Valve: Game Engine Makers "To Decrease by a Huge Amount"
Could the traditional hardware-busting PC blockbuster make a comeback?
The PC industry may be enjoying something of an indie/casual gaming renaissance right now, but Valve believes that high-spec engine tech and licensing is going to become more important in the market in the years to come.
"In a lot of ways, in the future I think [technology and licensing] is going to become more important," Valve's Erik Johnson tells CVG. "As architectures change and you move to a more parallel world in terms of many, many cores and many, many threads running, the number of people that can build that technology is going to decrease by a huge amount."
Products such as Epic's Unreal Engine are already helping to nurture a thriving community of PC developers. The cost of building new tech and keeping up with the latest hardware is prohibitive for many smaller developers, and so it makes sense that licensing such as this will become more popular over time, Johnson adds.
Despite this, Valve hasn't been so keen to promote its own engine licensing products in recent years - Johnson stresses that this is simply a focus on building games rather than marketing its own tech. "For us, the trade-off is generally do we want to devote a whole load of time to that or on building the next game. We just kind of work through those as they come up."
With Facebook games and social networking all the rage in the mainstream market, do you think the bubble will burst and studios will return to developing traditional games soon? Or is Johnson just a bit hopeful? Let us know in the comments box below, won't you?
"In a lot of ways, in the future I think [technology and licensing] is going to become more important," Valve's Erik Johnson tells CVG. "As architectures change and you move to a more parallel world in terms of many, many cores and many, many threads running, the number of people that can build that technology is going to decrease by a huge amount."
Products such as Epic's Unreal Engine are already helping to nurture a thriving community of PC developers. The cost of building new tech and keeping up with the latest hardware is prohibitive for many smaller developers, and so it makes sense that licensing such as this will become more popular over time, Johnson adds.
Despite this, Valve hasn't been so keen to promote its own engine licensing products in recent years - Johnson stresses that this is simply a focus on building games rather than marketing its own tech. "For us, the trade-off is generally do we want to devote a whole load of time to that or on building the next game. We just kind of work through those as they come up."
With Facebook games and social networking all the rage in the mainstream market, do you think the bubble will burst and studios will return to developing traditional games soon? Or is Johnson just a bit hopeful? Let us know in the comments box below, won't you?
Companies:
Valve
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