Yuji Naka on next gen consoles

[TEXAN]

EGM: Are you excited about the next gen consoles, or do you think it's too early?

YN: I think it is too early. The PS2 and GameCube are still both very good platforms. Personally, I don't want the next generation platforms to come out this early, because they will be very difficult and expensive to develop for. Seriously, it might take three times the effort to make one game. If we look at movies that use CG, you don't have to use CG for everything. Look at Spider-Man -- that character is CG, and everyone in the theater looks at him and it looks great, but the rest of the shot might be film shot of real things and people. Whereas in games, everything has to be created with CG, from every side, and angle -- the buildings and everything. With next-generation platforms, we'll have to make everything look as good as movies...it will be very difficult. It will be cool when you can play a game that looks like a movie, but there's no way a company will be able to make a game in one year like that. And if fans of a franchise have to wait three years for the next game, that will be a shock to them. People who like games want to play them more often these days. Like Half-Life 2 -- it took five years to come out! What's next? Will gamers be willing want to wait 15 years for a game!? (laughs) The father will start programming a game, and he'll have to pass it on to his son to finish it after he dies. On PC right now, there aren't a lot of games being released like it used to be...I think the same thing will happen to consoles. It takes a lot of time to develop a top-quality game.

 

[London Geezer]

HL2 is a very rare occasion though. Very very few games are delayed that much. Also, it is arguable that HL2 was delayed that much to make it beter than it would have been otherwise.

 

[Tahir2]

The father will start programming a game, and he'll have to pass it on to his son to finish it after he dies.

Hehe.. he so funny!

 

[a688]

HL2 is a very rare occasion though. Very very few games are delayed that much. Also, it is arguable that HL2 was delayed that much to make it beter than it would have been otherwise.

To be fair, any other games that might be delayed that long are usually straight out canceled. So instead of waiting for 5 years to see it, you'll never see it.

 

[London Geezer]

HL2 is a very rare occasion though. Very very few games are delayed that much. Also, it is arguable that HL2 was delayed that much to make it beter than it would have been otherwise.

To be fair, any other games that might be delayed that long are usually straight out canceled. So instead of waiting for 5 years to see it, you'll never see it.

Didn't think about that

 

[Refreshment]

Thanks for the interview.

Who said Valve was working 5 straight years in HL2? That was the time it took to see the sequel.

Is not like Retro or Nintendo took 9 years to make Metroid Prime, is it?

 

[see colon]

yeah, it's not like valve didn't put some work into patching the original haf-life, or spending some development resources on the properties they aquired (couter strike, team fortress) after releasing the first game.

i think the metroid prime series or the gta series are great examples of the fact that once you get the core technology down and a solid set of art assets you can produce a AAA quality game about every 12-18 months after the initial title ships. it might take 3 years to deveop the first game, but subsequent titles will take much less time.

 

[Sonic]

Yuji Naka doesn't really know what he's talking about it seems. Statements like making games that look like the movies will take a very long time to develop are true, but then you you have to realize that these games won't be released until at least another two or more generations of console hardware are put out. Next gen systems aren't capable of movie CG in real time.

 

[Refreshment]

Well man, i wouldnt go as far as saying "doesnt know what hes talking about" after all he is YUJI NAKA. But i do think he is exagerating, altough he does it to validate hes point.

We are all humans after all

 

[function]

Yes, he's trying to explain things in a way that average Joe can understand. I'm sure he understands that you won't be able to render big budget movie CGI real time on Xenon et al, without help from internet console forums.

Yuji Naka doesn't really know what he's talking about it seems.

lol!

 

[sunscar]

I think that reference really refers to games that "appear" movie-like... I.E. like when people came away from E3 a few years ago thinking Doom 3 for a short moment looked like something out of Pixar or Shrek quality of some sort. Not actually being so in reality though.

I'll give that one to the next ten years if we're very lucky.

The development infrastructure isn't here yet. The hardware isn't here yet. The software isn't here yet. Hell, I don't even thing the design concepts are there yet.

Later

 

[Iron Tiger]

Yes, he's trying to explain things in a way that average Joe can understand. I'm sure he understands that you won't be able to render big budget movie CGI real time on Xenon et al, without help from internet console forums.

Yuji Naka doesn't really know what he's talking about it seems.

lol!

I don't think the fact that the consoles won't be able to render in that high of detail takes anything away from his statement in regards to development time. With normal mapping becoming mainstream, developers will have to create art that is "movie quality" to use as source material for normals, in addition to creating lower detail models to apply the normal maps to. And game developers are doing this for whole worlds, not just partial set pieces or composited digital actors. So yeah, it's going to take a lot longer than it does in the current generation, especially when you figure that the worlds will have to have more objects in addition to that greater detail.

 

[Acert93]

I think some devs should be more realistic with the game design goals. Not every game should be an expansive 3D world that is fully interactive. The game design goals should match the budget, team size, and timeframe.

HL2 is a really poor example also of development timeframes. They spent almost 2 years just testing different technologies and ideas and had a lot of significant changes. When you look at the consoles as a 5-6year closed box system you have a little better idea of what you are developing for.

While I am sure these are huge issues, they are not going to disappear in one year. In this regards I think developers already used to making similar games (e.g. high end PC games) have an edge. If it takes some of these companies 3-5years to make every game they will be in trouble.

 

[jvd]

We are going to see a shift in the console world imho .


We are going to see them make one engine in a company and then use that engine in many diffrent games and modify it to fit the needs instead of making a new engine for each type of game .

I know they started to really do that this year but its going to be much wider spread than before . So much so that your going to get alot of developers liscencing engines from other companys like in the pc world. We will see a say new sonic engine and then see another developer liscence it for another platform game and simply tweak it .

 

[see colon]

I know they started to really do that this year but its going to be much wider spread than before . So much so that your going to get alot of developers liscencing engines from other companys like in the pc world.

we already see this big time in the console world...
http://www.renderware.com/aboutrenderware.asp

RenderWare is currently powering over 500 games in development or released. Games published using RenderWare include some of the industry's hottest properties including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Mortal Kombat Deception, Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Sonic Heroes, and Burnout 3: Takedown.

several console games run on the unreal engine as well (the unreal series obviously, men of valor, sw: republic commando, splinter cell series). i agree that next generation will be almost completely licensed technology, but really, with the exclusion of a handful of deveolpment houses, that's what we saw this generation.

 

[cybamerc]

Next gen systems aren't capable of movie CG in real time.

Nevertheless he's right that in movies you can get by with a lot of tricks. In games things have to look good up close as well. As hardware gets more capable that provides a huge challenge.

 

[pc999]

This time the risk is pre made art.

 

[Inane_Dork]

Nevertheless he's right that in movies you can get by with a lot of tricks. In games things have to look good up close as well. As hardware gets more capable that provides a huge challenge.

In most games, I agree that hacks and goofs feasible in movies are not feasible in games. However, not every game is like that. Maybe we'll see a move to games that are not expected to have superior graphics.