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The successor to the Xbox 360 will probably be backwards compatible, believes Spec Ops: The Line executive producer Denby Grace.
Grace was chatting to VideoGamer.com about the possible pitfalls of launching a big-budget game – Spec Ops: The Line – at the tail end of a console generation.
“The next generation, the way we’re looking at it and thinking about it, we’re not going to see such a reinvention of the wheel,” said Grace. “High Def was a big change, for sure, and I don’t think we perceive the jump to the next generation to be big in that respect – in terms of visual fidelity.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more opportunity to make worlds much, much richer, because we’ll have more memory and things like that. And obviously there’ll be more integration with cloud, with Kinect – with all these periphery things. I think that’s where the big innovation is going to come from. Obviously we’re going to need to make the leap, like everyone is going to need to make the leap. But I don’t think it concerns us, you know?
“A good game can come out whenever. A great example is God of War, which came out at the end of the PS2 lifecycle.”
He added: “The other argument is that the install-base is at its largest, as well. People don’t stop buying games because there’s a new console on the horizon. And as well as that, the Next Box – or whatever you want to call it – is probably going to be backwards compatible. So I don’t think we’re afraid of that. A good game will always be successful, no matter when you release it. But there are things to consider.”
Spec Ops: The Line is scheduled for release in 2012. Read about our latest impressions of the game by heading over to the hot off the press Spec Ops: The Line preview.
Backwards compatibility seems like a must for the next Xbox, a feature which could be made simpler to implement assuming the console utilises an AMD graphics part just as the Xbox 360 does – a hardware solution as seen in early PS3 models, would provide the best experience.
Whilst gamers are sure to carry on buying games for the old hardware once new consoles are out, much of the shooter fanbase is made of core gamers, the very same group which tends to adopt new technology first.
