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Scott
10-20-2007, 06:52 PM
From BBC News:


Rival gaming systems should make way for a single open platform, a senior executive at Electronic Arts has said.

Gerhard Florin said incompatible consoles made life harder for developers and consumers.

"We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible," said EA's head of international publishing.

He said the web and set-top boxes would grow in importance to the industry.

"We're platform agnostic and we definitely don't want to have one platform which is a walled garden," said Mr Florin.

EA currently produces games for more than 14 different gaming systems, including consoles, portable devices and PCs.

"I am not sure how long we will have dedicated consoles - but we could be talking up to 15 years," Mr Florin added.

He predicted that server-based games streamed to PCs or set-top boxes, would become increasingly important.

"You don't need an Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii - the consumer won't even realise the platform it is being played on."

Set-top boxes are becoming increasingly more powerful as they include technology to deal with High Definition TV streams and access to the internet.

Basic games

Both Sky and BT offer personal video recorders that play basic games.

In the 1980s Microsoft led an initiative to create a common home computer platform, called MSX, and supported by Sony and Philips among others.

It became a popular games platform in Japan but died out due to the growth of consoles and the rise of PCs.

Games consultant Nick Parker said the long term future of gaming would most likely not lie with dedicated consoles.

But he said competition among manufacturers had driven innovation.

"Competition was required to ensure the pace of technology was maintained."

He added: "Going forward that is irrelevant. Gaming will just require potentially a ?49.99 box from Tesco made in China with a hard drive, a wi-fi connection and a games engine inside.

"It's basically a boiled-down PC."

But he predicted that walled gardens would still surround platforms and that an open system would not emerge.

Microsoft and Sony have positioned their consoles as all-in-one entertainment devices in recent years but both firms have struggled with non-gaming content.

Outside of the US, Microsoft has yet to strike deals with firms for meaningful video content while Sony has turned to companies like Sky after being unable to agree licensing terms with its own in-house content providers, such as Sony Pictures and MGM.

Absorb consoles

Mr Parker said he believed they were in danger of being overtaken by other companies, such as Apple, and PC technology.

"There are a lot of companies coming into the market."

With space in the living room limited, set-top boxes could yet absorb console functionality.

Mr Parker said: "Games will be provided over the net. There might not be a need for a PS4 or dedicated consoles."

With Microsoft's track record in licensing its technology to other hardware manufacturers and Sony hoping to recoup the cost of developing the Cell processor, both firms could move toward a business plan of offering their services and hardware to other manufacturers.

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo could instead be walled garden content providers and licensors, said Mr Parker.

"There could be a Nintendo channel, a PlayStation channel and an Xbox channel on your set-top box," he added.

link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7052420.stm)

I don't know about you guys. But, this is pretty disturbing to me. EA swallowing up developers then saying they want a unified platform

Cov3rt
10-20-2007, 08:16 PM
Personally i don't see consoles going anywhere. The thing people forget is, the reason we buy consoles in the first place. We buy it because its sole purpose is a game machine. Look at the Wii for example, it pretty much has no other function than to play games and its doing fine.

Its pretty lazy of EA. Developing for one system would be ideal for them. They could shovel tones of crap on it and save money. Its their choice to support 14 different platforms and yet they complain about it?

Ghost
10-20-2007, 09:18 PM
Makes complete sense from their end. Instead of making a game for multiple platforms (3+) they can simply release one title to the majority of gamers. They would stand to save quite a bit of money under this format.


Having a single platform would have its benefits and weaknesses although with the outrageous cost of hardware and software in the industry it may very well be where we are headed. Partnerships could ease much of the burden on even these large scale corporations (such as the potential paring of Toshiba and MS or another likely scenario). I am personally tired of owning 3-4 platforms in order to play the games I want. Corporations keep the rights to their titles and instead of pushing hardware they are pushing software through a combined universal hardware medium.

The model already exists in pc gaming to an extent.

There are net advantages to the manufacturers and consumers under this concept.

Toxic
10-21-2007, 05:15 PM
Won't happen, especially if Microsoft has anything to say about it.

Riku-Nara
10-21-2007, 06:33 PM
sounds like another phantom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_(game_system))

Archivist
10-22-2007, 10:58 PM
EA has a strong argument, though I may not agree completely with it. I think that the different platforms ensure better gaming technology. If there was only one standardized platform, then there would be less incentive to develop better gaming technology. Also, each gaming system has its own perspectives on what is the best way to approach game designs. If EA feels that the mulitple platforms are not economically sound for them, then sign exclusive contracts for certain titles.

But of course, the first platform which would make itself able to be compatible with another platform would sell amazingly well.