“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.
cam the man
I think the biggest threat to consoles will come from online game streaming, but not for a while yet as the internet infrastructure is no where near as good as it needs to be.
I have a smart phone and a tablet but very rarely use them for gaming. I prefer a console and a large TV.
Shotgun75
‘Core’ gaming on a mobile phone or tablet, I’m sorry but I’ve yet to experience anything near a hardcore game on a mobile phone or tablet. By there very nature the games developed for a mobile are cheap to make and run on hardware that couldn’t possibly (at the moment) support a ‘Skyrim’ or a ‘Killzone’. At best I think games on mobiles are a pick up and play affair, and from my experience they are mostly a poor distraction.
As said previously, how objective can a developer who has just started producing games for mobiles be?! There will always be a market for a high-end gaming experience on a big TV in the comfort of your arm chair, will that always be on a console or PC, maybe not. Will mobile games every surpass this experience, cant see it myself.
JesseDeya
Why does he seem to think Occulus and consoles are mutually exclusive? PS4 would almost certainly have the power to run Occulus and its PC like nature means drivers should be easy for devs to include in their games, or patch it later to match PC versions.
As for mobile, hello… PS Vita… hello PSV/PS4 integration. Hello cross buy/play/save. Was McGee even paying attention to the PS4 launch??