Ea wants one single platform

[Flea]

Source Eurogamer



EA bigwig Gerhard Florin has said he wants one single platform rather than a handful of incompatible consoles.

He was chatting to the BBC about the difficulties of developing for multiple systems, and said that within around 15 years we could see a dedicated platform that would play everything - making his life much easier.

"We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible," Florin told the BBC.
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"You don't need an Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii - the consumer won't even realise the platform it is being played on."

Florin feels that this omni-hardware could take the shape of the increasingly powerful set-top boxes; the Sky receiver-like pieces of equipment that can already handle HD streams and provide access to the Internet - basically cut-down PCs.

But he says it is also important that everything stays open and that no one puts up a "walled garden", basically a closed monopoly on the service where everything has to be published by the owner - much like the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.

It is an issue that analyst Nick Parker believes will stop one open system from emerging. For him, the increase in digital distribution will make it possible for a set-top box to assume console functionality and offer Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo their own channels to provide content to.

It is far from the first time an industry name has talked of platform convergence, though - the idea that we will all be playing on one system like a Buck Rogers toilet that can provide an entire house will all its entertainment needs is common.

Sony has regularly talked about the PS3 as a media hub, too, and has recently revealed its partnership with Sky to offer on-demand telly on the system. And Microsoft has been offering downloadable films and television serials on Xbox Live in the US for some time.

Perhaps it is more realistic to assume all three will share an anonymous platform in the future, then, rather than to believe one will dominate the others.



What are your thoughts?

I think it would be a bad thing,
Take wwe as an example, i use to watch it when they competed with wcw and ecw to make the best show they could,
I stopped watching wwe a while back now as they were the only company around,
they took there foot off the gas and started to phone it in,
resulting in a mediocre show and harmed wrestling.

Do we really want that with games?

There would be no new consoles,
why spend time and money developing a new console if you own the market,
you may as well keep the same one and bleed the life out of it.
Complacency is a bad thing and stumps growth,
i hope this never happens.

[L3giOn]

That guy is a whiny, lazy bastard.

[Brighton X]

If they choose 1, I hope it's 360. I want a 2nd skate.:p

[OutlawBebop]

No, that would suck. I can't really see it happening.

[Clipse]

EA can actually kiss my ass. They shouldn't be thinking about anything other than what games they are working on, keep their heads down and shut up. They'd better be glad I can't sue them for wasting my life away simulating season after season in the Madden games just to get the 1000 points.

Needless to say you can tell I don't think too highly or fondly of EA as a company.

[Turbo VDuB 44]

I can't see that happening. It would be awesome to get other titles and series' on on console, but that is the producers being lazy... I'll be pissed if they move everything to 1 console....

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

This guy is a lazy, incompetent moron. The fall-out of having only one system is unimaginable.

[graf1k]

I didn't bother reading the EA guys arguement but please, it's a fantastic idea, even if it will probably never happen. One machine to rule them all? Fucking brilliant. I mean, every other device we have is standardize for the most part. I mean, imagine how fucking stupid it would be if you needed a Sprint phone to talk to all your friends on Sprint phones, a Verizon phone to talk to your buddies with a Verizon phone, and an AT&T phone to talk to all your friends on that network? Or needing 3 different TVs or cable boxes just to be able to watch all the channels you get. I mean, DVDs players are all standard to a point. Sure, you might have one that's better at deinterlace or 3:2 pulldown, or has better audio, but they all play DVDs. Would it be so bad if MS, Sony & Nintendo all agreed to a base set of components (CPU, GPU, Hard drive, ect) and then released their own model variations? You wouldn't have to buy 3 machines and it would increase competition on price quite a bit, at least on the hardware.

That said, it'll never happen because you're never going to get whoever is on top to just level the playing field completely for the competition, and you're never going to see any of these companies willing to share their first party developers. What's the point in buying a dev for $1/2 Billion when it doesn't give you an advantage over the other guy?

[Grimm]

Personally if there was just 1 console there will be no graphical improvments in the near future.

Plus there wouldn't be the flamewars we see on forums around the world about how good the ps3 compaired to the xbo 360 haha!

[graf1k]

Personally if there was just 1 console there will be no graphical improvments in the near future.

How do you figure that? I mean what we are basically talking about here already exists and it's called PC gaming and it just happens to be on the bleeding edge of tech and graphics, not on the ass end. Who's to say you couldn't have upgrades every 5 years still even with 1 standardized hardware set?

[Curtis]

The problem with consoles is that there not like computers. You can't upgrade little bits as you go along to make it better as time goes on. Hell, MS goes crazy if you even touch the little silver sticker under the faceplate.

1 Console, Great idea in theory, but there's so many different companies tryna make more money than others that their always gona fight between who has a better one and who can have a better one.

