Based in China with over 400 staff, Virtuos is one of the largest providers of outsourced production services
to the games industry, specializing in 3D Art, Animation, Co-development, Engineering and QA.
Its international
management team is led by Gilles Langourieux former Founder and Managing Director of Ubisoft China Studios and
backed by Legend, the number one IT group in China. Since its creation in late 2004, Virtuos’ clients include
leading developers as well as 14 of the top 20 games publishers worldwide.
Website: http://www.virtuosgames.com
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The Wii is not everything. I don't even like it to be honest. Yes, I have tried it. I just don't care. I like old school controllers, period. Saying that they are going out is like saying that Mouse and Keyboard is going out for PC because it is not like the Wii either. Which is total BS.
"Acclaim's David Perry added. “I’m not aware they’re really putting a big amount of effort into finding out what the people who are making the games [want].”"
What has Acclaim done to impress me in the recent past for games? Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
Sony and Microsoft are coming out with lots of great games. If you don't think so I think you are not really looking. Personally I just want EA Sports to make a next gen SSX on PS3 and 360. Then my gaming life would be complete for the foreseeable future.
Anyways, I respect Pardo's comments.
Microsoft made the 360 more than a replacement for your previous gen console with features like Xbox Live, GamerTags, Achievements, etc. These are all software and infrastructure related features. These have been tried and tested, and I think MS has a very good idea of what will and work next time around.
This sort of infrastructure could be carried out on a new console, even if it is based on a Cloud Computing paradigm. This sort of software is something that is in MS's "DNA" and I'm sure that even if Nintendo or Sony attempted their own versions, they'd still lag behind.
Sony, on the other hand, has its biggest strengths in software development (the amount, variety and quality of their first party games is unmatched IMO; Nintendo has the quality, but no where near the numbers and variety) and in hardware technology. The latter will be rendered obsolete with Cloud Computing, and the former doesn't really justify creating your own machine, it would be easier to go the 3rd party route in that case (3rd party exclusives in Sony's favour are becoming rare at this point).
And of course Nintendo would release another accessible controller, which MS and Sony could attempt to copy, but again, this is something that's in Nintendo's "DNA" and I think MS and Sony would be just trying to catch up.
Hey Timo, It's called a modern PC. ;)
When I think of a traditional controller, it really depends on the game. If we're discussing a game like Mario or God of War as an example, I view a gamepad as traditional, but if we're talking about any game that requires a pointer, so a game like Halo, a gamepad is hardly traditional. I know that some PS3 and 360 guys like PC type games, but their love of the thumb has had an adverse effect on PC gaming, as most developers have been quite lazy with their PC releases.
Anyways, I have great respect for companies like Blizzard, as they're not making compromises to their games just to get them to work on a gamepad. Too many other developers have done this, and their games have generally been quite poor when compared to even much older PC games.
On cloud computing, I don't see it being feasible, not unless we all have much higher bandwidths. I know that new OnLive service looks promising, but it's hampered by the average broadband connection. I like to play local games with my friends, so I'll either bring over my comp for a day of fun. If we were all relying on OnLive as an example, none of us remotely has a connection fast enough for even 2 people to play games at a lower rez like 720p -- we're not privileged with 15-mbit down. We could maybe get 3 people on a SD setup, but that's really pathetic for PC gaming. Anyways, just a rambling thought, maybe someday we'll have a gigibit down, and maybe by then the compressed videos being sent to my device won't look like a compressed video.
Different genres really require different ways to approach the problem. One reason why I don't like to play typical shooters on any console is just that: the lack of the "typical" controller (okay, there are keyboards for the consoles but why not play on the PC then?).
In some ways I do disagree with Sony and Blizzard, however. Isn't the whole point of games just having fun? There are many ways of having fun and the traditional pad controller has proven to be a reasonable instrument for providing just that. The point being that while MS and Sony need to think whether they should innovate on their input devices the people analysing their decisions also need to keep in mind that the pad is a good input device and that a different kind of game pad is not going to save the world if there are no games to do the saving... This is why the discussion happens on somewhat thin ice, because all of the console makers have great games on the shelves :)
What comes to cloud computing... No way. Clouds could be used only for some database stuff. The web is currently just too heterogenous to provide fast, realiable broadband access for real-time interaction. Perhaps in the future, who knows...
Finally: '“This is going to make or break [console companies] this time around,” Acclaim's David Perry added. “I’m not aware they’re really putting a big amount of effort into finding out what the people who are making the games [want].”' I would say that it's about what the gamers want and not what the developers want. I would want some very wild input devices, but that's not necessarely what the gamer wants :) But then again, it could be that he meant that what the gamers want THROUGH the developer.
With the popularity of Guitar Hero, I'm sure all 3 hardware manufacturers are very open to allowing developers to create custom input devices. If that's what these guys think is fun, fine, quit yapping and go for it. Of course it will be expensive and risky, perhaps that's why you want someone else to do it for you?
My opinion personally is that games on average were better 10, 15, 20 years ago than they are now. I'd like for people to recapture some of what made those games great rather than letting their blind desire for innovation lead us into an era of stupid gimmicky controllers.
To counter what some people have said about the mouse and keyboard being better for FPS, I'm going to argue that current controllers have their advantages. If you think about it, is it easier to a left analog stick for movement or WASD keys? As someone who games on both console and PC I would say the left analog stick. I can agree that a mouse is better than the right analog stick. As well unlike keyboards controllers are made to be as comfortable as possible, while with a keyboard you sometimes have to move you fingers into some awkward positions that doesn't happen with a controller.
I'm sorry but I'm gonna chalk up this little speech of theirs in the "pure intellectual masturbation" column.