EA CEO John Riccitiello says the 4-5 year console cycle is dead
mod
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-07-27-riccitiello-traditional-development-cycle-gone-forever
Instead of "get new dev kit and make a few upgrades to game(s) for the next console cycle". We'll need to be more flexible and varied in our approach and consider more platforms, more hardware and more varied users as we make games. Pretty much rolling back to the PC days when you didn't know who your user was or what hardware/software they where running and how it conflicted with everything else, heh.
I think certain titles will still take 4-5 years to produce and that they'll still bankroll them, but that's just my view, maybe he really is saying that every game is going to need to be done on a mobile budget in a mobile time frame... I guess he could be a moron...
Either way... don't get comfortable we're changing again, as if you couldn't already tell
Some people area reading this as the 4-5year game dev cycle is dead but I don't think that is what he meant. Only that consoles are having to compete with other platforms and a new console every 4-5 years will no longer be the driving force behind technological advancements and pipeline changes."Gone forever is the 4 to 5 year console cadence that gave developers ample time to invest and retool for the next big wave"
-John Riccitiello, EA
Instead of "get new dev kit and make a few upgrades to game(s) for the next console cycle". We'll need to be more flexible and varied in our approach and consider more platforms, more hardware and more varied users as we make games. Pretty much rolling back to the PC days when you didn't know who your user was or what hardware/software they where running and how it conflicted with everything else, heh.
I think certain titles will still take 4-5 years to produce and that they'll still bankroll them, but that's just my view, maybe he really is saying that every game is going to need to be done on a mobile budget in a mobile time frame... I guess he could be a moron...
Either way... don't get comfortable we're changing again, as if you couldn't already tell
Replies
I've been saying that for years but people never listen. Oh well!
I'd like to see the full article to get some more context on that statement since I can't really tell exactly what he's referring to.
The constant stream of new systems and major upgrades from first parties and mobiles?
The shift to delivering games as services rather than products?
The shift back to PC and browser games?
Something else?
I think the most important part is where he mentions that 18 months ago we didn't have the Android, iPad, etc, and for some reason he's omitted the WiiU from this lineup (probably because who knows exactly when it's out?) but the overall message seems to be one that:
A) There isn't an organized structure to hardware releases that can be counted on
Bigjohn, I think he's saying that their previous way of doing business "ignore everything but the 2 consoles" isn't a solid move for them any more and they need to open and consider other hardware and other delivery methods of games instead of just "get next gen dev kit, make game, put game on shelf at gamestop".
They've seen the power of streaming media and how successful things like netflix, steam and campy low budget high earning casual games can be and they want in.
In short: "oh fuck look at all the money would could of made if we actually moved on some of this stuff!?"
Yeah, sounds about right.
The rest of the stuff about year-round franchises and Origin is not so great as it really means market oversaturation and higher prices.
"People are listening to Pach and think he is a cool guy and ain't afraid of anything, so why not us?"
There are only two reasons people play consoles over other platforms:
1. 100% compatibility with all games that have the consoles branding.
2. Designed for standard TVs / home theaters out of the box.
Upgrades have been tried before, they don't work, they just confuse the market.
"regular releases based on its strongest IP"
"We're building the strength of our most important IP. Each of these will be transformed into year-round businesses with major packaged goods launches, social launches, mobile launches, downloadable content and micro-transactions."
Episodic content, yearly madden releases, DLC, blahblah etc.etc.
Welcome to 2006, more or less.
"Consider that just 18 months ago...most big games were limited to a single revenue opportunity at launch."
'big games' meaning...? Their have been tons of ways to release games digitally for years now, nothing of any significance has happened in the last 18 months except maybe facebook games becoming more popular.
I hope that John Riccitiello has a good sense of humour. Otherwise, here go my chances of ever working for an EA owned studio :poly122:
Jokes aside, he has a point. Console generations are probably gone, or at least, they won't have such a big impact on the industry anymore.
For a while now there's been rumours of forward compatibility; the launches of both Xbox360 and PS3 had been extremely costly and I doubt Sony and Microsoft want to alienate their old users when their new hardware comes out. I have this gut feeling that one day people will be able to play the same game on a handheld, home console, PC or even their mobile phone and get a very similar experience.
Of course, for that to happen, the tools used to make the games would have to make porting incredibly easy, but UDK and CE (and probably some other in-house tools) already started to offer similar functionality.
I really hope that my crystal ball is right; spreading the same game among more platforms could potentially make it less risky to create standalone titles.
Here's where I disagree with him; frankly I'm a little bit tired of the whole "IP" deal. Franchises will never go away, but at this point, even Hollywood is more cautious with milking their brands. I'm afraid that people will eventually get tired of getting the same deal year after year and when that happens we will see a lot of layoffs.