“I was hoping for innovation in control input,” he said, following the PlayStation 4’s New York reveal last month, adding that he “didn’t see anything meaningful, so ‘meh.'”
“It’s nice that they’re moving towards what looks like more developer-friendly hardware and indie friendly distribution,” he continued. “Remains to be seen if the appearance matches reality.”
“Overall, I think this generation of consoles will struggle painfully against the momentum of mobile / online games we’re seeing globally.”
“We’re seeing a lot of blurring between categories as tablets become more like consoles and consoles began to flaunt more and more always-connected and social features,” he says. “The distinction between “tablet” and “phone” is also blurring as we’re seeing mini-tablets and mega-phones gaining in popularity simultaneously.”
McGee’s Spicy Pony company currently develops mobile games, including the duo DexIQ and Crooked House (above), released on both iPhone and iPad.
McGee is clearly in favour of innovation. “Ultimately, people are going to choose based on power, size and convenience – and I think we’re going to see devices emerging which change their form, function and interface depending on where or for what they’re being used.”
“More than anything it’s interface that’s going to drive the most significant change – things like Oculus Rift will radically change people’s demands and expectations – that’s where the real revolution is going to start,” McGee concludes.
What do you think? Is he right? Is the PS4 really innovative and will it, without the infrastructure of cheap, easily available games, struggle against the mobile gaming industry?
Or is it a totally different market?
Interview source: Forbes contributor.
Germanos
The mobile gaming world (if playing on phones can be described this way) will never be a competitive side to consoles (either home or portable ones). Can’t really understand how you could compare both in any way ;/
cc_star
Well, away from Monster Hunter on the 3DS, mobile has eroded the portable market down to a fraction of its former size.
The instant nature, the price entry points, the plethora of games ideally suited to being mobile rather than sat at home the fact that pretty much everyone splashes out on a mobile anyway.
Accompanying the overwhelming number of games ideally suited to being mobile is a great number action titles, strategy, racers, RPGs etc and with half the console developers making the jump to mobile development as console market declines the future for ‘core’ games on mobile looks brighter than ever.
As to whether it will replace home consoles, for some it probably will do. I can’t see boat loads of next gen consoles selling to ‘casuals’ in the second half of the generation which could effect the amount of money publishers can pour into expensive to develop ‘core’ titles.
I think they’ll be a home console market for a lot longer yet, but as with portables the size of the market may not be what it was.
KeRaSh
I don’t know how you guys feel about mobile games but they usually can’t keep me interested for more than a few days after I buy them and even then I only play them during bathroom breaks. As long as that’s the case, mobile games are far from taking over my console gaming.
Germanos
‘Core’ games on mobile? No, thanks. Personally, I don’t care about how many next gen consoles will be sold to ‘casuals’. Sellers at shops should have a quick “Should I sell this console to you quiz”. First question: Name two bosses in Metal Gear Solid :P if a customer fails in it, they should be asked to buy a tablet.
Games are and should be played on consoles. Either home or portable ones. I’m probably old fashioned but: a PC is a work and internet tool, a phone is made for texting and phone calls. That’s how I see the world.
Motalla
The mobile phone and tablet games market is so much bigger that the console market, that for that reason alone more developers will want to have a share of that pie, simply cause of the money involved. Than there still is the huge installment base of the current generation of consoles. Not everybody who owns a ps3 now, will buy a ps4. So it will still be interesting to release games for this generation of consoles.
KeRaSh
So he expected Sony to reinvent the wheel? Pshh…
bunimomike
Agreed although Sony always want to be seen as innovators. Just that they also have to look after their fan-base (as well as the developers for upcoming hardware).
Mobile gaming is growing, fast. There’s no doubting that but it’s still a hugely compromised world where we either have zero actual buttons to interact with or decent amounts of time set aside to enjoy a particular type of game. However, touch screen gaming can be superb and it’s wonderful to see how many people (who aren’t inherently gamers) have been brought into the industry we know and love. Hopefully, we’ll see a percentage of them embrace the home consoles one day. Cross-sell those buggers!
The biggest worry, for home console devs, has to be the development cost of good quality titles. Hopefully, the next generation can provide stunning middleware for the developers to use so as to keep the dev-cost down to a minimum and make financial projections easy to forecast. With that in mind, there’s no reason why both sub-markets cannot co-exist very happily for years to come.
