John Riccitiello (Current Unity CEO - Former EA CEO) on the present and future of gaming
- Thread starter mrcorbo
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Curiously outspoken for a guy at the centre of cross-platform development who these hardware companies are becoming quite reliant on in a way. Unity support is pretty much necessary. I guess Riccitiello feels comfortable being honest because the hardware companies need him more than he needs them at the moment.
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Deleted member 11852
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I don't think Sony did a gaming machine because there were not in a position to do more, I think Sony did a gaming machine because they spent a lot of effort putting a variety of media capabilities in PS3 and they have usage metrics showing the vast majority of users used them little or not at all. Let's just remind ourselves where Sony started, I have the original launch 60Gb PS3 with the flap covering the different physical memory card slots - there so you can take pictures on your camera, pop out the card, and look at the photos on your TV.
I know Microsoft's plan of media is different, bewilderingly live TV, which I still can't get my head around. Except for sporting events or, of course, Game of Thrones, watching TV shows to somebodies schedule seems so crazily old fashioned. Organising your life around a TV schedule rather than consuming it when you want.
Also his comment about Sony just thinking about the first ball ignores their design of the Vita which works beautifully with PS4, and of course Morpheus. PS4 gives Vita additional uses and Vita more PS4 more accessible. Morpheus could the the killer hardware device in a years's time. It's hard to call the strategic significance of PS Now. I don't know if PS4 and gaming is their first ball, or their second or third.
Riccitiello ignores this, looking at PS4 as a device in isolation. I think Sony have learned lessons from Apple where devices, and services, have vertical integration and complement each other
I know Microsoft's plan of media is different, bewilderingly live TV, which I still can't get my head around. Except for sporting events or, of course, Game of Thrones, watching TV shows to somebodies schedule seems so crazily old fashioned. Organising your life around a TV schedule rather than consuming it when you want.
Also his comment about Sony just thinking about the first ball ignores their design of the Vita which works beautifully with PS4, and of course Morpheus. PS4 gives Vita additional uses and Vita more PS4 more accessible. Morpheus could the the killer hardware device in a years's time. It's hard to call the strategic significance of PS Now. I don't know if PS4 and gaming is their first ball, or their second or third.
Riccitiello ignores this, looking at PS4 as a device in isolation. I think Sony have learned lessons from Apple where devices, and services, have vertical integration and complement each other
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Deleted member 11852
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Perhaps on other platforms like mobile but nobody seems to be complaining about the difficulty of working with current gen consoles - this is in stark contrast to last generation, particularly PS3. Commercial game engines look to be less prevalent than they used to be, although they obviously have advantages where multi-platform development is concerned. The esoteric hardware is gone and the new hardware is more accessible than ever and more people seem to be rolling their own - even the little guys like Hello Games who are making No Man's Sky.
If engines were as necessary to console manufacturers as they used to be, I don't think we'd be seeing the radical changes in licensing terms that Unreal and CryEngine, in particular, have undergone. It could be they are responding to pressure from Unity on mobile but if you look at the list of games using Unity, theres doesn't look to be a great deal of console penetration.
Unity aside, it's the software companies who need the hardware companies too. In fact most of his former company revenues come from the new generation.
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/05/06/80-percent-battlefield-hardline-sales-ps4-xbox-one/?
And they expect more consoles sold...
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/05/06/ea-expects-22-million-ps4-xbox-one-consoles-sold-2015/?
Sounds like a pretty gross but reasonable simplification about what went on at MSFT while designing the One. Things is from BKillian comments it seems they were quite a lot of shit going on and shit minded people in command. Whatever their focus was(ere), wrong or not, I think the ONe as it is is more a reflexion of MSFT inner organizational troubles than whether the focus was on gaming or something else.
As for Sony I think he is closer from the truth, SOny has been operating under a lot of pressures, which I think lead them to change the way they were doing things and to be act pretty conservatively and reasonably. It is interesting to hear Cerny says that it was "in charge" pretty much it means that has the system failed... it would have been its failure foresmost. That is a good thing nowadays in a lot of big companies even the higher ops are trying to hide as much of their responsability behind process, comitee, etc. I see the value of have those types of process in a company but it's never going to be a substitute to personal responsibility and it is also a great enabler for the Peter's principle (+ adverse selection) to do its works...
Clearly that way of doing things has push engineers away from the job they should have... instead we have posers impersonating doers...
As for Sony I think he is closer from the truth, SOny has been operating under a lot of pressures, which I think lead them to change the way they were doing things and to be act pretty conservatively and reasonably. It is interesting to hear Cerny says that it was "in charge" pretty much it means that has the system failed... it would have been its failure foresmost. That is a good thing nowadays in a lot of big companies even the higher ops are trying to hide as much of their responsability behind process, comitee, etc. I see the value of have those types of process in a company but it's never going to be a substitute to personal responsibility and it is also a great enabler for the Peter's principle (+ adverse selection) to do its works...
Clearly that way of doing things has push engineers away from the job they should have... instead we have posers impersonating doers...
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I don't think it was that much of an outspoken-ish behavior. He didn't really bash any console or company. He simply tried to explain the facts (PS4 > XBOne in worldwide sales) through his views over what either company was trying to achieve. It was purely a "that approach worked better than this one" statement.
It really doesn't come out as something that Microsoft could be angry at, IMHO.
And most certainly not at the extent of acting upon Unity over that couple of sentences, whatever importance that Unity may have to Microsoft at the moment.
