John Carmack, legendary game developer and all around smart dude, addressed convention goers today at Quake-Con. And while the crowd at the convention is largely focused on PC gaming, Carmack did touch on the subject of next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft. So what did the smartest guy in the room have to say about the Xbox One and PS4? It’s too close to call, according to Carmack.
“It’s amazing how close they are in capabilities, how common they are,” Carmack said. “The capabilities they give are essentially the same.”
Carmack has made it public knowledge that he preferred developing on the Xbox 360 in the current-gen. Probably because of the learning curve that many developers complained about with the PlayStation 3. Like many other developers, Carmack is impressed with the steps that Sony has taken to make tools more accessible to all developers on the PS4.
The developer also weighed in on the “Xbox 180”. Carmack thinks that Microsoft was kind of bullied into changing their policies, and that optical media will unlikely make it out of the next generation. Doesn’t expect too much next-gen news out of Quake Con, the convention is largely populated with PC gamers, it is BYOC afterall.