Epic Games: 'We Want Next-Gen Consoles To Step Up'

NowGamer: Gears Of War 3's executive producer, Rod Fergusson, issues a challenge to Sony and Microsoft...

[cakeisalie]

I guess they are tiring out of stagnation. In a world where Tablets and handhelds are now coming out with more RAM, current consoles need replacements.

"We think this is where gaming should be and when we look to the future we don’t see an ability to do this on console so we’re saying you should really step up your game, or do you want it to be owned by the PC?"

I dont think devs will be making games exclusively for the PC with high end graphics in mind when they can make money of 3 platform instead of 1. Not to say PC game sales are bad they are quite good infact, however selling to 3 platforms is just that much better.

[GrieverSoul]

I think they want to sell their new engine upgrade! Thats why they want the next generation of consoles. EPIC wont survive by selling the new Unreal Engine for PC developers only.

[limewax]

Does sound about right. That said though I really wouldnt mind the next gen being much more powerfull. And not just a leap in graphics etc, but would like to see the scale of game worlds inscreased even just a little bit.

Looking at the asking prices for the NGP in uk though I think we can expect pretty high price tags from the next gen, so theres a good chance we may get a big upgrade. I would even say yes to digital only provided the speeds are good and its cheaper. The disc is slowly getting old to me as Im getting sick of burning out lasers for no reason.

I dont really mind what next gen does to be honest lol, I just want it to get here faster. Im not bored of the current gen but I always love those first few hours on a next gen console. Bit of childhood nostalgia lol

[SuperM]

Ofcourse they want that. But they have more then enough developers licensing UE3 for current gen consoles so they dont need that to survive.

[bozebo]

edit, oops massive wall of text :(

The next gen of consoles will probably have that much power (to pump out graphics as seen in epic's demo) if they are out in 2 or more years.

If I am not mistaken, that demo was run on a triple SLI 580GTX PC. When the 360 & PS3 came out they had a graphics chip equivalent to the best graphics chip around in PCs at the time with a few beneficial tweaks (like the 360's edram and ati xenos gpu with extra shader cores over it's PC bretherin being in combination with the xenon cpu as 1 chip for high bandwidth - the rsx in the ps3 is a more powerful version of the nvidia 7800gtx from pcs with a special memory model of some sort).

So for the next gen of consoles to be able to run that tech they will have to be designed and manufactured when the best single PC chip can almost run that demo on its own. I wouldn't be surprised if the next xbox has dual gpus (don't know how they will distribute their games though to be honest - download? 50GB games? hmm...).

Q4 this year I would hope that nVidia's second-to-top-end 28nm chip could run that demo at good (60) fps with just 2x SLI - but lets imagine that in Q2 2012 because nVidia are always late to market and maby AMD will come up with something soon too.

As for CPU power, I can see Microsoft going for a fast amd or PowerPC dual core central cpu and a medium speed amd or PowerPC quad or hex core in the same box as a secondary cpu.

Games like 2 very fast cores and a bank of slower cores - or just 4 or more very fast cores; kind of how Sony have done this gen with 1x fast and 7x medium speed cores (though faster than most PC cpus with floating point which is great for simulations, like games) - but it is confusing developers.

I'm not entirely sure what to predict from the PS4 but it will probably be something strange, they might manufacture special chips with IBM again because I don't think they can get into AMD's pants and Intel don't seem to do console chips.

Both systems will probably see what IBM's next cores are like because they are using IBM cpus already and IBM have consoles as their major customers for their cpus as it stands now. Currently, the 360 has 3 IBM PowerPC cores and the ps3 has a PowerPC core and the 7 core cell also in partnership with IBM. IBM made PowerPC cores for Macs then Apple switched to Intel leaving IBM with a whole load of PowerPC cores to sell to MS and Sony so the only 2 manufacturers left for next gen consoles are IBM and AMD, IBM will be starved for major customers if either platform doesn't use their next iteration of what used to be PowerPC cores.
---
Whatever the PS4 and 'xbox720' do, they will have enough CPU power to handle anything you can throw at them (ps3 has enough already if it is used right). As for graphics, if they are out too soon they won't be up to scratch. And remember, graphics are going to evolve beyond what we see in Epic's samaritan demo.

