Ninja Theory: Xbox One chose "completely the wrong direction"

Tameem Antoniades, Ninja Theory's co-founder and chief creative ninja, has warned that the new consoles are on the wrong path, and that mobile will become the dominant platform.

"So you heard the XBox One announcement? TV, TV, TV. That couldn't be further from the truth, it's completely the wrong direction," he told attendees to the Slush conference in Helsinki, as reported by Edge.

"It does seem like, despite the best intentions of Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, they've still got too much momentum to steer."

He pointed to the Steam Box as a machine going in the right direction.

"It's an open development platform, fully digital and a media server, will doubtless integrate with mobile and tablets, and includes all the flexible pricing included from Steam," he explained.

"If I was to make a bet, I'd say that the Steam Box has the capacity to disrupt before mobile does. There are still technical limitations on mobile - bandwidth for streaming, processing and battery power that will just hold it back for a few years. After a few years, I fully expect mobile devices to be the dominant form."

He said consoles could stay at the centre of entertainment for up to ten years, but only if they integrated with mobile and adopted a more open approach.

In the past Ninja Theory has been fully focused on AAA titles for console, creating Heavenly Sword for the PS3 and more recently a reboot of DmC: Devil May Cry with Capcom. The studio's first mobile game, Fightback, was announced in May.

"The AAA games console model is a little bit broken," added Antoniades.

"To us, success is being able to survive. But every now and then you look around at a conference and realise that there's no-one left. That's because of the barriers to entry at the $60 model. The platform holders control the platform and the distribution, the publishers control the marketing and the funding."