Carter Mills

No! The problem with PCs is that they're seen as the "space for high-end entertainment." I know Epic has a vested interest in hi-tech fluff, considering that they license their fancy-pants engine, but the reason that PC gaming is waning in popularity is that it's too expensive and confusing to keep up with the rapidly growing system requirements. If he wants PCs to be more accessible, we should get publishers and developers together and make a MAXIMUM spec that moves at set intervals (about every five years?). People prefer consoles because they're cheap and you buy a game, pop it in and it works. Unfortunately, consoles, with all of their expensive development and licensing hurdles, also tend toward unsatisfying focus group games. So, yeah, a PC Game Alliance is a good idea, but instead of trying to get the hardware makers to conform to our absurd tech requirements, we should consider not being so stubborn about constantly trying to raise the bar.

No! The problem with PCs is that they're seen as the "space for high-end entertainment." I know Epic has a vested interest in hi-tech fluff, considering that they license their fancy-pants engine, but the reason that PC gaming is waning in popularity is that it's too expensive and confusing to keep up with the rapidly growing system requirements. If he wants PCs to be more accessible, we should get publishers and developers together and make a MAXIMUM spec that moves at set intervals (about every five years?). People prefer consoles because they're cheap and you buy a game, pop it in and it works. Unfortunately, consoles, with all of their expensive development and licensing hurdles, also tend toward unsatisfying focus group games. So, yeah, a PC Game Alliance is a good idea, but instead of trying to get the hardware makers to conform to our absurd tech requirements, we should consider not being so stubborn about constantly trying to raise the bar.

The version at GDC was played on a PC, but uses an Xbox 360 controller. Don't know if that means anything, though.

People say sarcasm doesn't transfer well into written word. I think people are generally just really, really bad at detecting it.

Actually, I believe Mr. Humble was last seen wowing audiences with his art game Stars over Half Moon Bay.
http://rodvik.com/rodgames/SOHMB.html
Beautiful game, but this whole 'Sims Carnival' thing doesn't peak my interest.

It's effectively a 3-dimensional game that can be played from four possible angles, at which the "trixels" (? I think that's their word for three-dimensional pixels) appear and behave two-dimensional. Although it may appear similar at first, it's actually significantly different from Super Paper Mario. In Super Paper Mario, you switched between 2D and 3D modes. In this game, you are always playing a 3D world as if it were two-dimensional, just from different angles. See the teaser trailer Moofree posted up there ^^^^^^.

But I agreed that it will never happen. I was just saying it would be better if it did.

No, it would be much better for consumers. Think about it. A large group of publishers comes together in a standards consortium and agree upon a standard. Then, different hardware manufacturers all work to produce various hardware units that are all capable of playing all of the same games. Competition amongst manufacturers combined with decreasing production costs rapidly drive the price down, creating smooth transitions between one generation and the next.

In the end, consumers have one cheap console that can run all games. Larger publishers and developers don't have to worry about working on multiple platforms. Smaller developers and publishers benefit from decreased licensing fees and consumers having more money to spend. The only losing party is the big three console companies because they can't control the industry. It won't happen, but I really don't see why it would be such a terrible thing.

Bah, screw Tretton. The EA guy is right. A universal open standard console would be better for everyone except Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

Why? It looks much more fun than a ton of $50 games out there. Of course, I wouldn't mind if Sony did price it that low, but that could be said for all games.