Molyneux: Xbox team 'obsessively' watches Sony

[garyopa]

Also, he's 'worried' about Sony's hardware future



In a recent interview, Peter Molyneux said the Xbox team is constantly watching Sony and aired his fears for the platform holder’s future.

In an interview with GamesIndustry, former Microsoft Game Studios Europe creative director Peter Molyneux said that the Microsoft XBOX Team actually looks at Sony "obsessively."

In a wide-ranging interview with Molyneux last week at E3, GamesIndustry International prefaced a general question about Sony with our own comment that Molyneux and people in even higher offices at Microsoft must be constantly looking at Sony. Molyneux quickly noted, "Yes, very much so. Obsessively so."

Molyneux also praised Sony’s focus on first-party development at this year E3, and he believes that their first-party studio system could be their "savior".

"Sony has always had a very strong first person line-up, which I think is incredibly smart. They've got good developers. They've got some very talented developers. The way I always feel with Sony is that if they double down on those first party developers, give them the headroom to be inventive and be creative, especially when it comes it any next generation platform, then they could pull lots of rabbits out of the hat," he remarked.

However, he also noted that he's not sure the company's corporate troubles will enable them to "flourish" and that he's worried about their Hardware future.

"What I worry about, with their corporate pressure and the pressure on costs, I worry about the ability to do that. More and more - and this is a personal thing - I just don't know where they're going in hardware terms. They had the Move, but it wasn't as early as the Wii and it wasn't as innovational as Kinect. They seem to be third in line in that race. I have expected, every single press conference for the last year, Sony to bring out this magic rabbit out from a huge hat and say, 'Aha, world. You really don't realize what's going on.' And I do worry about them."

On about the Microsoft's E3 showing, Molyneux said he was surprised how few Kinect games were shown, and said Microsoft needs to focus on innovation.

"I thought it was a very smart move on their behalf to focus on demos. And actually, I thought EA's line, 'You're going to see ten great demos from ten great developers,' you could have said the same for Microsoft. I felt there wasn't nearly as much Kinect stuff as previous years, which was a little bit of a surprise and a shock to me."

He continued, "I like the SmartGlass thing that they were talking about but I didn't completely understand it. I'd like to have seen more examples of it. It sounded like it was a big thing, because here's Microsoft supporting Apple. It really didn't get a lot of play for that. I like the Nike Fitness product. I thought [the conference] was good. It was, as usual, super hyper-professional. They finished on the second. But what did it tell us about them structurally in the next two, three years? I don't think it said anything about it. I think - in fact, it almost painted a stone wall in my mind. It was like they were holding their breath and waiting for something else"

Also, he sees all the console makers as struggling to deal with the reality that they're no longer the only game in town in 2012.

"It's going to be an interesting problem for all the console manufacturers I think. It's because so much computer entertainment, is spreading and diversifying over so many different platforms. They no longer have the luxury of keeping us all funneled into these consoles. A whole lot of manufacturers in the industry have been in a luxurious position for so long, where they could restrict the entertainment content to the masses. They did a very good job of squeezing the PC out and making this just about three formats and now it feels like it's sand dripping through their fingers. It's escaping from them," he observed.

You can check out the full interview at the Games Industry link below, in which he also talks about his jump to indie outfit "22 Cans".

NEWS SOURCE #1: Xbox team looks obsessively at Sony says Molyneux (via) Games Industry

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[Battlefield]

He made several of the best games ever, but he is talking kinda bullshit only because he quitted MS. He doesent have the ability to see the whole picture which is kinda strange when thinking of that this is actually the man behind Powermonger Populous, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper etc.
I didnt know he was this narrow minded.....

Sony is watching their ass off on MS too which he doesent mention.

Every damn of the console makers is watching each other, because they have to. Noone can release a console without knowing as much as they can about competitors nowadays. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft etc.. They are all alike in this case.

[Xenogears V]

Tecnology is that. Ps4 can't had 100 cores. Need only to make a console powerfull, most then the actual pc graphic. Is always in this way. Every new generation born in this way..then these are all bullsh*ts.