Epic Games Predict A Portable PlayStation, Xbox Future
Xbox 360 Portable Mock-Up
Epic Games, creator of Gears of War and the Unreal Engine, voiced their idea on where the video game industry will drift. They say that they believe the future Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 iterations will eventually become portable systems, most likely in the form of tablets.
Usually when a gamer see’s ‘portable’ they think handheld; however, the future iterations of these consoles would better be thought of in the form of the iPad.
Mark Rein, boss of Epic Games, spoke about what he can imagine being done with the new consoles. He spoke of walking into a bar, or an area with your friends, and placing the tablet on the table and being able to begin gaming instantly. He said that you can then bring that device home and, through technology like AirPlay or wireless HDMI, you can connect to your high definition television and pick up a wireless controller, or phone, to play intense games such as Gears of War.
These devices were imagined to have more power than the Xbox 360, or any other current generation video game console, for that matter, and the practicality of an iPad. Making a video game tablet might not be a difficult task in and of itself, but giving it enough power to play games such as Modern Warfare 2 on it may be quite the issue, assuming you want it to weigh less than 5 pounds.
While this idea may sound bold to you, I think this is a pretty obvious and natural shift. Mobile technology is rapidly improving and will, of course, reach that of the Xbox 360 eventually. Take a look at the Nintendo 3DS. It has more power than the PlayStation 2 and is nearing the power of an Xbox, which was originally a huge block of parts.
Taking the idea of mobile gaming a step further, look at technology like cloud-computing. OnLive is a key example of how gaming can be done on the move without a sacrifice of quality, assuming you have a fast enough internet connection. This service would allow one to play Crysis on max settings, in high definition, on a netbook as long as the internet connection is sharp enough.
While I do not think that the video gaming majority is ready for digital distribution, I think that mobile/tablet based gaming is not so far off into our future.
The fact that Epic Games, one of the titans in the video game industry, is making predictions about the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 becoming portable gives more weight behind the idea.