hussien-11
Senior Content Specialist
There is probably going to be more content coming in the next few months in terms of the technology we used from the demo, but if we look at it from two years, 'where are we going to land?' we are very, very interested in real-time lighting for many reasons.
First of all, for us it is really important to provide real-time editing pipelines for our artists. So having a real-time solution for lighting, real-time solutions for navigation, real-time solutions for almost every aspect of the game ends up giving a lot of freedom to our artists, allowing them to iterate and polish way faster.
- سيكون هناك محتويات جديدة قادمة لديمو لومينس
Q: One of the more solid rumors we've heard about next-gen is that Sony would be moving away from proprietary tech and dumping the Cell concept, moving back to an off-the-shelf solution. Would that be something you and other developers would welcome?
Julien Merceron: Oh definitely. There are two aspects to complex hardware. When hardware is too complex to target, it leads to a smaller number of titles available for launch, and then with fewer titles you end up not being able to sell your platform really well, so you actually start with a big disadvantage. PS3 and 360 haven't found a way to be as successful as PS2 was. On the other hand, if you have complex hardware, although you have problems at the beginning, you do have potentially better longevity for your platform because every year quality is going to increase as developers find out all the optimizations they can use.
But with a simple architecture you do give more chances to everybody, which I believe is very important based on the critical business situation we're in. Games will be more costly. If you start to make the entry bar really high, more studios will die, more publishers will die, there'll be less titles on platforms, etc. If you make it accessible, you give more chances to people, you'll have a better portfolio at launch , but now you also have a problem with your longevity. Studios could be 80 percent perfect one year after the console has shipped, so games for years afterwards will look the same.
Now, I would say that this is not a problem anymore. It was a problem in the generation of offline platforms. Now you don't need to manage longevity by complexity of programming, because your longevity is ensured by your online model. And I would suggest that maybe we don't want long generations. We have Sony and Microsoft talking about this generation lasting 7,8,9 or even 10 years and it's the biggest mistake they've ever made.
This generation has been way too long, and I say this because you have a lot of developers that work on a new platform, and perhaps will not succeed, so they will wait for the next generation, and will jump on that platform. You could not do that with this generation though. So these developers went elsewhere to see if the grass was greener. They found web browsers, they found iOS, they found other things and a lot of them won't come back to the hardware platforms. So you could look at it that thanks to Microsoft and Sony and the length of this generation, it helped the emergence of other platforms and helped them get strong before the next hardware comes out.
- هناك مساوىء كثيرة لتقديم هاردوير معقد، ألعاب قليلة ستكون متوفرة وقت الإصدار مما يؤدي إلى مبيعات و انطلاقة أقل للجهاز، البلاي ستيشن3 و الإكس بوكس360 لم يجدوا طريقة ليكرروا نجاحات البلاي ستيشن2، على صعيد آخر .. الهاردوير المعقد يمنحك إمكانية لتظهر تحسنا أكبر في المستقبل، و يمنح جهازك عمرا أطول في الأسواق، يبقى الهاردوير الأبسط أفضل و الهاردوير الأعقد يؤدي إلى موت الكثير من المطورين و الكثير من الناشرين، الهاردوير الأبسط يعطي فرصة أكبر للمطورين
أكبر غلطة قامت بها كل من سوني و مايكروسوفت هي الحديث عن دورة حياة طويلة، تصل إلى 7 و 8 و 10 سنوات، هذا الجيل كان طويلا أكثر من اللازم، هناك الكثير من المطورين لم ينجحوا مع الأجهزة الجديدة، هؤلاء سينتظرون الجيل الجديد و يقفزون إليه لكن هذا الأمر لم يكن متاحا هذا الجيل، لذلك قفز هؤلاء المطورون إلى منصات أخرى، هؤلاء وجدوا ألعاب المتصفحات و الـios و غير ذلك، و لن يعودوا إلى المنصات الجديدة، يمكنك أن تقول بأن تأخر سوني و مايكروسوفت في طرح أجهزة جديدة ساعدت في ظهور منصات أخرى و تسببت في جعل هذه المنصات قوية قبل أن تصدر أجهزة الجيل القادم.
4Q: Looking at what Nintendo has been doing, I think a lot of people were expecting a bit more from them. Graphically, it doesn't appear to look better than a 360. Have you looked at the tech behind the system? What is your take on their approach?