Sad Panda
That’s the problem, rather than be their own entity, the next gen is trying to compete with mobiles by shoehorning in social media and looking at free to play, pay to win, micro transaction bullshit.
There are an awful lot of gamers out there that would prefer a games console that has a couple of extra features over a social media hub that occaisionally plays games.
While it has started with slow sales, Nintedos Wii U could end up the big winner here as it may well be the only console not to enforce the always connected bullshit.
skibadee
seems to always be a dev who has turned to mobile games saying this.
over 20 million people watched the PS4 ads in full on youtube very positive.
PS4 will do it all I reckon can not wait.
aphex187
Sick to death of hearing how mobile gaming will kill off consoles, every robber and his dog has a mobile so it’s expected that mobiles will have a bigger audience!
How many of us have purchased a game on their phone or pad and played it maybe once? I have because the controls absolutely suck!
hazelam
another developer says mobile gaming will take over the world, just as they start making mobile games.
but there’s no correlation.
it’s just coincidence. >_>
if he’s so into innovation, why is his new game just a variation of unblock me with a pretty background?
i really don’t think that Oculus Rift thing is going to be very good for mobile gaming.
when you’re out and about, it’s usually handy if you can see.
and i’d hope sony would be a bit more indie friendly with the PS4, get an indie program going for PS4, they were the first console company to do anything like that with the Yaroze thing for PS1.
and it’s not like we haven’t seen mobile style games on PSN.
there’s Jetpack Joyride.
if the PS4 is as easy to program for as sony say, there could be loads of smaller developers that could develop bite sized titles.
oh, and according to the pages for those games, it’s Spicy Horse Games, not Spicy Pony.
DJ Judas
Consoles have been “killing” the PC for more than a decade and yet nothing has really changed except for housing the best digital downloads system.
If anything, the PC-console relationship is much closer than the console-mobile relationship. I expect we’ll be given comparisons and market share figures for years to come that explain why consoles are dying, yet as long as devs make games for them, and manufacturers keep releasing systems, there will be a market.
I actually wouldn’t mind the console userbase shrinking a bit, perhaps it will make developers and publishers think a little more about the quality they put out in the first place.
The Lone Steven
How have consoles been killing the PC for years? O-o
bunimomike
Due to the easy-access nature, price-point of consoles, piracy and exclusives that never made it to Personal Computers, the PC world of gaming was utterly slammed from all sides. Many developers shifted to a world where the hardware was nailed down for up to ten years as well as combat piracy – let alone a higher RRP than their PC counterparts.
Thankfully, PC gaming is looking healthier than ever with a burgeoning indie scene and a top-notch digital download store like Steam (not to mention how well the PCs prosper towards the latter half of a console’s life-cycle).
The thing that pleases me most about the new tech coming along (from Sony) is how PC friendly it’s all looking. This’ll please devs no end and hopefully both platforms can benefit from such hardware.
DJ Judas
What Mike said; I was being sarcastic when I said consoles were killing PC’s as a comparison for all the “mobile is killing consoles” chatter that is sure to arrive in ever-larger spades in the future.
TSBonyman
No matter how good my phone’s features are – i still want a proper camera if i want to take photos, or a nice fashionable watch to wear .. or a decent computer if i want to browse the internet comfortably.. and yes, a proper console for playing games.
XisTG
It’s just another guy that got tired of the ol’ PC/console games and has now discovered the world of mobile games.
To me these are two different things, both can live along side. I do like some games on my iPhone, but there is no way I’m playing those for more than a couple of minutes VS the amount of time I spend with the PS3.
The Lone Steven
Hmm, 40 hour+ RPGs vs games that are best suited for small journeys. I rather have the 40 hour+ RPGs on consoles instead of the short games that tend to be on mobile.
Mobile gaming is aimed at those who have nothing to do on their journey and the length of the games ensure that the players don’t get bored of it.
Console gaming is aimed at gamers who want to play games for a few hours and are designed to keep the player engaged in it for hours at a time. I can’t see Console gaming dying out due to mobile gaming as the demand for consoles is massive. If anything, PC gaming is the biggest threat to the PS4 due to the layout of the PS4 being simular and it will be very interesting to see if the PS4, which is basically a midrange gaming PC, can outdo the PC market.
Also, i suspect he may be a bit biased due to him working for a mobile gaming development studio. I would say the same if ND said that the PS4 will threaten the mobile market.