Electronic Art’s Richard Hilleman has some harsh words for the gaming industry as a whole when it comes to consoles versus mobile gaming. He believes players are turning to the mobile space for innovative games, rather than consoles. He says the generation of gamers that learned from video games designed by Shigeru Miyamoto has passed, and that players are now learning from their iOS devices. While Hilleman did thank Miyamoto for his contribution to the industry, he goes on to further state that Miyamoto has fallen down on the job.
“I thank Miyamoto for that. But he’s falling down on the job. And for the past five years that job has been taken over by a dead guy from Cupertino.”
The “dead guy” he’s referring to in that statement is of course Steve Jobs, who presided over Apple as the CEO when the company launched the iPhone in 2007. Speaking of the game industry as a whole, Hilleman acknowledges several problems with the way games are delivered, the price they cost, and sometimes the level of skill required to play certain games.
“We’ve asked for too much time, too much skill, and too much money, sometimes all at once. Customers today… are generally looking for a single fabric of play. They want their game where they want it, when they want it, and at a price they can defend to other people.”
Hilleman stated that the next generation of consoles will need to win back gamer favor by adopting new trends, where the focus is on software and the games provided rather than hardware specs. Hilleman also focused on the importance of user generated content and how important it will be for console games going into this new generation.
What do you think of Hilleman’s remarks? You can read the full presentation here. Do you agree that Miyamoto has fallen down on the job when it comes to innovative games on consoles? Has the torch passed from console gaming to mobile gaming? Let us know your thoughts below.
