Platinum Games Studio Head: Next Generation is 'More of the Same' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 February 2020 / 3,559 Views
Platinum Games studio head Atsushi Inaba has stated the next generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Project Scarlett, are more of the same when compared to previous generations.
"It’s OK. And by that I mean, I’m sure that things will move faster, graphics will be better and maybe it will be easier with less wait times… that’s good for the consumer," Inaba told VideoGamesChronicle. "But it’s more of the same, quite frankly, compared to previous generations. It’s nothing that’s disruptive or super innovative, if you ask me."
"Game hardware used to be about custom chips that you couldn’t do on PCs. Now you look at it and they’re just grabbing stuff that already exists. The Switch, for example, is a Tegra which already existed and the other consoles are using very similar chips and graphics cards to what you see on PCs, but maybe slightly updated. None of it seems unique to that hardware anymore."
"It’s hard to get excited about stuff that kind of already exists, but has been repurposed to a certain degree," he added. "That’s why for me, things like cloud platforms represent innovation and something very, very different – they’re platforms that excite me and where I feel there is a lot more innovation happening."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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If it ain't broke
Cloud platforms aren't the future for gaming. Gaming requires low latency, and most people don't have that.
I don't know if its the future, but its a viable way to enjoy many game. Many of Sony's games this gen have just been story driven experiences where latency is not crucial. There are countess game that could work fine on cloud streaming.
On a side note, year ago I complete several games via OnLive. At the time cloud streaming wasn't nearly as good as it is today. Yet I enjoyed playing through a few games like Batman Arkham City, The Witcher (original), Red Faction: Guerilla, etc. So again, I just see it as a viable option and would be great for mobile devices.
Thats why Stadia and Azure have world wide servers. Its not like the 90s and early 2000s where a signal had to be piggy backed from across the globe. We have servers basiaclly above our heads which reduces latency etc. You dont need amazing internet for it to work.
Not sure what’s expected, tbh. Dedicated consoles don’t have much they can offer besides better hardware and services. That’s pretty much any console players really want anyways.
Great games don't need innovative hardware to begin with, so I am totally fine with more boring consoles. Every playstation console since the PS2 has been boring anyway.
Nintendo highly disagrees with you.
Yet another person decrying lack of innovation in gaming, without offering up any innovative ideas themselves, He talks about consoles move to X86 hardware and switch using tegra. likes it's a retrograde step, He doesn't seem to realise that just like today yesteryears hardware had custom designed chips that were also based on existing tech, one example being power PC chips, and I would argue that like today most of the changes before the move toward PC, related to power and speed increases and how it allows the enhancement of future software.
That's why I love Nintendo. For better or worse, they keep things interesting!
I'm not a huge Nintendo fan but man the Switch is the best idea to come to console gaming since maybe online game play. IMO it should be the standard for every console.
By choosing a heavily downclocked shield, erm ok.
I don’t mind Switch’s gig, but I’m glad it’s not the standard for every system. I don’t need to game outside of my home, and I like other companies to focus on hardware and online infrastructure. Different companies should do different things.
It a handheld console that connects to a TV. Its not that interesting. It just does it better than other handheld consoles before it.
Wii U had custom chips and almost no third party used it correctly and complained it was difficult to port games. On Switch you can run Unreal Engine 4 and now third parties complain again. That's weird.
yeah ue4 in 540 p what nobody wants to see
I quite enjoyed playing UE4 games like Yoshi's Crafted World and Hellblade on Switch, which btw both ran above 540p.
As long as the games are good, I don't need any changes to how the consoles are. Eventually though, I want some SAO VR thing, but were decades away from that technology.
So its hardware that will appeal to the masses? That's a surprise.
He is right about one thing, we don't get that excited about hardware. But that's okay, now we just get excited about the games and their potential with a massive spec boost.
Hopefully he's right and they are not going to go crazy with these cloud based services.
I'm okay with this. I don't think we need hardware innovation (but then again, we don't know what we don't know). At this point what I want to see is improvements in quality. For hardware, that's primarily the controller. But I'm really talking about software. I want to see more innovation in games, but even without any innovation, there is plenty of room for quality improvements. That will make gaming more fun. We don't need funky new console concepts, we want better games.
Where is Kinect 3.0?
I think their (PG) Nintendo bias is showing. :-D Nah he has a point, but it doesn't matter to me. As long as the games are good.
It's about the games, HW is just a means to an end. Previous Playstations have tried some proprietary stuff, but it's typically just harder to program for and doesn't really add anything to the table. Even being comparable to PCs, consoles have their own role to fill. Convenience and great exclusives, reasonable prices and such. Console all the way, when it comes to gaming.
Completely agree, always thought off the shelve parts was the wrong direction. Just a couple of weak ass PC's, hence I no longer bother with them.
Pretty much the only way to keep costs down. Consoles have technically always been just weaker PC’s, but are cheaper and more accessible to consumers as a result. These days though, the graphical differences
between what consoles and PC are minimal at best.
Eeeeer well if it is more of the same I won't buy Platinum games on next gen, but will from a lot of platforms.
Not sure where he thinks is innovative about cloud itself.
You sound like you agree with him on all his points. The only difference is you added in the AI improvements but that is unlikely as we haven't even seen that on PC. All the other positives you provided are exactly what he said would be improvements that are good for the consumer.
AI improvements wont be noticable to the masses. Games today can have amazing AI, heck the N64 had amazing AI with some games. The CPU strenght will just make it easier for Devs. Dont expect all Devs to dish out resources to create great AI for there games, its more of a choice than a limitation.
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