14 DAY TRIAL // There are a lot of development studios out there, but one of the most respected is id Software, which is behind glorious franchises like Doom, Quake or Wolfenstein, all of which shaped the way shooters and games are played today.
One of the main innovators from the studio is John Carmack, who has charted a big amount of success in the field. He recently talked about consoles and how they are interacting now. He also shed some light on the future and what it will hold in terms of new releases.
He curiously mentioned that, when the next generation of platforms arrived, Sony would most certainly launch its new PlayStation before Microsoft's new Xbox console. “The whole jockeying for who's going to release the first next gen console is very interesting and pretty divorced from the technical side of things,” Carmack said. “Whether Sony wants to jump the gun to prevent the same sort of 360 lag from happening to them again seems likely.”
Don't think that this means that new consoles will soon appear, as Carmack revealed that he and his colleagues would love to see the current devices live as long as possible. “As developers, we would really like to see this generation stretch as long as possible. We'd like to see it be quite a few more years before the next gen console comes out, but I suspect one will end up shipping something earlier rather than later.”
The id exec also added that digital distribution would grow by leaps and bounds and we might see new devices without any optical drives at all. “I think that Xbox Live... the advent of that and the App Store with the iPhone are wonderful signs of the future of digital distribution. I think there's a decent chance that one of the next gen consoles will be without optical media... the uptake rates of people who have broadband connects surprised everyone this generation. It's higher than what the core publishers and even the first party people expected.”
So there you have it, straight from John Carmack. Even though console manufacturers praise their devices, they will get replaced sooner or later.