BioWare’s Ray Muzyka has predicted the high possibility of a one platform future for gamers, but only if Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo can settle their console wars.
At a recent Electronic Arts (the parent company of the BioWare/Pandemic studios) press event, CVG caught up with studio head Muzyka to ask his for his opinions and predictions on 2009 and beyond in gaming.
Muzyka’s major comments addressed the possibility that someday gamers would play games on one ubiquitous console. There are “valid reasons” why the market would trend that direction, with the exception of “Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo maybe having some issues with that [as] they might want to continue their platforms.”
He explained, “Given that they create the hardware and they’re big brands that have a lot of loyal fans I think that it may take a while before you see one platform.”
To some degree, the PC already acts as a platform for any developer, publisher and gamer to utilize, given the various hardware configurations but standardized operating systems.
“The idea of a thin client that you could run code over the internet on and distribute to is a possibility in the future that I think could happen,” commented Muzyka. “You’re seeing it on some PC titles now like the flash-based games that are arguably an example of that, where you’re playing a game that’s displayed and rendered and you interact with it on your machine but it may be running somewhere else.”
His motivation for believing in the one system future? For Muzyka, content, not technology, will continue to expand the experiences.
“I think as technology accelerates and gets better and better it’s less and less about pushing pixels through a technology architecture and trying to find the ways to optimize,” he noted. “That’s still part of development, but more and more we’re coming to a standard camera, kind of like the movie industry, but while you still iterate the camera it’s more about what you do with the camera, more about the artistry and craftsmanship and how you direct the experience.”
