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Words Of Wisdom on 09 April 2008
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Onyxmeth said:
Words Of Wisdom said:

No the Silicon Knights incident unrelated to what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the expectation of semiphenominal nearly-cosmic graphics in pretty much all games. Using and skinning the engine means you have more time to spend working on the other stuff, however those developers whose games are unable to benefit from the engine and cannot afford to handled the associated costs of all development themselves suffer. Essentially that's where the games with good graphics but poor gameplay/bugs will come from. It's speculation, but I'd wager if they hadn't had to spend so much money on graphics to "keep up with the Jones" the games would have turned out better. Epic is only making it easier for some to "keep up with the Jones."

Yeah but that in itself I think should be blame on Sony and Microsoft for jumping the gun. This industry was not ready for such a huge leap in technology. Look at how long it's taking Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII to release. That White Engine from Square is taking a long time to come to fruitation. Most games that are started from the ground up seem to be hitting numerous delays, way more I believe than were seen last generation.

For those that can't "keep up with the Jones'", that's a management problem. There are other avenues to make dollars that don't require those large budgets. The Wii, DS, PSP, PSN, XBLA and now Wii-Ware are all profitable routes for a developer to take if they can't come up with the money to duke it out in the HD arena. You can't put blame on Epic for developers that don't know their own economical limitations and/or development talent.

One thing I've noticed. Does the UE3 not adapt well to the Cell architecture in the PS3? I've noticed there are no Sony exclusives utilizing the middleware engine. I'm not familiar with the tech and what the engine offers completely.

 


I don't know how much blame can be placed on Microsoft/Sony technology-wise.  The console specs are not forcing anyone to go that route.  It's the standards put in place by the larger developers that I would blame.  Still, for the reasons you've mentioned above, I'm thinking that PSN/XBLA are going to be more successful then they would have been otherwise this generation.  A place where you can put games that are almost exempt from the same standards that govern the rest of the games is important.