John Carmack On Console Difficulties

Doom giant John Carmack is one of the few developers to talk on the advantages and disadvantages of this generation’s consoles. As id Software’s new game Rage nears the end of its development how have his thoughts changed?

In the past Carmack has been vocal on the advantage of Microsoft’s development tools, the joy of the Xbox 360′s GPU, and the difficulties of multi-core development. He’s been especially lyrical on the the PS3′s Cell Processor, stating that “the decision to use an asymmetric CPU by Sony was a wrong one.”

With id Tech 5 now displaying stunning 60 frames per second visuals on the PC (check out the screenshots below) and reportedly with little concessions on both consoles, have his views reformed at all?  In the following Gametrailers.com video interview Carmack will further cement his views on the Cell processor, but with the conclusion that they have reluctantly overcome many of their problems.  The current difficulty facing id Software is storage space on the Xbox 360.

Without an HDD on every Xbox 360 and DVD space limiting, Rage will have to be a multi-disc game. The problem now lies with Microsoft’s licensing fees. At a hefty price per DVD, Carmack and id Software may have to stick to two DVD’s and find another solution to their problems without conceding visual quality. Then again, Microsoft could make an exception and allow a third DVD at no extra cost…

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  • Jonathan Zungre

    when is rage slated for release? i think its pretty far off.. and if they hit any delays, Microsoft may already have the next Xbox out. i think the 360′s only supposed to have a really short life cycle (5 years?)

    which, as a xbox fan (e3 made me realize my allegiance), is still a big sad face.

  • Patrick Steen

    6 months of development left I believe.

  • Dan Landis

    People have claimed the 360 successor would be out by 2009 since the 360 isn’t “future-proof” like the PS3, and a lot of analysts have predicted the next round of consoles by 2010. I don’t see that happening. It’s possible that Nintendo would release a souped-up Wii that was HD capable, and maybe Sony and Microsoft will release further enhancements or Slim versions, but I honestly don’t think the new consoles will be out 2 years from now. They may be announced, but definitely not released.

  • madpuppy

    I agree with you, Dan.

    especially the PS3, unlike the 360 (which I own as well) the addition of being a formidable Blu-ray player as well as a solid gaming platform that hasn’t even seen a portion of it’s potential, I cannot see a more powerful machine being released by Sony for a while. as for the 360, It is a great machine but, because of wanting to be first to store shelves they crippled it by not providing a Hi-Def next gen capacity disc format out of the box. also, It may have allowed HD-DVD more of a fighting chance against the Blu-ray format.

  • Patrick Steen

    We’re looking at around 2012 I’d say. Long generation. I think the Wii has lengthened it by being “last gen” in its graphical capabilities, making the 360 and PS3 especially impressive tech wise. Of course by 2012 they will be ancient and unimpressive.

  • erodrig

    not really graphics havent gone that far off from last gen to current gen i will i mean i guess a next gen console will need to hit around 2015 or 2017

  • Patrick Steen

    They have…and why so late? That would make this the longest console generation in the history of time…

  • http://www.barackobama.com/ DavidGX

    I can’t imagine this generation lasting much longer than around the end of 2010. That would be about 5 years from the 360s release, a 5 year cycle. That’s about what consoles run these days.

  • Patrick Steen

    PS4 won’t be 2010 David. That’d be 3-4 years for the PS3 (released in Europe in 2007). You’re definitely looking at around 2012 and Microsoft have stated they’re going for a longer haul this time around.