New consoles soon would be great, but it doesn't benefit MS or Sony who havn't ridden out the full product lifecycle of current gen consoles yet.

Another thing is, new consoles are going to arrive just before OLED TV sets kick in. So 30fps will no longer be adequate because the pixels on-screen won't glow for as long as they do now - they will be expecting 120Hz or more, 60Fps shown for 2 TV refreshes each will provide a smooth image but 30Fps shown for 4 TV refreshes each won't. If one console comes out before OLED and the other comes out after OLED, the late arrival will win (hence why MS want to make 360 last a bit longer - 2 years or so).

Also remember, the samaritan demo wasn't in a huge open environment which could kill FPS a lot even with 3x 580GTX cards SLId.

[frostypants]

Epic needs to worry about the lack of creativity in their own products before scapegoating the hardware providers.

Try making a game that isn't a shooter, fellas.

And then I read THIS from Epic: "Imagine Gears with that kind of fidelity".

THIS IS THE PROBLEM. Epic would just waste this tech on polishing their tired old formulas. Where's their imagination?!?!?!?!

[godslayer429]

im preety sure iv yet to see one of there games match the quality of say uncharted 2.

make a 10/10 game before you tell someone else to step there game up

[Raider69]

Is not talking about games hes taking about hardware evolution!And thats something that in consoles is already outdated by today standards!

[pixelsword]

I see what you are saying, but if everything is ran through the cell, a game doesn't need all of that ram. In all honesty, Factor 5 has made the most technically advanced PS3 game so far when they made Lair. Lair is still one of the few 1080p/60fps games out there on consoles, and the only one that I know of with 32x32 relative mile levels. They preached about running everything through the cell before taking it to the RSX and so far they've been proven right. Was Lair perfect? No, but it showed how great the cell's power is. Despite the huge levels, effects, thousands of characters, and other characteristics yet to be seen in one game in any other game out or coming out (yes, even Rage) Lair has no loading screens or install. For those who are complaining, what is their excuse when Lair came out in 2007 and we have yet to see a 1080p/60fps game from studios who complain? And more so that program on the 360, because if it's easier and more powerful, then where's the 1080p/60fps games like Lair?

[sikbeta]

Last Gen wasn't only about Graphics and had loads of great quality games, now it's all about graphics, games this gen are more expensive to make and more expensive for the consumers, more power, more money to develop a game, higher retail price

[Blaine]

On the one hand, you have devs who say that games cost too much to make nowadays, and then you have this guy who wants them to step things up already. Clearly, if games are still so costly to develop, then devs aren't ready to take the next step.

It's easy for a Dev team to advocate for the next console gen to start so soon when they're SELLING THEIR OWN ENGINE TECH. But for a studio who makes their own engine (very costly, I imagine) or even buys another company's--Epic's, say--then they're not going to want to take the next step so soon when this gen isn't as profitable as they'd like yet.

As for me, I'm eager for next gen, but I can wait. There's still a lot of un-tapped potential this gen, it still has a few years left (despite what the PC-"elitists" will claim--console exclusives are still plenty impressive tech-wise).

[Substance101]

@pixelsword

If the lolcell was so powerful we would see all of Sonys games running at 1080p in 60fps minimum. Lair looks like crap at best and has lot of FPS fluctuation.

Also if it was so powerful then why did Sony go for a GPU like the RSX? why not go with 2 cells instead.

Stop spreading the bull crap Sony has been feeding the poeple about the Cell since its inception. Yes it does offload some of the work from the RSX, however mostof the work is still done by the RSX. Cell at best offloads some AA tasks which too are only blurry MLAA thats about it. There aint anything fancy about the Cell even when compared to an ancient GPU like the 8800gtx.

