id Software's technical director John Carmack has admitted he can't yet pick a favourite in the next gen console race, but reckons that regardless, the impending change-up is "obviously going to be a good thing for gamers, developers, and an excellent thing for AMD."
Speaking at his QuakeCon 2013 keynote address in Dallas (thanks, Polygon), Carmack said that he hadn't run enough tests on the hardware for the two consoles to pick his favourite, but claimed that they're both "very close, and very good."
"It's almost amazing how close they are in capabilities, how common they are," Carmack said to the assembled audience. "The capabilities they give are essentially the same."
Going on to speak about the Xbox One's former DRM regulations, Carmack declared that he falls "a bit on the side of the witch hunt was a bit unjustified, there. The future is obvious right there, and it will be good for us in general." Optical discs will soon be a thing of the past, the creator of Doom reckons - it's just a question of when.
However, Carmack was less complementary of Microsoft's Kinect-based agenda, saying that he's still "not really sold on" the device as a whole.
"I recognize that what my needs and desires as a game developer or what I use the technology for might not cover the broad consumer base that they're looking for, so it's their play to make," he explained. "I think Kinect still has some fundamental limitations with the latency and frame rate on it.
"Interacting with it is still ... when you interact with Kinect, some of the standard interactions - position and hold, waiting for different things - it's fundamentally a poor interaction.
"One way that I look at it is - I used to give Apple a lot of grief about the one button mouse," Carmack went on. "Anybody working with a mouse really wants more buttons - [they're] helpful there. Kinect is sort of like a zero button mouse with a lot of latency on it."
It's a pretty fair argument - and no doubt the proof will be in the pudding soon enough. In the meantime, perhaps Carmack should take a glance at some of our Kinect coverage so far. In one recent article, Ed argues why Microsoft won't - and shouldn't - sell the Xbox One without Kinect. And not so long ago, thatgamecompany's founder Jenova Chen said he believed that Kinect was "finally there" in terms of realising its potential.
If you're still mulling over which Xbox One game to buy first to test both the console and Kinect's capabilities, this comprehensive piece should help you make up your mind.
4 comments so far...
Filipus on 2 Aug '13 said:
Well they improved the latency, you should watch the videos and see. its almost at the perfect point. Almost.
Dave2123 on 2 Aug '13 said:
I'm glad this guy, who appears to be well respected figure who people believe, has come out and said that the consoles are similar, because that has really been clear all along and it might stop all the sony fan boys from attacking The One. I was glad to see that even Kotaku, who have been bias towards the PS4 since the start, posted an article about this. Perhaps people will now realise that the hardware of the 2 consoles isn't what will set them apart, it will be features and exclusives, of which The One has the edge in my opinion. You can't deny it has better features, but it's if you want them really and I do.
evilcanofsoda on 2 Aug '13 said:
This!
I used to be a PlayStation user (ok fan, lol) but this time the One got my attention with its features and its exclusives almost all of the One exclusives got my attention (In the PS4 only inFamous Second Son) and the new kinect tecnology it's awesome and a great addition to gameplay.
And as for graphics well I'm intrigued because at E3 and in the SDCC all the X1 game demos where 1080p at 60fps (Microsoft made clear that in E3 too, they were a little too exited abouth this haha) and the PS4 it was 1080p but only 30fps (They didn't mention 60fps at any time, or did they?). Wasn't the PS4 more powerful than the Xbox One?
incognito on 7 Aug '13 said:
Most developers are pushing the digital future like mentioned above. There a re a few problems though!
Firstly ISP's vary greatly due to a very competitive market. I get 12mbits/sec most of the time but this can drop to nothing. If I am downloading a full game when this happens I lose that download not very good if your tariff is capped. They will also need to be cheaper on Live or PSN against what I can pay online for the solid disc. It seems that many developers want both the "Penny and the bun".
Sony are looking for partners to develop the Next gen of Blu-ray standard discs for 4K. So I see the disc format being around for a while.