Ubisoft executive slams Sony's next-gen efforts

Ubisoft Montreal's creative director has spoken of his disappointment with Sony's next-gen offering, claiming the Japanese giant is adopting a "me too" approach by duplicating ideas from other consoles.

According to Nindojo.com, Clint Hocking criticised Sony's mimicry of Microsoft's Xbox Live service during an E3 workshop on next-gen game design, before criticising the introduction of a motion-sensor device in the PS3 controller - an idea which he believes has been borrowed from Nintendo. "How much more "me too" can Sony be?" Hocking said.

He also criticised the industry's drive to significantly boost videogame visuals with each new generation of hardware, arguing that the focus on graphics is a "fundamental problem of approach" that turns game developers into factory workers.

Hocking claims that being forced to spend valuable development time on textures and art shading is detrimental to the creation of entertaining videogames and something that in most cases (referring to the current low adoption of HD televisions) consumers won't even be able to appreciate.

Hocking was full of praise for Nintendo's effort, however, commending the new Wii motion-sensing controller which he believes can offer new inspiration for developers and create emotional experiences more powerfully than enhanced graphics.