[graf1k]

I swear, it's like I'm talking to planks of wood.

[Curtis]

I swear, it's like I'm talking to planks of wood.


How'd you guess my nickname?!?!:rolleyes:

[v0lum3]

I swear, it's like I'm talking to planks of wood.

lol, I would have to agree.

BTW, there was an article relating to this in the back of XBOX Magazine this month. They used the same DVD comparison which is personally what I always envision. And for those of you who think it's a bad idea, I hate to break it to you but it WILL happen, it's just a matter of time.

What will happen is someone will come up with a standardized format system, an OS, or some other gadget which can be installed and ran in any console system, they will license it out and every developer will throw it on to have the cutting edge of the industry... then single console games will start to dissappear one by one, by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will continue to manufacture consoles, it's just they'll be able to read any game on the market.

Console exclusivity is also why we're paying $60 a GAME... when a game can sell on any console out there it'll be easy to sell it to the public, every game will have lower development costs and we'll reap the benefits in gaming and in our pockets. Cheaper games, more games, and a lot more revolutionary games from smaller developers. It's just a matter of time, and I'll be glad when it happens :)

And don't worry, I'm sure that every company will manufacture controllers which would work on all systems... such as USB controllers (gasp) then you can use whatever controller suits your needs the best, while playing on a console that fits your needs, playing whatever game catches your attention.

If you guys don't think that's a good idea, then I honestly think you should send me some money, I don't have enough to keep buying all these expensive ass games and systems :)

And I love how everybody got all pissy at the EA guy when he was just commenting on what the ENTIRE INDUSTRY WANTS, and half of the words were twisted and placed into context by the interviewer. Don't let someone else's words dictate how you read a completely different party's comments.

[angry]

That guy is a whiny, lazy bastard.

AGREED 1000% joe.

[Payne]

WHY I mean putting it all on one console thats just MAD:mad: I tell you

[Crash]

I don't see it happening anytime soon, but the possibility is there.


I think EA is just trying to find a way to cut down on production time so that they can push out even more games in a single year :rolleyes:

[v0lum3]

You know after reading the last two posts I proceeded to do what Crash's Avatar is doing...:(

[Azeron]

This is a possibility, but not for the forseeable future though. The way the hardware works now, high end processors, as well as video and sound cards are highly specialized pieces of equipment, and easy to make incompatible. This, combined with the way hardware and software are distributed make it easy for large companies to create an exclusive platform. This is currently a good thing, as we can see in the rapidly evolving graphics of the games we play for instance; that the competition in the videogame market, along with the server and graphics-processing equipment manufacturers currently drive innovation in the hardware market.

However, the first cracks in Moore's law are allready showing, and advancements in non-binary and non-linear computing methods are ever being made, as well as traditional silicon-based computers becoming ever more advanced. In addition to that trends can be seen to both add computers to even the most mundane items and to create greater interconnectivity between computing devices.

It is likely that these developments will have three important consequences. First off, non-specialized computing equipment will become powerful enough to handle the tasks that previously required specialized hardware such as video cards. In addition to that the growth in processing power will stagnate, or exceed the rate at which we can make use of this processing power, so developers will no longer be required to adjust their sofware to a continually evolving hardware standard. The last consequence is that the increased interconnectivity between hardware will make dedicated computers obsolete, instead we will use a distributed network of processing equipment, so for instance the processing power needed for the videogame you are playing will be provided by your couch, your microwave and your shower curtain. :P (early signs of this happening can allready be seen in the SETI@Home and Folding@Home projects, where computing power is borrowed from thousands of networked pc's)

Anyway, with the advent of generalized and ubiquitous computing power the focus on specialized gaming hardware such as the Xbox will dissapear and the focus of big companies will shift to software. How this will develop is hard to predict. It is mostly dependant on the development of intellectual property law and the ability to enforce these laws in an increasingly interconnected world. It is possible though that new platforms will appear, made purely out of patents that allow a corporation to control a part of the market. On the other hand, it may well be the start of the world's first truly open platform.

This is all far ahead in the future though, for now business will continue as usual, with a new generation of consoles being released every four to five years. I do think this change will happen within our lifetimes though, and will have far-reaching concequences. :)

Apologies for the tl;dr value of this post and any spelling and grammatical mistakes.

How do you figure that? I mean what we are basically talking about here already exists and it's called PC gaming and it just happens to be on the bleeding edge of tech and graphics, not on the ass end. Who's to say you couldn't have upgrades every 5 years still even with 1 standardized hardware set?
That's not true, windows-based PC's are a platform as well, just to a lesser extent than hardware-based platforms such as the xbox. After all, a lot of software is exclusive to either Linux, MacOS or Windows.

For a more direct example, think of the way MS monopolizes the PC games market with their DirectX software.