Epic Games President Mike Capps believes that mobile gaming will become standard and that next generation consoles will no longer have a place in the marketplace. Capps cites future iterations of Apple’s iPhone as the future, stating that you’ll eventually be able to wirelessly connect it to your television set to give you that big screen gaming experience.
“As a middleware provider and as a game developer it sure would be nice if all the different platforms were really similar for us – it would make it easier to work between them with maybe just a few differentiating features we could take advantage of. I’d hate to say that the Wii U is late; in fact, you could almost argue that it’s early,” Capps began. “They’re aiming for a point beyond the current generation – they’re just not leapfrogging it. One can certainly envision a future a couple years down the road where we have some significantly leapfrogged generation and then the Wii U again becomes a system that’s not easily portable between the other platforms. But honestly, I think the bigger challenge for us is mobile.”
“Before the problem was between the consoles and PC where they had very different levels. The power of your PC could be 100 times the power of somebody else’s PC. This time the problem could be mobile. If you look at the ridiculous acceleration of iPhone hardware and technology, trying to find a sweet spot for tech to make your mobile game… I mean, what would your mobile game look like in 2015? Who knows how fast that’s going to operate, but you can bet it’s going to be faster than an Xbox 360,” he said.
“So I think that’s the real challenge for us now, rather than worrying about the difference between a couple consoles and some order of magnitude, whether 3X or 4X. It’s about how do we deal with iPhone 8… if you watch where the gamers are going that’s where they are. Your iPhone 8 will probably plug into your TV, or better yet, wirelessly connect to your television set to give you that big screen gaming experience with good sound. So really, what’s the point of those next-gen consoles? It’s a very interesting situation to be looking at. That’s what we’re starting to think about more… not how do we scale from some Nintendo platform to some other future console.”
The point is so that you can have proper controls and not stupid annoying touch screen controls. Don’t get me wrong I Love having the touch option, but do not EVER get rid of buttons/analogue sticks.
Totally. They just end up trying to replicate buttons on the touch screen anyway, to a much more awkward degree. And if games are too touch-based, then its difficult to retain the same control precision and complexity of game design. I completely agree, buttons have to stick around!
Definitely, even the wii u decided put them on.
ya capps is sooo wrong (imo) i would hate that, i cant wait for the wii u, touch screen is cool the gyro. accel. are cool and will love to see them in games but ya buttons should never be gone i dont like gaming on i phone for anything more then cut the rope fruit ninja angry birds arcade games i sure as hell dont like shooters on it i like my buttons i dont like apple they’re to restrictive with their products and i dont ever want to nintendo to be like them
I hear that. I hated Starfox Command because of the unreasonable lack of button support.
If that happens I’ll quit gaming all together
You’re not alone :/
agreed
I jump on the wagon….
Indeed. That made me think, how come people like to play videogames on their Iphones without buttons, that’s not comfortable and lame in my opinion. But anyways.
Because, believe it or not, people have different opinions.
Indeed, that’s what I just said. Pretty clever.
I’ve noticed games on iPhone usually just have HD textures, put the polygon count is nothing spectacular. They just look good sprinkled in glitter
Yeah, most high end iPhone games have a low polycount excluding Infinity Blade.
He obviously never played a mobile game before… they are addicting and fun . but nowhere complex and good as most REAL video games . both due to the size of the screen , and the controls being part of it … battery life . and the factit’s a PHONE before anything else . it just can’t replace consoles . although hes right that the big market in it shouldn’t be ignored …
Well if the future means getting pathetic games like Angry Birds and not something like Crysis the future will probably suck
Games on Smartphones: Decent games you can play for 5 minutes while you’re bored/waiting. Games on Consoles/Handhelds: Games that immerse you with content and will keep you coming back for a long time.
“oh boy! Let’s port Gears of War 3 to the iPhone! We’ll get tons of people hating the controls!”. You took the words right out of my mouth
It good in the sense of novelty and temporary enjoyment if you’re not a serious gamer for the most part because it has fun niche type games that pass the time but rarely take themselves seriously for the most part. but even those that get serious, don’t get nearly as serious as those of consoles and handhelds. Honestly, this guy is crazy if he thinks that what he’s saying is the way the future will go. I mean, seriously, enough people gripe about the wii controller.