Julien Merceron: If you look at the recent Nintendo platforms, the DS, 3DS and the Wii, it seems like they are trying to avoid aligning too much with Sony's and Microsoft's strategies. They are trying to take a different path, a different perspective on things. The type of entertainment they provide focuses not so much on graphics or immersion, but more on high-quality and innovative gameplay. They try to be different, they try to find a different market and they try to solve problems that they perceive as being the most important to solve today. So yeah, Microsoft and Sony are trying to solve different sets of problems. Their focus from a consumer perspective is completely different.
I strongly believe that the Wii U is going to provide new ways of interacting with games and there is definitely a community out there that is interested in that. Now there will definitely be another community that won't be too interested in this, and will be interested more in Hollywood blockbuster type of games with cinematic gameplay experiences.
So really I think that if I take a step back on this, I think it is one of the best times for consumers. Today, you can play on iOS, the web, the 360, PS3, Wii, Vita and so many other platforms. Because of the differences, they get a wide variety of experiences. I think it has probably never been as great as today to be a video game player and Nintendo is helping to bring this variety. We saw on the Wii that they helped broaden the market and it benefits everyone. iOS is helping to broaden that market as well. Maybe in five or six years these players will be hardcore players. I would say that all the work Apple and Nintendo are doing today to broaden the market will be one day beneficial to Sony and Microsoft. I hope the new platforms that Sony and Microsoft are making will choose different directions to offer even more variety and diversity for gamers.
- ننتندو تتخذ طريق مختلف كليا عن سوني و مايكروسوفت، ننتندو تضع في المقام الأول تقديم تجربة لعب مميزة و مختلفة، ننتندو تريد تجنب مايكروسوفت و سوني و تستهدف لاعبين آخرين و أسواق مختلفة، هم يحاولون حل المشاكل من منظورهم الخاص، كما يحاول كل من سوني و مايكرو حل مشاكل أخرى من ناحيتهم، أنا أؤمن بقوة بأن هناك جمهور مهتم بالجهاز، و بالتأكيد سيكون هناك فئة غير مهتمة تريد الحصول على تجربة هوليوودية سينمائية في الألعاب.
- بالنسبة للمستهلك، الوقت الحالي من أحسن ما يكون، يمكنك أن تلعب على المتصفحات، الـios، الـ360 أو الـPS3 أو الوي، الفيتا و منصات أخرى متعددة، و بسبب الاختلاف بين هذه الأجهزة ستحصل على تجارب واسعة و متنوعة، لم يكن هناك وقت أفضل من هذا لتكون لاعب فيديو و ننتندو ساعدت في خلق هذا التنوع، رأينا مع الوي كيف تمت توسعة السوق و كان هذا أمرا مفيدا للجميع، و الـios يفعل ذلك أيضا الان، ربما سيصبح الكثير من هؤلاء اللاعبين "هاردكورز" في المستقبل، و هذا سيفيد سوني و مايكروسوفت أيضا، و أنا أتمنى أن تكون أجهزتهما القادمة متنوعة و مختلفة أيضا.
Q: Does that mean that they will not make consoles after the next round? Are they going to do something different? Are consoles going away?
Julien Merceron: A very good question. If you go back 10 years ago, there was no software platform. It was hardware or nothing. Today, you have many software platforms. Whether it is Facebook or web browser, everyone is going to software platforms. If you look at the trends, the number of software platforms is going up, and in comparison, the amount of hardware platforms is probably going to reduce. It is way cheaper to launch a software platform compared to a hardware platform. Now we are in a world where people want to play from anywhere. They want to be connected always; they want to be connected to their friends, to the games. Even the designers of today cannot think about 'that game' on PS3 or 360. They have to think about the experience of a consumer from when he wakes up to when he goes to bed. He has to be able to stay in the world through mobile, tablet, console, TV and web.
- منصات السوفتوير تتزايد و منصات الهاردوير تتناقص، المطور الان لا يفكر فقط في اللعبة على البلاي ستيشن3 أو الإكس بوكس، لكنه يفكر بتجربة المستهلك منذ أن يستيقظ من نومه حتى ينام، المستهلك يريد أن يبقى متصلا بالعالم طوال الوقت عن طريق الهاتف، التابلت، الكونسول، التلفاز و الويب.
