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Darren Waters

Lunch with Luminaries

  • Darren Waters
  • 22 Feb 08, 02:31 GMT

What happens when you gather some of the games industry's and get them to tackle some of the biggest issues facing their business?

luminaries_1.jpgYou get one hell of a conversation.

I was lucky enough today to sit in on the Lunch with Luminaries, an event pulled together by stellar developer Dave Perry and involving veteran designer Peter Molyneux, one of the pioneers of online gaming Raph Koster, the head of EA's LA studio, Neil Young, Sony's head of worldwide studios Phil Harrison and Chris Taylor, the creator of Dungeon Siege.

About 10 journalists were invited to the lunch and we sat there mostly silent as the proceedings unfolded. We had been invited to chip in with questions but we all sat there just listening, furiously scribbling notes.

At times it felt like listening in on a private conversation because the participants were by and large frank and open:

Phil Harrison was complaining how Sony in Japan had dismissed social gaming, something the company in Europe had been pioneering with Buzz and Singstar.

He said: "And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan – people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii."

Harrison also lauded Apple for their iPhone user interface, and then pondered if they would license their patents....

Peter Molyneux got so excited about a new feature in his upcoming game Fable 2 but wasn't able to discuss it publicly so we all went "off the record" to hear it.

I can't divulge it obviously - but believe me when I say it's very very exciting.

Almost everyone agreed that the Wii had broken great new ground and was seen by many consumers as the true "next generation" console.

Neil Young of EA predicted a future where all game content was piped from a server owned by Google.

Raph Koster said the web was "kicking the ass" of consoles when it comes to game creativity

The rise of Facebook was much discussed, as was the need for the industry to learn from social networks and the web in iterating and learning from its customers more quickly.

And on it went.

I've written up a with one of the key points of the lunch. And I'll put down more here as I transcribe the encounter.

Comments

  • 1.
  • At 08:41 AM on 22 Feb 2008,
  • Pranav Lal wrote:

What about playing games on mobile phones? Will they be able to replace game consoles?

  • 2.
  • At 10:09 AM on 22 Feb 2008,
  • James wrote:

Pranav:

No, they won't. But they may well open games up further to more casual gaming demographics.

  • 3.
  • At 05:07 PM on 22 Feb 2008,
  • Tom wrote:

Pranav:

Controlling a game on a mobile phone with it's iffy controls (keypad) and tiny screen is too frustrating for many people to do if they have the option of a nice TV/Monitor

That, or use a superior device like a DS or PSP.

I do like the idea of some of the predictions, definatly agree with Raph about creativity on PC's Vs Consoles, they don't provide enough options to really create some smashing usermade mods or maps.

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