between making stuff look okay and making stuff look great. OpenGL simply hasn't evolved to match the performance and features and ease of coding that direct X has over the past 6 years.

 

[tomfreak]

accurate human body inputs, and voice recognition such as Apple's Siri.

And yet these feature are still not common in Desktop to make use the awesome performance of a desktop PC, this is why a tablet could outsell a PC because they can do most of the task a desktop could. While the desktop got no better interaction technology despite having a MUCH better hardware. Where is a desktop version of SIRI that is 5-10 times smarter than the Apple SIRI ones? It seems the our stupid Microsoft didnt bother include that in windows 8.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]-jonez[/nom]Bring on the competition.It's nice not having juggernauts that inflate prices like crazy.Maybe if Windows had some more competition their OS wouldn't be hundreds of dollars.[/citation]

their consumer os is 100$, 200$ if you don't go oem, and 30$ if you get it student.

lets make this simple, windows is dominant, but there are 300-500 oses out there, we use windows because its easy and highly compatible.

however if you are talking about a game market... more choices is NOT a good thing.

you have 2 consoles (realistically) 1 pc platform, 1 under powered console (under powered by today's standards, still fun games) and realistically 4 mobile platforms.

two of the mobile platforms are easy to port to, 2 of them are a bit more specialised.
1 console should be the lead (ps3) the other should be the port to (360) and if it gets it at all the pc should be the last thing, if the game was never intended to be on it from the get go.
if the game was intended to be pc, that should be lead, and port to the consoles.

the more platforms you port to the higher the cost goes. i have heard figures in the range of 10 million a platform for a console game to be ported, break even for that much money is in the range of 350-400k more units need to be shipped, if not more. a 50 million $ game takes almost 2 million copies sold to break even.

better graphics crap has really killed the game industry, and multipul platforms hurts it far more than you realize.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

[citation][nom]stm1185[/nom]How does $99.99 become hundreds of dollars? I'd like to see the math on that.[/citation]
It sure as hell isn't available for $99.99 here in Australia. http/www.microsoft.com/australia/windows/buy/default.aspx
$199 just for the Home edition Upgrade version.
Anyway, this Sweeny guy is a wank3r and has no idea, obviously. "Who hasn't bought multiple copies of Angry Birds for both their smartphone and tablet? " -> ME

 

[t_wilson]

[citation][nom]qefx[/nom]So PC gamers will get more crappy console ports of games that are so bad only console players would buy them .... Hurray.[/citation]

The mighty PC gamer, who in his quest for bragging rights spends thousands of dollars on a computer that will be outdated in 12 months and doesn't see the stupidity of it, has spoken.

 

[CaedenV]

Who in the world are buying these iPads? I have a ton of friends, many of whom are Apple users because they are/were art students/professionals, and not a single person I know owns one. Not to say that they dislike the product or anything like that, they just don't see how the iPad is particularly useful for their lifestyle. You would imagine that if iPad sales were really that amazing I would see one from time to time other than at the store.

 

[__-_-_-__]

directX for linux. all I ask.

 

[kingius]

Who in the world are buying these iPads?

A bunch of sales staff in some companies that want to appear 'cool' by keeping up with the Jones's.

 

[willard]

[citation][nom]t_wilson[/nom]The mighty PC gamer, who in his quest for bragging rights spends thousands of dollars on a computer that will be outdated in 12 months and doesn't see the stupidity of it, has spoken.[/citation]
The mighty console gamer, who in his quest for bragging rights buys a console that was outdated five years ago and doesn't see the stupidity of it, has spoken.

 

[upgrade_1977]

The industry is fine... It's all B.S. Just the economy is bad. No matter what happens, PC, Consoles, and other platforms will still be around. And games will get better and better no matter what happens. Everyone needs to put there fears aside and stop worrying about it. The market can't die when so many people stand behind each platform. Thats why they are trying to integrate gaming into so many platforms, cuz everyone wants a piece and thats what consumers want. One day ur gonna be able to plug your brain in just like the matrix. Actually, you probably won't have to because you'll have a chip in your brain and it'll work off of wifi.