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Randy Pitchford: Crytek, id In Risky “Generation Plus” Mode
Gearbox president Randy Pitchford believes that a number of developers have unwisely based their current generation strategies around last gen timing.
According to the free speaking executive, the current hardware cycle will be the “longest generation we've seen in the last few of them”, and the likes of Crytek and id Software have put themselves in a dangerous position by investing a lot “going to a place that's too far”.
"Anyone that built their strategies around the last generation timing, and is trying to employ those strategies today, is either being forced to adapt very quickly or is risking failure," Pitchford told OXM. "This is going to be the longest generation we've seen in the last few of them.
"Some people have invested a lot going to a place that's too far, and the customers aren't ready for that yet because they don't have the hardware for it. And so they can't find the market. I was thinking of Crytek, they couldn't find a market because they made a game [Crysis] that very few people could play. I'm not putting words in their mouth, I remember reading something publicly where they said they couldn't put this on consoles because of the hardware.
“It's not just Crytek who misjudged it. We see the id guys talking continuously about this, [with Rage] - 'well, Sony will have a Blu-Ray and I don't know what we'll do on the 360, maybe we'll have three DVD's... if the publisher will let us do that, maybe we'll… I dunno.' Because they're in this kind of generation plus mode, and like nobody knows what the generation beyond this one is going to look like."
In June, Crytek confirmed that the sequel to its highly rated PC shooter Crysis will be the developer's first console game and the debut title built using its new multiplatform CryEngine 3 tech, which the company said previously it was readying for the next generation of console hardware in 2012.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
While I understand where he's coming from, The companies he mentions though have the ability to adapt alot more quicker than Gearbox ever could. AND I wish ID/Crytek would hurry with their releases though.
Gearbox enjoy being up on their fictional high horse lately. ID, Valve and Crytek are much more important devs imo than Gearbox, yet they keep dishing out the criticism as if they're ruling the roost. They have proven a rather important part of the industry, but because of their quality ports, not their IP.
As for id Tech 5, that engine is a true beast, easily scalable, allows for relatively quick in depth environment creation and the biggest boon being it makes it easy to create products for Mac, PC, 360 and PS3 as Rage has shown us. Also Cryteks engine is being made more console centric, as they have demonstrated they have been working hard getting the engine to run well on PS3.
As for the games they make, Borderlands was ok. But easily forgettable. That can't really be said for the games of either of the classic studios Gearbox, a company which historically deals in making ports of other companies original IP, is pitting itself against. Yeah these studios are traditionally PC centric but they're both making a solid effort at the moment to get into console development.
Crysis sold a million units on the PC in its first month! How many has Borderlands sold on the PC I ask? If the Crysis Engine 3 game does anything like that, it will obliterate Borderlands sales.
Same goes for Rage, it will run on PS3/360, hence it will run on dual core powered PCs with an Nvidia 8800 and above. Maybe not in the highest resolution, but it will run. Id will not suffer from system requirement issues. If anything, it remains to be seen if the fps gameplay is up to snuff and whether id can create a decent racing game.