John-ShepardWe've said before we'd be fine with the PlayStation 3 for at least a couple more years. Many developers have expressed similar sentiments; David Jaffe is one iconic designer who definitely isn't interested .
The good news is that although everyone expects new hardware announcements from Sony and Microsoft some time this year, neither manufacturer is likely to release a new console in 2012. Besides, according to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, the current consoles have quite a bit of life left in them.
In speaking to GamesIndustry International , Sweeney admitted that mobile gaming tech is evolving quickly, but consoles are on a much longer development cycle. And right now, the systems have many years left; as many as six or eight years. Said Sweeney:
"The big difference between a console and a tablet is the console can consume 100 or 200 watts of power, while the tablet consumes one or two or three or four watts. That's really the limiting factor of performance there. Just on the grounds of the laws of physics, you'd have to think it is three to four hardware generations, or six to eight years before the current highest end desktop or console performance you can achieve becomes achievable on tablets. To me, that really defines the role of consoles in the world. They define the highest and most impressive graphics experience anywhere in the industry. They focus on delivering teraflops of computing performance in a way that a portable device or an economical computer really couldn't, despite sheer focus on that one aspect."
Last week, Quantic Dream boss David Cage said the team really didn't push the PS3 with Heavy Rain , a statement that definitely turned some heads. The developer turned even more heads when they released that amazing tech demo , running in real-time on Sony's machine. Plus, based on what we've seen of future projects like The Last Of Us , we don't doubt that developers could do a lot more with the PS3.