What exactly the next-generation of games will look like is currently up in the air, given that they’re at least a couple years worth of technology advancements away. However, there’s a graphical water-mark that Epic’s Cliff Blezsinzki would like to see reached.
“I’m sorry, do you think graphics are good enough No they’re not! The Xbox 360 is great, we’ve pushed it further than we ever have with Gears of War 3, but I want Avatar in real-time and beyond, I want fully realistic CG, and are we there Absolutely not. I think there’s absolutely room for improvement,” said Blezsinzki. “Do graphics make gameplay No. But when I fire up my projector back at my house, put Avatar on – it still makes your jaw drop, it’s like a giant portal to another planet. I think we still have a long way to go before we get there, and I want us to get there.”
Blezsinzki also foresees the future of the industry being tied to online and social networking. “My money for the future of everything is on those who understand the online space the best. Because this is the world we live in, we’re always connected,” he said. “Between my personal and my professional life, I’m just addicted to what other people are saying all the time. It’s not fading for me, it’s not like MySpace. I find out about celebrity deaths immediately from other people now. And then you get the CNN news alert a day later: ‘Oh apparently that actress died, which we found out about yesterday.’ We’re in this world of churn, and those who understand online the best will know how to succeed, and those who don’t are just done.”
“It’s just a matter of those who own the platforms allowing the integration back and forth of the social networking experience,” he adds. “It’s a really complicated problem to solve and moving forward I’m curious to see what our publishing partners do.”
Source: OXM
