Cliff Bleszinski, the man who gave us the Unreal Tournament, Gears of War, Bulletstorm, and countless other games, is currently semiretired. And many have long wondered when he might be making a grand return.
Though going by his comments shared in an interview with Game Industry, it might be a while. Due to the fact that now, in his opinion, would be "the absolute worst time" for any kind of comeback.
The always outspoken Bleszinski states:
"This business has not been in a state of transition like it is right now since the video game crash of the '80s… I really think we're in a massive state of turmoil. I think Nintendo could possibly be faced with the situation of becoming a company that only makes software moving forward. I think Sony and Microsoft are about to come to major blows."
Clearly, Bleszinski had little faith in what Nintendo has done thus far, especially if he believes that they will be software only some day. An idea that virtually all Nintendo fans find absolutely unconscionable. It would also seem that Sony's PS4 initiatives has done little to excite Bleszinski, nor does he feel that Microsoft will be able to do better.
So, is it all doom and gloom for video games?
"But at the same time, people love playing games on their iPad. The PC is going through a wonderful renaissance right now. I think we're ready to do digital download games all the time…I just want to see what happens. In regards to the industry, it's like the Super Smash Bros. of business right now, and I want to see if Peach or Mario wins."
Like so many others in the game making biz, Bleszinski has a lot of faith in Apple and iOS. Though he also believes strongly in the PC, which might be so shocking, given how that's where he first cut his game making teeth.
According to GI, Bleszinski believes that consoles will need to embrace the tablet and PC ecosystems, which are far more open than how things are on the consoles currently. One benefit is how it would allow developers to update their content in a far timelier manner. To illustrate his point, Bleszinski spoke from experience:
"When Gears of War 2 launched and we found out that our netcode wasn't working right, it took us three months to get an update out… By that time, the majority of users had moved on to the next game or had traded it in. If Microsoft and Sony are to do well in this next generation, they are going to need to reduce that time as much as possible, as well as continue to enable user-supported mods, independent games, and really just get rid of the wall that makes it incredibly hard to find those products, even if they're allowed on the console."
Bleszinski also noted that if there's ever going to be a console equivalent to Minecraft, the "red tape" needs to be "stripped away."
