When the PlayStation 4 was revealed last month many developers were quick to praise the system and declare its superiority to anything else they had seen before. One famous developer, however, has told Forbes about his apathy towards the new system. American Mcgee, creator of the Alice series, notes that while the PlayStation 4 is certainly more developer friendly than its predecessor, it has done little to inspire him.
"I was hoping for innovation in control input. Didn't see anything meaningful, so 'meh.' It's nice that they're moving towards what looks like more developer-friendly hardware and indie friendly distribution. Remains to be seen if the appearance matches reality. Overall, I think this generation of consoles will struggle painfully against the momentum of mobile/online games we're seeing globally."
In addition, when asked what he sees the next generation of consoles opening up to him as a game developer, Mcgee simply said "At present it just looks like another distribution channel with not much to differentiate from other outlets (aside from sheer horsepower)."
American Mcgee is one of the first developers to publicly come out and be critical about the PlayStation 4. Other notable game game developers such as Irrational Game's co founder Ken Levine and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima have had nothing but praise for the next-gen system.
Mcgee may lack excitement for the next generation of consoles because his company, Spicy Horse Games, focuses on mobile gaming instead of console games. However, he recently polled fan interest in a third Alice game, so we may see Mcgee come back to consoles if he can secure the rights to the series. Until then, we shall have to settle for mobile games from the famed developer.