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Next-Gen Buzz or Bust?

by Jean-Marc Vincent (June 2005)

The main feature of the June meeting was a 90 minute panel discussion moderated by Jason Della Rocca (Executive Director, IGDA) surrounded by a panel of leading Montreal-based local developers (Ryan Cleven, Cg Supervisor at EA; Clint Hocking, Creative Director at Ubisoft; Ollie Sykes, Creative Director at DC Studios; and Martin Walker, Chief Technology Officer at A2M). This gang of four reflected on the hype coming out of E3 and the implication of the next-gen consoles on the future of game design and development.

The panel agreed that those who went to E3 expecting a revolution, actually witnessed nothing more than an evolution of the technology platforms -- as in the increase of processing power. Although this will translate into better graphics, it will not necessarily allow for a revolution in the gameplay quality of the next-gen games. Simply put, no new technology makes up for good game concepts.

Game creators will need to be more creative about the new technological power options offered by the next-gen platforms. While companies, especially small developers, will need to find new ways of making even more efficient production pipelines in order to absorb next-gen production cost. This will likely result in the appearance of numerous middleware solutions. Developers will need to go along with the next-gen developments, or be faced with the prospect of standing by in an high-speed evolutionary process.

Throughout the discussion, there was constant mention of risk averse publishers, the invasion of Hollywood execs into games, and the impending popularization of outsourcing and off-shoring. Clint stated that he believes in the value of local talent and would prefer to hire and work with anyone that was in the room before sending work outside of Montreal. The audience cheered.

The evening ended with the traditional IGDA members' raffle for game development books from Charles River Media, t-shirts and other goodies. Networking activities took place afterwards. Also, thanks again to our volunteers Isabelle Marazzani, Nicolas Quijano and Guillaume Voghel for welcoming everybody to the meeting.