Love him, hate him, or think he's completely ridiculous, Peter Molyneux consistently has some of the most interesting opinions in gaming out there. It's fascinating to hear the man talk about anything at all. For all that we tend to make fun of him, he's genuinely a genius.
In an interview at Games Industry, Molyneux goes into detail regarding his latest pursuits, projects and ideas. Highly reccomended reading that you can check out here.
Of particular interest to me are Peter's remarks on console cycles. There's buzz lately around the idea that consoles are on their way out, or at least going to change a ton. Power may not matter. Exclusives are a laughable, outdated concept. Full 60 dollar titles may be on their way out. Mobile is becoming more popular. It's hard to tell where it'll all go. On the subject, Molyneux remarks:
"In this industry we have become so used to the console cycle, and in a way we've become lazy. It's not finishing an IP, it's starting it. Two years ago, developers were going to publishers and saying we'd like to do this, and the publishers were saying, 'It's too late in the generation now.' The first time I heard that was about four years ago – it's ridiculous.
"I mean, who would have bet that Sony would be third in the race for consoles? The PlayStation 2 was massive, man – 100 million consoles. Nobody is willing to bet unless they are the hardware manufacturers themselves, and here's the thing: that's got to stop.
"The hardware iteration of [the iPad] is every six months: not every six years, every six months. If we're not careful – and in fact this is highly probable – by the time that this generation finally comes out, which will probably be in about 14 months time, this little puppy might well be more powerful than the new consoles.
"That's just mad. And then 6 months after that it'll be even more powerful."
Interesting thoughts…but I for one do NOT want to see the adoption of a 6 month turnaround on new hardware. Not at current prices, anyway. Hell, not even at cheaper pricepoints like $100 dollars every six months. I just plain don't want to spend much money on hardware, period. I'm not sure I even want new consoles, it feels as if we're barely starting to really see what current consoles are capable of.
But I do believe Peter when he says mobile will catch up–and when it does, boy, are things going to be different.
