Developers share next-generation wish list

With all the talk of PlayStation 4s and Xbox 720s and such lately, it seems the next generation is fast approaching. All those technical bells and whistles won't amount to much without developer support, though, so it's important to consider what studios want out of the next gen.

Gamasutra posed the question question to various game developers, from Epic to Ubisoft.

Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, suggests that the next consoles should learn lessons from mobile devices, from Facebook integration to ease of buying and downloading games on the App Store without having to make physical media. "So, having all the things you'd expect from the game industry as a whole, and the best that's been done elsewhere, and bringing that to the console platform is really important." Of course, it wouldn't be Epic without wanting more power, and Sweeney says he'd like to see "as many teraflops as is economically possible" to create new experiences.

Crytek, another performance-heavy developer, similarly suggests having more powerful tools, but also wants to see consoles take note from the differentiated pricing models on PC and mobile devices. "We're seeing a change in models in games toward more freemium content, and a quicker response to your community," said Crytek's Carl Jones. "You can be very successful with a game by giving a game away for free, and then giving players the content they want. And if they really want it, and are really enjoying it, that's when they'll pay for it. That's appropriate. Why shouldn't we do it like that?"

Other responses range from "a much more fluid means of providing updates to consumers" (Capcom's Christian Svensson) to more platform parity and reduced "bureaucracy" for things like game updates (Ubisoft's David Polfeldt).

One would hope that Sony and Microsoft are taking this kind of feedback into consideration, and have already heard it all and made plans for how to implement these ideas. We won't know for sure, of course, until we hear console plans from the manufacturers themselves.