John Carmack Gives Thumbs Up for Wii U
Nintendo's upcoming console shows enough promise that even id Software is taking notice.
In a recent interview with IndustryGamers, id Software technical director John Carmack seemingly gave a thumbs up for the Nintendo Wii U console. In fact, he said it should be a "slam dunk" in bringing the id Tech 5 engine to the upcoming platform. But don't get your hopes up just yet – Wii U support isn't exactly an official deal until Carmack gets his hands on an actual unit.
"We haven’t had that discussion yet as a company, but it seems technically like it’s a valid target, so I’m always happy to go ahead and get a new box in and see what it takes to bring it up and see the pros and cons of the choices they made," he said. "I think they probably made a fairly intelligent decision with the Wii U."
He also appeared to be more intrigued with the Wii U touch-screen controller than the current motion control solutions on the other platforms.
"I think there may be more good uses of that [Wii U tablet] than [there are for] the current generation with Kinect and Move... there’s clearly a subset of games for which things like that are appropriate for," he said. "We’ve been going on with how can we use those types of motion things with Rage and it’s hard to take a game that’s fundamentally designed around a controller and get value out of doing some of those other things, while adding extra touch interfaces there, that seems like something that almost every game could make some use of without it being just like, 'Oh, we have to do something like this.' Because if you remember, when the DS came out, there was a lot of talk about how, ‘Isn’t this going to be just a gimmick?’ But really it did turn out to be quite a good interface to build on."
Carmack indicated that id Software and Nintendo are more in tune with each other now than in previous years thanks to the Wii U. He admitted that id's relationship with the console company was "pretty negative" in the Super Nintendo days, that Nintendo was all about controlling what came across their hardware. Eventually Nintendo changed its tune and eased up on its controlling reins just a bit, but id was on a different technological level by then. The "missteps" became obvious when it came time to develop for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC simultaneously.
"If anything, I’m much more inclined to want to develop something for Nintendo now because I’ve got a 6-year-old son and we play Wii and DS games all the time," he admitted. "I’d be happy to do something there. It just hasn’t been the right fit for where id Software is with our projects and technologies."
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ill learn from my mistakes and NOT get this console, ive spent so much money the wii and i never play it anymore. ill spend it more wisely from now on, like better hardware for my computer!!!
@alhanelem
Good idea bro. I've built a collection of unused consoles and accessories I regret. But have been upgrading and adding to my PC for years. And still able to play old pc games on my current rig, unlike consoles for the most part. =(
He and a bunch of other developers can thumb this console up all they want. I know it will sell like crazy to the casual crowd unless the casuals have already been misled by the Wii and can learn from there mistakes... That won't happen they will probably still buy it and it will sell.. Anyways i thumbs down the "Wii shit" GL to Nintendo and there projects but i really want them to sink in this shit just like the Sega did which was unfortunate i rather take Sega and let Nintendo die.
Let the has been raise his kid in peace!
the last good game Carmack made could run on a modern calculator!
With the exception of Gabe over at Valve, in regards to the ps3 when has the head of a game dev / publisher ever not backed a upcoming console?
crap, crap and more crap...and who is this Carmack guy?
Has the horse power for this thing even been released/finalized yet? All I've heard is "High Quality HD Graphics" which might have been impressive 10 years ago, but now shouldn't even need to be listed a feature.
I'm thinking that the PS4 and Xbox 720 will blow this thing out of the water in power, but of course I'll still be watching from the sidelines and laughing while playing at 100+ FPS on my gaming rig.
This coming from a guy used to always push the performance edge on PC's over consoles. I guess it's a smart decision of ID, since they continue to be such a small dev shop, developing for consoles will be that much easier. Perhaps carmack is getting tired of writing brand new engines from scratch every 7 years. The rage engine already pushes the Wii U to 100% I'm sure, so they can basically just mod it to ship their next game.
