Carmack Believes PS3 Has a Lot of Undiscovered Potential


John Carmack, CTO of Oculus Rift and co-founder of Id Software which made game franchises like Doom and Quake, believes that PS3 and other current gen consoles still have enough power packed which hasn’t been truly realized yet.

Explaining his dilemma to Wired, whether he should develop games for next-gen consoles or try to uncover new possibilities with current gen, he said:

“Even to this day, I struggle a little bit with that; there’s so much you can still do on the previous console generation. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are far from tapped out in terms of what a developer could do with them, but the whole world’s gonna move over towards next-gen and high-end PCs and all these other things. Part of me still frets a little bit about that, where just as you fully understand a previous generation, you have to put it away to kind of surf forward on the tidal wave of technology that’s always moving.”

But he also admitted that his concern for the current gen is his attachment and comfort level with the technology which happens every generation.

Carmack said, “That’s something that we’ve struggled with in every generation. And now I at least know enough to recognize that some of my internal feelings or fondness for technology that I understand or have done various things with usually has to be put aside. Because data has shown over the decades that that’s usually not as important as you think it is.”

Carmack went on the say that although he argues about the same, but he can’t ignore the fact that with the start of a new generation, not many people are going to look back and if he truly wants to benefit, he will need to look ahead as well.

“Although I keep making new arguments where now we can say that we’re past the knee of the cost-benefit curve in terms of what we get with graphics, and people are saying that with the next-gen consoles, that okay, they look better but they don’t look nearly as much better as the previous generation. So does that mean people will stay happier with the current things? And I could make that argument with a straight face and play for it, but it’s probably going to be wrong.”

What’s your reaction to this? Do you still expect a lot from your PS3? Share your feelings below.