During the Brighton Develop conference early this morning, BioWare Mythic general manager Eugene Evans shared his thoughts on the next generation of console hardware and what would prove most important in their success. According to Evans, the company that can most effectively migrate their community from one platform to the next will come out on top.
The current generation of consoles has created this sense of community like never before. With robust friends lists, growing libraries of digital games and so much more, the gaming industry has never faced a migration like this.
[The thing about] the transition we’re about to go through again, with the inevitable new platforms from Sony, from Microsoft, from Nintendo, is, for the first time, they have connected communities on their existing devices.
I actually think one of the keys to success for whoever becomes the leaders with the next round will be how successfully they migrate those communities. People have their Gametags, they have their friends lists on these devices. The key will be how well they migrate that. The company that does that the best, I think, will be the most successful.
Much of what makes a business successful is maintaining its client-base, and the only way Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo can hope to keep paying customers around next-gen is to provide a smooth and seamless transition for the entire community. No one wants to have to re-manage their friends list again or start up a new digital library from scratch.
Let’s hope Sony is keeping this all in mind as they work fervently behind the scenes on the PlayStation 4.
[Source]
