Jonathan Blow ready for new consoles

September 28th, 2011, 00:11 Posted By: wraggster

Jonathan Blow, the independent developer of lauded time-shifting puzzler Braid, has admitted that his upcoming open-world puzzlerThe Witness is unlikely to appear on the current generation of consoles.
In an interview, one of the most outspoken independents in the industry tells us that porting The Witness to the ageing Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would be too arduous a task given their RAM limitations.
"We like 360 and PS3, but their specifications are over five years old now, and that's a lot in computer years," he tells us. "The kind of tricks we'd have to perform to get this game working on those platforms are such a lot of work that to port it over at this point is just not worth it for us.
"For this type of game, I do wish the new generation of consoles had come out by now. Even if it only meant a slightly faster graphics processor and a lot more RAM.
"Having more memory would make a huge difference to being able to bring a game like [The Witness] to a console. It makes it much easier."
While it's not uncommon for developers to call for new consoles and the increased processing power they would bring, that an independent developer is now admitting that his games would struggle to run on the current generation is one of the starkest indications so far of just how much the Xbox 360 and PS3 innards are showing their age.
Elsewhere in the interview, Blow also reveals his frustrations with how fractured the current consoles have become, with different controllers and ever-changing UIs. "The good thing about a console in the old days was that it was very focused," he says.
"[Now] there's a lot more unsureness in the way you interact, which I think is a mistake. There's a fuzziness to do with what a console is anymore." You can read the full interview with Jonathan Blow here.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/jonatha...y-new-consoles

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