James Delahunty
10 Apr 2007 6:21
John Romero, ex-designer at id Software and Ion Storm, has warned that manufacturers of gaming consoles need to radically rethink the design of consoles to compete with powerful cheap PCs and the services they can offer in the near future. He believes that Xbox 360, PS3 and beyond need to offer the same services as home PCs, not just for gaming, but all aspects of home entertainment.
"My prediction is that the game console in the vein of the PS3 and Xbox 360 is going to either undergo a massive rethink or go away altogether," Romero said in an interview with The Adrenaline Vault. "Next-gen console is big but its future isn't too bright with the emergence of cheap PC multicore processors and the big change the PC industry will go through during the next five years to accommodate the new multicore-centric hardware designs."
He continued: "The hardcore gamers are going to either be playing on their PCs or a new PC-like platform that sits in the living room but still serves the whole house over Wi-Fi, even the video signal." While he does believe that consoles need to match the performance of PCs and offer the same services, he did have some good words for the less-powerful Wii console from Nintendo.
"The Wii has the perfect design for a console that doesn't pretend to be a PC and is geared more toward casual gamers than hardcore gamers," Romero said.
Sources:
GamesIndustry.biz
The Adrenaline Vault