And yes, while the Wii U will have a touchscreen, it’s large and also has buttons, IT’S NOT JUST A TOUCH SCREEN, and the same can be said for DS/3DS, again, touchscreen, but with buttons. So F this guy, he’s coocoo for coacoa puffs.
I’m waiting for the 3DS price drop, the 1st party 3DS titles releasing holiday season, and the release of the Vita first. If mobile gaming trumps handheld gaming (both Nintendo & Sony) then I may consider it a possible threat to console gaming. I used to be standoffish towards PC gaming but that co-exists with consoles and handhelds, and I believe mobile gaming will do they same. It’ll fit in but not monopolize.
Not everyone owns a smartphone and not everyone wishes and prays they had the means to own a smartphone if they don’t, or an iPad or any other tablet device. Just because mobile gaming is very popular doesn’t mean it will take over the gaming world. Most importantly, I fail to see how you can have a game such as Gears of War play with touch screen controls only. Games like that are why you need a proper button layout.
He really believes that? Don’t get me wrong. I love playing my 3DS but I usually play consoles more at home. The only time I pick up my 3DS over a console is if I’m closer to beating a game on there or if I feel too lazy to get up and plug it in to the back of my tv. I will always buy consoles no matter what. I rather play consoles or handhelds than smart phones. My blackberry only has brickbreaker which gets boring after 5 minutes.
“What’s the point of next generation consoles?”
THEY’RE FUN.
Also to further the evolution of gaming and to offer something new (at least this is Nintendo’s ideal). A world where video gaming is strictly limited to mobile phones is a world I do not want to live in.
Is this his way of saying don’t buy the Wii U wait for the IPhone 8 which following apple’s schedule would be 3 years away…. UT sucks and only fuels my disappointment in Epic as a developerand people wonder why I respect Treyarch so much because whether u like them or not at least 3ARC tries……
Isn’t this the same Epic Games that said the Unreal engine wouldn’t work on the 3DS and thus they wouldn’t make any games for it, then THQ (or was it Ubisoft?) put out a game on the unreal engine.
i think people are missing the point of what he was saying. he was saying that phones could get powerfull enough to start being able to produce 360 quality of games. meaning you could have a thing that latches onto your phone to make it like a controller with buttons etc. and have it wirelessly connect to your tv
I’d love to give someone a call while they’re in the middle of a boss battle or text them endlessly just for lolz knowing they’re using their phone for this epic-ness that Mr. Capps is talking about.
by 2015, handhelds and consoles will be obsolete.
after the machines become self aware, they will implant gaming devices directly into our brains and we can download games via wifi as long as we offer a sacrifice to iGod.
Will ps9 have blu-ray or…
The PS9 will use dead people as its storage media.
I absolutely hate my iPhone 4 and is waiting for the contract to end so I can get a better phone, honestly phones can have simple games but not the hardcore of the real thing
What do you hate about the iPhone 4? Works great for me…
anyone the thinks phone gameing is the future should not be involved with the gameing industry or even be a devolper, iphone 8 fpr 3000$ to play an xbox 360 game with crappy control? no thankyou,not to mention the adapter to the tv would be like 500$
Yo Mike! Try to find Somebody who will buy Gears of War 3 on an iPhone, of you find somebody who does, their mental.
They’re*. Not their, my bad
He says “what will your mobile game look like in 2015?”
What I am thinking about is how my console gaming is going to look like in 2015.
We are all going to die in 2012! LOL Remember the shit piss, Mayans! Stupid prophecy.
The problem with mobile gaming is the size of the screen, the lack of buttons/control options, the file size limitations, and (most importantly, to me) the battery life. Phones are meant for calls, so if I need my phone for an emergency, I’ll need as much battery life as I can get. Games eat up power, and ,currently, battery life just isn’t sufficient enough. Though there have been some cool breakthroughs in battery technology, they just aren’t ready yet.
That’s why he’s talking about 2015 though. I definitely agree that I hate that games and phones have combined – I much prefer using my iPod Touch as a music and game system and having a seperate phone.
The connectivity with the TV like he mentions and an attachable controller doodah would sort out the rest of your complaints. I’m definitely interested in seeing where this could go though
Well, that was stupid.
