American McGee: PlayStation 4 is "meh"
Alice developer believes that interfaces are where the excitement will happen
Outspoken developer American McGee has revealed he was unimpressed by the recent PlayStation 4 announcement, despite its developer friendly approach, and has suggested the future is on mobile.
"I was hoping for innovation in control input. Didn't see anything meaningful, so 'meh,'" he told Forbes.
"It's nice that they're moving towards what looks like more developer-friendly hardware and indie friendly distribution. Remains to be seen if the appearance matches reality. Overall, I think this generation of consoles will struggle painfully against the momentum of mobile/online games we're seeing globally."
He believes mobile is the place where the real excitement is to be found, and that the real revolution will come with new interfaces and devices like the Oculus Rift.
"Ultimately, people are going to choose based on power, size and convenience - and I think we're going to see devices emerging which change their form, function and interface depending on where or for what they're being used. More than anything it's interface that's going to drive the most significant change - things like Oculus Rift will radically change people's demands and expectations - that's where the real revolution is going to start."
"Nothing will be able to compete with full immersion and seamless interface being powered by a processor stack in your pocket."
McGee also defended the recent launches of Diablo III and SimCity, which were beset by connection issues related to their always online set up.
"Do gamers or the media think EA or Blizzard wanted things to go so badly at launch? Do they think all the screaming and gnashing of teeth actually helped resolve those issues more quickly?"
"There's got to be a balance to the relationship. Just because you've given a restaurant your business doesn't entitle you to throwing molten cheese fries in your waiter's face if your margarita comes out frozen instead of on the rocks. People need to relax a little and stop turning everything into World War III - Gamers vs. The Man. There are no winners in that scenario."
McGee's Spicy Horse studio recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for its free-to-play title Akaneiro, which will be available online and on mobile.