Reflecting on this year’s E3, former Microsoft Game Studios Europe creative director Peter Molyneux has revealed his concerns about the next generation of consoles and expressed his “shock” at Microsoft’s lack of focus on their PC gaming efforts.

He also said that the Xbox team “obsessively” follows what Sony is doing with the PlayStation platform.

“I would hope the next generation would bring about a new wave of innovation,” he said. “If we don’t do that in consoles, then you will find that those people that want innovation will start retreating to other formats.

“Look at the PC,” he continued. “It’s incredible to me how there’s been a resurgence in PC gaming. There’s a lot more innovation now.”

“I think that’s the other thing about the Microsoft press conference. It’s always shocked me about how little Microsoft cared about the Windows platform. There was hardly a single talk about Windows 8 at all. You would’ve thought, with a billion installed machines, there would be at least some play. And the whole metro interface is much more gamified, but there was no talk about it at all.”

The problem, says Molyneux, isn’t just Microsoft’s. All the console manufacturers will face new challenges with their next generation of hardware.

“It’s going to be an interesting problem for all the console manufacturers I think. It’s because so much computer entertainment is spreading and diversifying over so many different platforms,” he said.

“They no longer have the luxury of keeping us all funneled into these consoles. A whole lot of manufacturers in the industry have been in a luxurious position for so long, where they could restrict the entertainment content to the masses.

“They did a very good job of squeezing the PC out and making this just about three formats and now it feels like it’s sand dripping through their fingers. It’s escaping from them.”

Molyneux recently left Microsoft to found indie outfit 22 Cans. At the time he said he felt like he was being “creatively suffocated.”



[via x360a]