Next Generation Consoles Don’t Make Sense in This Economy, Itagaki Believes

Tomonobu Itagaki, the designer responsible for the upcoming Devil’s Third action game and the critically acclaimed Ninja Gaiden series, has shared his thoughts about the next generation of home consoles. According to him, it doesn’t make that much sense considering the economic turmoil plaguing territories like North America, Europe or Asia.

While Microsoft and Sony assure customers that their current devices, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively, are here to stay, plenty of developers want to see a new generation of consoles.

Companies like EA or Ubisoft want new devices, and other ones, like CD Projekt Red or Bethesda, are already working on games for future consoles.

Tomonobu Itagaki, who’s now leading developer at Valhalla Game Studio on the Devil’s Third project, doesn’t think new consoles are needed, largely because of the economy, which will prevent many gamers from getting the new devices.

“If I didn’t have any knowledge of the economy, or if I were young, I'd want to release my game on the new platform. The decision I’m making now is that, if I released my next game on a next-gen console or if someone releases a next gen console, then all the publishers developers and players will be so confused and everything will be messed up because of the economic situation,” he told Game Informer.

Itagaki considers that the lack of next gen consoles is good not just for the game industry but also for customers who can spend their money on actual games and other things, not on new devices.

“The U.S. economy is bad. The EU economy is bad. The Japanese economy is bad. This is not good timing for the release of a next-generation console. This is just not for the game industry. I can say the same for customers.”

According to recent rumors, Microsoft and Sony won’t reveal their next gen consoles this year, so a 2013 release for devices like the Xbox 720 or PlayStation 4 is more than possible.