Xbox 360 Selected as the Primary Development Platform for Next-Gen Wolfenstein

[c0_re]

Not a HUGE surprise

Xbox 360 Selected as the Primary Development Platform for Next-Gen Wolfenstein
By: César A. Berardini - "Cesar"
Feb. 27th, 2006 2:02 pm
In an interview with WorthPlaying.com, Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, revealed that the Xbox 360 will be the primary development platform for the next-generation Wolfenstein game, confirming John Carmack’s decision to switch his primary development efforts over to the Xbox 360-- an announcement that made quite a splash among PC gamers at last year’s QuakeCon.

read it in it's entirety here

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=32219&mode=thread&order=0

 

[Griffith]

He only confirms what Carmack says a lot of months ago, but far as i know, Carmack is the Boss of ID, so we don't need confirm that 360 will be the ID first reference platform of developing

Carmack says that they choose 360 because with UnifiedShaders A. they can start to work with this architecture and that in future will pays, when the USA will arrive to pc world they will be ready with more knowledge

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Carmack says that they choose 360 because with UnifiedShaders A. they can start to work with this architecture and that in future will pays, when the USA will arrive to pc world they will be ready with more knowledge

I don't recall that being the reason. IIRC, Carmack was more impressed with the development environment of the XBox360 itself.

 

[one]

I don't recall that being the reason.

Me either. IIRC he mentioned only SMP in the CPU side for the advantage of Xbox 360.

 

[Griffith]

Me either. IIRC he mentioned only SMP in the CPU side for the advantage of Xbox 360.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22654

 

[one]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22654

Isn't that Dave's conjecture?

However, reading into it a little further he clearly states that "most upcoming graphics development" will be based on XBOX 360 - other than the reasons he states, this could also be because the graphics processor within the XBOX 360 will not only be relevant to the XBOX 360, but may also give more insights to future PC processors than those around now or the next year.

 

[expletive]

Sounds like its Dave's but given the latest comments from ATI on their use of Xenos technology in upcoming products i'm sure it has something to do with the decision.

However, I recall the primary preference he (Carmack) had between platforms was the symmetrical cores of Xenon over the Cell design.

 

[Dr. Nick]

Don't forget that Nvidia might soon be on the USA bandwagon after filing that patent in January. Like others have said it could be that he wants to get his hands dirty with this particular GPU before USA hits the PC market.

 

[kyleb]

Well then, it should hopefully run a lot better than Quake 4 on the 360.

 

[expletive]

Well then, it should hopefully run a lot better than Quake 4 on the 360.

It couldnt possibly run worse

 

[Guden Oden]

I feel FPS gameplay on a control system based around dual analog sticks is a huge mistake. It's extremely hard to aim accurately while moving/circle strafing using analog sticks, it just doesn't work very well at all. Control is hugely gimped compared to mouse/keyboard.

It was sort of manageable using Turok-style controls with digital movement and analog aiming. Analog for both = chaos.

Switching to 360 as primary platform only goes to show id is throwing in the towel on the PC market... They're bailing out, going soft-core etc.

 

[Bobbler]

I'm not really sure how this is anything noteworthy, considering it was announced months ago when Carmack gave his speech.

More power to 'em though.

I'm, honestly, glad hes working on consoles as his main thing (much to the chagrin of PC lovers =\ )... Carmack has always been very talented but always seemed like he never had the opportunity to really show what he could do because of the way PCs are. D3 is very impressive for how well it runs on a given piece of hardware (same with Q3, and Q2 in their days), in my opinion at least, and I imagine with a static platform he'll be able to do some pretty impressive things (at least until the hardware gets majorly outdated by PCs in a couple years).

 

[RobertR1]

It makes sense. Console gaming market is very big. This will also give ID an early exposure to DX10 and Unified Architecture which can then be translated much quicker to PC's once they reach that stage.

 

[scooby_dooby]

However, I recall the primary preference he (Carmack) had between platforms was the symmetrical cores of Xenon over the Cell design.

I saw an interview on TechTV, and he said something to the effect of, I make trivial decisions based on things like unified memory architecture, or symmetrical cores, and I make the big decisions based on things like development environment, debugging, documentation and support, IIRC

 

[expletive]

I saw an interview on TechTV, and he said something to the effect of, I make trivial decisions based on things like unified memory architecture, or symmetrical cores, and I make the big decisions based on things like development environment, debugging, documentation and support, IIRC

Makes sense. Since his original commentary on the architecture, he has been a strong proponent of the development environment.

 

[Guden Oden]

Carmack has always been very talented but always seemed like he never had the opportunity to really show what he could do because of the way PCs are.

Carmack's done nothing but bitching and moaning over the new gen of consoles because they're multi-core and not designed with the same philosophy of ye bog-standard monolithic PC. Now id's switching to the very platform he previously bemoaned, I think that speaks clearly they're figuring their games aren't selling very well on the PC, and the console market's simply larger. There's going to be near zero piracy too, which also helps their bottom line - again unlike the PC.

It's clearly a move to try and make more money, not make better games.

 

[Bobbler]

Carmack's done nothing but bitching and moaning over the new gen of consoles because they're multi-core and not designed with the same philosophy of ye bog-standard monolithic PC. Now id's switching to the very platform he previously bemoaned, I think that speaks clearly they're figuring their games aren't selling very well on the PC, and the console market's simply larger. There's going to be near zero piracy too, which also helps their bottom line - again unlike the PC.

It's clearly a move to try and make more money, not make better games.

I don't doubt that, but I still think hes very talented at engine design and a closed box will allow him to get more out of the given platform. I want to see how he compares to some of the console programming monsters in the industry, mainly.

 

[nintenho]

Wouldn't porting this to PC be hard since the core platform has three processors?

 

[Griffith]

Wouldn't porting this to PC be hard since the core platform has three processors?

in 2007 pc will have quad-core cpu and unified shaders gpu, so I think a port from 360 to PC will fit very well

 

[Guden Oden]

in 2007 pc will have quad-core cpu and unified shaders gpu, so I think a port from 360 to PC will fit very well

Only a completely miniscule subsection of the installed PC market would have specs such as that, a percentage so tiny that for all intents and purposes doesn't really exist at all.

I want to see how he compares to some of the console programming monsters in the industry, mainly.

With the exception of some shader code, Carmack has hardly coded anything down to the metal since Doom for the Atari Jaguar and that was over a decade ago. Certainly nothing in any of the games id has released since then. He's a PC dev, with what I believe, the totally wrong mindset for consoles. His not THAT past comments about multicore systems speak as much I think, despite the inevitability of multicore, even on PCs. He is lazy and wants things to be easy for himself, which is why he made 360 the main focus rather than the most assuredly more successful PS3.