Edge
Last week’s Xbox One reveal event was for shareholders and the mainstream, but E3 will be all about games, says Ubisoft Montreal’s Alex Hutchinson.
He also had a word of warning for fellow blockbuster game developers – if the industry’s creators fail to produce compelling next generation games, the hardcore audience will ditch new consoles to play games on phones and tablets, he told us.
We caught up with Ubisoft Montreal’s creative director last night to get his thoughts on Xbox One’s connected features and what the next generation of Kinect means for game developers. Here’s what Hutchinson told us about Xbox One in full.
What are your first impressions of the console? What do you feel are the big positives and negatives?
There’s nothing more exciting than new hardware, and I love the smell of new plastic as much as anyone, but we need to remember that a hardware announce will never be that exciting by itself: it’s the games that will run on it that are important. The best thing about this generation is that with relatively stable platforms and dev friendly architecture, the success or failure of this generation is firmly in the hands of game developers. Great software will show why dedicated hardware is still the best platform for gaming, and poor software will open the door to phones and tablets. I firmly believe though that there are at least 50 million hardcore gamers out there, and that if you build quality, they will pick it up. And if you can’t make money selling to an install base that size, then you’re making games that real people don’t want or you’re not managing your budget properly.
What do Xbox One’s connected features mean for you as a games developer?
From a developer point of view, not much. It’s more of a political issue for the hardware makers: how can they legitimately protect the hard work of devs and themselves without alienating or pissing off the audience too much? It’s not really a question we’re involved in. We just need to work within the boundaries that MS and Sony define.
The reveal event was more about TV and services than games – do you think there’s more coming at E3?
I think the announce was for shareholders and an attempt at the mass market who may not usually be interested in a new games machine and you’ll see an E3 focused exclusively on games. Our level design director Philippe Bergeron was laughing that so many people were angry at the continued mention of TV but when he checked his friends online seven out of 10 were watching Netflix – so it is something people are using, but it’s definitely games and content that will drive early adopters so E3 needs to be big.
What can you tell us about working with the hardware? How powerful is it compared to a high-end PC or PS4?
Both systems are easy to work with this time round, so I don’t think you’ll hear many complaints, and it lowers the cost of entry for smaller or less technically savvy devs too, so hopefully more people can just make new experiences instead of spending too much time on the tech driving them.
How does the new Kinect fit into your plans? Can games developers choose not to use it if they don’t want to?
The biggest plus is just that it ships with every console: we can assume that players have the device, so we can include it as a core feature in the game whereas before you knew that most people didn’t have it so the feature had to be peripheral at best. I think you’ll see more games using it for bonus features, or at least acknowledging its existence than the current state of most games having zero support and then specific games being Kinect only.
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