If vice president of Epic Games Mark Rein’s words are anything to go by, game consoles in the future would not only look different, but play, work and just be different in every sense of the word. Rein is a firm believer that future Xbox and PlayStation consoles will not only be a box fastened to our living rooms, but will be smaller, portable devices and yet will have the hardware required to be fully-fledged gaming machines, and more.
“Imagine a future Xbox 360 that is actually a tablet you carry around,” said Mark Rein in an interview. “It will have more power than 360 does today, with technology like Kinect built right in. Imagine walking into a bar with some friends, propping it up on the table and playing games like Dance Central or Kinect Adventures anywhere you go. Then when you get home that same device will use technology like AirPlay or wireless HDMI to connect to your big screen, you’ll pick up a wireless controller, or use your phone as controller to play games like Gears of War.”
Epic Citadel, the free-to-download app that went up on Apple’s App Store not too long ago, is a clear cut sign, in-your-face point-proving tech demo that shows how mobile hardware is already stronger and more potent than last-gen consoles, also proving beyond doubt that things are moving along quickly in the mobile technology space, which is why Rein believes in his theory so feverishly.
“So we’re going to see really powerful smaller machines emerge – they will be more powerful than a 360. To Epic that’s where our interest lies. We’re not interested in simple 2D games or games for the original iPhone or 3G; we want to bring high-quality, high-fidelity triple-A games to mobile. Epic Citadel woke a lot of people up – they realised it’s real and can be done.”