[Jdoki]

@pixelsword & Blaine
It's a fair point. Neither 360 or PS3 is tapped out for power yet. And no one should read this article and believe Epic is doing anything other than Epic try and sell it's latest Engine upgrade

@Substance101
Go look up PS3 history. Sony planned on only using the Cell for CPU/GPU type functions. But they realised one Cell was not enough, and yields were nowhere near high enough at the time to use multiple Cells. Probably a good thing, as those early days of 'PS3 is soooo hard to code for' would have been 10 times worse if devs had to learn to code for multiple Cells and no GPU.

However it's clear that Cell + GPU is a very capable architecture, especially when considering the age/power of the GPU Sony chose.

[nycredude]

substance
I suggest you do some research on the cell and gaming architecture before shooting off your mouth. You sound ignorant about the whole thing.

MLAA is blurry? Maybe you should play GOW 3 and tell me what is blurry about that. Tell me if you see any jaggy edges.

All you have to do is name me the games on any other consoles that beats the best exclusives on the Ps3 and I'll shut up. Until then the cell and rsx smokes the competition. You can talk all day about it but it all comes down to the games.

you say why not have all Sony games run in 1080p and 60fps? I ask you to name another game on any other console that runs at 1080p and 60fps? Name me just ONE.

[DrHouse]

what a fanboy...uncharted it NOT the best game ever made, sorry to break it to you. Thats a straight up fanboy opinion

[nycredude]

I think you just summed it up. It was his opinion. In fact it is also the opinion of many, many members of the gaming media, as evidence by it's 96 metacritic score.

IMO it's one of the best, along with a long list of other great games. Does that make me a fanboy also?

What are you saying that the best game ever made is one that you think is the best? put your dick back in your pants, this isn't a pissing contest.

[callahan09]

It's not a "straight up fanboy opinion". It's just an opinion. An opinion is an opinion. Why does the fact that the game happens to be a PS3 exclusive make it fanboyish to hold that opinion? Not only that, but I don't recall him saying it was the best game ever. Just that it was better than games Epic makes.

[trancefreak]

Uncharted 2 was too me a cool game played it once and moved on.

I hated the first 1.

[Raider69]

I really hope consoles step up!Pc hardware is getting cheaper and im sure that some people are already waiting for a new console that match does graphics seen in BF3 and the UE tech demo!Its time to move on!

[Raider69]

@Stealthdawg #4

They just develop the engine that is still the more used in this console generation!And if EPIC didn't end up releasing this property engine to other dev teams, games like ME,Bioshock, RS,BATMAN,Homefront,.......... Will probably never had seen sucess or even been released!And bulletstorm wasn't made by EA it was published!Its a People can fly/Epic game!

@disagree

So whats the most used engine this generation!?Trolls shoud go and make the home work first!

[nycredude]

Epic is becoming a joke. All they want to do is make an enjoy that everyone has to pay them to use. I wouldn't be surprised if after Gears 3 they stop making games all together.

[Corrwin]

Of course they do?

How else are they going to convince fans to buy the same old game without the aid of shinier graphics?

They're already stretching it with the Gears games - 3 games with little to differentiate between them.

[Apotheosize]

They just want to license out their game engine, what games has epic made recently? 3 360 exclusives? Bleh

[DiRtY]

I think we will see a new generation in 2012. The current generation is aging, the Xbox 360 will be in its 7th year in a few months. That is a longer period of time than the PS2 was on the market without a successor.

Of course this won't stop fanboys from saying 'OMG M$ killed the xbox again'

A new hardware is always welcome

[theunleashed64]

and yet it also won't stop the fanboys from saying "the ps4 teh DOOMED!" or "ps4 has no games!" can go both ways.

[madjedi]

@dirty If you think a new generation of xbox will be out in 2012 your fooling yourself badly.

I didn't even own a xbox 1, if you really believe the original xbox was pushed to it's limits before ms killed it, your retarded. Being a fanboy doesn't have anything to do with it, using your brain and thinking reasonably is all it takes.

When/if ms announces the next xbox no one will be moaning that the 360 was killed off, while it still had more potential to achieve. Thats the biggest difference between the xbox being killed at mid life and the 360 dying in an old folks home, with the 360 it is expected