@idid
The rage engine already pushes the Wii U to 100% I'm sure
_______________________________________________
^Really? It pushes it to 100%? Can you show me your dev kit with Rage running on it with a screen shot of the framerate and the API to prove this? Or are you just making a guess based on absolutely nothing at all? Do you guys so easily forget that Nintendo was actually known for making very powerful hardware prior to the Wii? 4 powerful consoles, 1 not so powerful. I think their record suggests if they want a powerful console, they make a powerful console.
Without a doubt the Wii U will blow away the current Xbox360 and PS3, at least in terms of hardware capability. The true test will be in the actual games that come out for it.
And yes, the xbox 720 and PS4 will no doubt blow the Wii U away hardware-wise but hey, they won't be available for a good while yet and the Wii U will potentially be king of the hill for a while.
I think it WILL be king of the hill and you naysayers will be eating your words. Remember not to look at the basic hardware spec (even if it isn't final yet) and compare it to PC ... the capability of the hardware cannot be directly compared due to the many overheads on PC.
For me, the interest is in 1) the games that come out on it, 2) easy Video Conferencing (Skype will lose customers), and 3) the controller innovations (or lack of)
@ididThe rage engine already pushes the Wii U to 100% I'm sure_______________________________________________^Really? It pushes it to 100%? Can you show me your dev kit with Rage running on it with a screen shot of the framerate and the API to prove this? Or are you just making a guess based on absolutely nothing at all? Do you guys so easily forget that Nintendo was actually known for making very powerful hardware prior to the Wii? 4 powerful consoles, 1 not so powerful. I think their record suggests if they want a powerful console, they make a powerful console.
Well, Rage could probably push anything today to 100%, if they chose to. But I guess the question is, how will the Wii U compare to what the PS3 can do with Rage? And of course, we don't know.
We'll have to see. Is anyone making hybrid play-style games that incorporate using a standard controller + body movements? Example: Boxing with controller, and dodging left/right/back with move or kinect style setup. FPS with controller and body movement like swiping hand across does a block or some other special attack (magic etc).
For my 6 yr old daughter, I think the 360's kinect system is most appropriate with the wii in second, and ps3 not on the list. Her and a touchscreen sounds too dangerous.
I must be the only person here that thinks rage isn't going to kill my system. Unless you have a miniscule amount of video memory, then you should be fine on modern hardware.
Honestly, who really cares what Carmack has to say about anything anymore. Yes, he writes some decent engines from time to time, but so does every good developer now-a-days. Cryengine, Source Engine, Frostbyte engine, etc... they're all fantastic engines (all versions). But, engines don't make the game. Unfortunately, John Carmack hasn't really made an unforgettable gaming experience in a REALLY long time and Rage is probably the first new idea he (or someone on his team) has come up with in an even longer span of time.
He's just a dev. He's good at writing engines, but his opinions don't mean any more than the opinions of the texture artist sitting in the cubicle next to him.
STOP MAKING THIS NEWS!!!!
He's not just a dev, he's co-owner and CTO of one of the most important companies in the history of game development.
Not only did they develop some very pioneering games, but they also developed a model of licensing their engine technology that facilitated the development of many more. There was a time when id's engines were the greatest driving force behind the development of drivers and APIs (DirectX/OpenGL), because they were constantly pushing the boundaries. Anyone else remember how broken your PC appeared when the very first Doom3 engine demo appeared?
Let's not forget that it was a conscious decision from id to gradually move away from this to focus on games, and leave it to Epic. Would there ever have been an Unreal if it wasn't for id? Would there ever have been a Crysis if it wasn't for id and Epic?
I remember benchmarking my ATI Mach 64 graphics card vs a Diamond Stealth in quake 1 on the original Quake demo over a decade ago, and being excited about an extra 2 fps. No game since has engaged me in technology that way, not even close.
Regardless of whether or not Doom 3 was a great single-player game, regardless of whether or not you think Quake III arena was a good shooter compared to UT, I still think that what John Carmack has to say is very relevant.