The God of War and Twisted Metal creator sees the next round of hardware as the very last
David Jaffe is never one to hold back an opinion, so after we talked in depth about the free-to-play market and his next project at his new San Diego studio, we also decided to pick the designer's brain on the Wii U and how the console market is shaping up. As it turns out, Jaffe isn't very excited by Wii U and he ultimately thinks consoles in general will soon be dinosaurs.
"I don't see the Wii U and say 'oh my God I have to have that.' But with new hardware that's usually the case; the software's going to drive it. Or it's like Apple and the hardware is so elegantly designed that it's like, 'Oh they make toilet plungers? I'll buy it!' I played some games, I enjoyed Rayman... it's not like I'm knocking it but I would say that I wasn't blown away by any individual piece of software that was exclusive to Wii U," Jaffe commented.
The bottom line is that Jaffe believes consoles are on their last legs.
"So while I don't think it's going to do as well as the Wii, I don't think any of the consoles are going to do as well as they used to. It's a declining market, I think. That doesn't speak ill to any of them as pieces of hardware - it just speaks about the fact that the industry has changed, the business models have changed and the world has gotten even smaller with smartphones and tablets and the internet, and stuff like Gaikai and streaming."
"Look, consoles are going away. I think in 10 years - probably sooner, but 10 years is always the safe thing to say so you don't sound like an idiot - but here's what I'll say: I'll go on the record and say that the next generation of hardware will be the last consoles. And they should be," Jaffe asserted.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-13-game-consoles-will-be-extinct-after-next-gen-says-jaffeHope he's wrong on that one. I've actually moved over to consoles almost exclusively for gaming and don't exactly care to spend $1000 or more on a good enough PC to run the latest PC games when my PS3 and 360 can do most of the same games at a fraction of the cost.
