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Current-generation consoles have “really passed their use-by date”, DayZ creator Dean Hall has claimed, before warning that next-generations consoles could face “a bit of a battle” with PC due to the format’s innovative approach to gaming.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com at gamescom last week, Hall said: “Even the next-generation consoles, [platform holders] see [the innovation on PC].
“They want to get in with it, they want to get in with the innovation and I think they see what innovation the PC space is driving and they want to see how they can capture that and have it occurring on the consoles.”
PC has been a key driver for emergent business models, including free-to-play titles and games adopting the ‘Minecraft model’, which sees games released at a low price and iterated upon post-release.
“What’s happened is, the consoles are at the end of their life, they’ve really passed their use-by date,” Hall continued.
“Gamers wanted a console to have been here because a lot of console gamers… I get a lot of emails about the console game, ‘Why don’t you release this on a console? I’ve gone out and bought a PC. Why did I have to do that?’
“I think a lot of people have had that, and PCs have come down in price, so I think the [next-generation] consoles are going to have a bit of a battle. I don’t know how far away they are.
“There are still obviously a lot of consoles out there, but PC has really made a name for itself in the last year or so as being an innovator and pulled a lot of people in. And there’s people making a lot of money.”
Hall’s comments about platform holders looking “to get in with the innovation” echo those of THQ CEO Brian Farrell.
Earlier this month, Farrell suggested that the focus on next-generation consoles would be to develop “opportunities in different types of business… rather than a humongous change in the foundation of 3D graphics”.
DayZ released as a mod for war sim ArmA II earlier this year. The game attracted 1,000,000 unique registrations within three months of launch.
A standalone version is due for release later this year.