Wow, talk about fanboys. He’s talking about 4 years from now and your consoles being portable and wirelessly connecting to any TV – what’s not to like about that. If they had games like GoW3 (which seeing as he is talking about 2015 is a stupid idea to suggest) then there would be attachable controller units. Why is everyone so against what is literally just a mobile console, I’d love to take my xbox around with me.
Everyone seems to love jumping on the hate Apple bandwagon using the good old “it only has casual games” argument forgetting that many of the games on DSiWare and the 3DS shop started on the idevices first, Zenonia and Let’s Golf to say a few. There are plenty of great, immersive games on there that equal their console counterparts – Plants vs Zombies, Sonic and Sega Racing, Sonic Episode 4, LEGO Harry Potter etc. Stop being so scared of the future :P
Yeah right, like there would be enough people willing to play only on touch screens. Face it, the only reason games on phones are working is because most of them are by indi developers who do not pay fees for a proper rating, don’t have proper manuals for their games, and barely update/fix their problems; not to mention the low price. Try to put a high end game at $40 or more on those stores and see if they can sell anything. Plus, in order to connect to TV wirelessly, you need the same signal. They could use something like Bluetooth, but you would need the latest version for high rate transfer (which is different from a controller with Bluetooth). Also, wouldn’t you need a console in order to use your new, fancy HDTV along with you’re 7.1 surround sound? I mean, the only reason we have HDTV is to enjoy gaming to the best we can, right? Also, while you can play games on your phone, they eat away the battery. Unlike protable consoles, a phone is something you carry with you because you need it. If it’s always dead, then what’s the point in that?
He’s right. What’s the point of next-gen consoles? In fact, what’s the point of advancing any technology at all? Let’s all just grind to a halt as a society and focus all advancement in every field onto Apple handheld products! Cure for cancer? What’s the point? We’re all going to die sometime! What we really need is more Angry Birds!
15 points
Then why did you make the samaritan demo EPIC? And why are you praising the wii u then now you are saying its too late? Just shut up EPIC.
Seriously? I can agree in a way but the hardcore real money making gamers still dont buy and play mobile games or mobile-consoles over home consoles…
But, he has a point, though I dont agree about his vision! Im on my smartphone right now and this sucks, I need a keyboard…. Input (read GAMEPLAY) is so damn important! Im hoping VR someday soon, released by Nintendo:) And seeing technology evolve, we will be having full body input capabilities combined with hardware input. Though smartphones will evolve to hand-pc’s and eventually the “phone” network will be gone, it will be data as we know it:) Give it 5 years starting in the big countries…imhvision;)
Yea everyone lets go back to the N64. LOL Give me a break!
All this “mobile gaming is the future” mumbo jumbo kind of scares me. I’ve been playing console games for 25 years and I don’t intend to change that. I don’t own anything that apple makes and I never will. I bought my cell phone to communicate and nothing more. Call me old fashioned, but if this indeed happens, I’m afraid I’ll be a gamer no more. I hope Mr. Capps is wrong.
i get what he is saying but if that happens i dont think it will happen on the iphone i see it happenning on something like the vita which has amazing graphics and controls
Mmmkay so could we get a sweet game made by Cliff Bleszenski (can’t spell his last name worth my life) on 3DS? Pretty please?
If nintendos gone, ill quit gaming. End of story
If this happens, I guarantee I will dedicate my entire life to somehow keeping the Nintendo flame burning
What about the memory huh???
seriously this dude is a duchebag i’ have seen so many people play their consoles and text/talk/facetime at the same time and i don’t think someone will want to be play call of duty and keep pressing home everytime they get a new messege/call
seriously u don’t mix good game with phone it’s ok to play a dumb lil game on a phone like angry birds but not enough to replace a next generation console
P.S someone need to kick this guy in the balls and make him realize wat he said
If mobile devices takeover, there will be another video-game crash.
The smartphones and tablets are almost as fast as a 360 now. Later this year Nvidia will launch a quad-core Tegra.
i don’t like playing video games on a mobile phone- the experience is just isn’t the same as playing on a console. the wii U will survive during that period where mobile gaming has taken over.
it will have too many quality titles, phones have such as mario bros, zelda etc. i personally don’t see what all the fuss is about with angry birds. it’s not my cup of tea.
sorry, i meant it will have too many quality titles, such as mario bros, zelda etc that mobile gaming lacks.
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