This is to be the ”longest generation” the industry has seen, gamers ”don’t have the hardware”. Crysis - ”very few” could play it.
In an interview with OXM, Pitchford said ”anyone that built their strategies around the last generation timing, and is trying to employ those strategies today, is either being forced to adapt very quickly or is risking failure.”
”Some people have invested a lot going to a place that’s too far, and the customers aren’t ready for that yet because they don’t have the hardware for it. And so they can’t find the market. I was thinking of Crytek, they couldn’t find a market because they made a game that very few people could play,” he continued, referring to Crysis.
”I’m not putting words in their mouth, I remember reading something publically where they said they couldn’t put this on consoles because of the hardware…”
Crytek isn’t the only one with their head a few too many years into the future, notes Picthford. Rage from id Software is suffering the same situation.
”We see the id guys talking continuously about this,” he said. ”…‘well, Sony will have a Blu-Ray and I don’t know what we’ll do on the 360, maybe we’ll have three DVD’s… if the publisher will let us do that, maybe we’ll errrrahh I dunno.’”
”Because they’re in this kind of “generation plus” mode, and like nobody knows what the generation beyond this one is going to look like.” The Pitchford from Gearbox raises many valid points, when Crysis released for PC only the top tier could enjoy it fully.
Have some developers failed to notice that generation leaps are taking longer now? Do you think you’re PC could handle the upcoming Rage no sweat? Was Crysis a crisis?