Next-gen a huge step up - Doak

By Games Industry.biz Published 9 November, 2006

As big as the leap to 3D.

The move to developing on next-generation consoles is "as big a step as we've made since we all went 3D," according to Free Radical Design boss David Doak - who told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz that the industry had "underestimated how big a leap this generation was going to take".

Speaking in an interview published on the site today, Doak said that Free Radical - which is working on two next-gen titles, first person shooter Haze for Ubisoft and an unnamed product for LucasArts - has spent between a year and a half and two years building technology for games on next-gen systems.

"We have all this technology around us to make games, and then we all switch to new tools and new engines," he explained. "I was saying to someone the other day, it's like going into a new house and thinking, 'let's cook dinner. But hang on, we've got no f**king cutlery. And we need to make the pots and pans. Right, let's start making them.' Everyone is asking us what dinner is going to taste like and we're too busy making the pots and pans."

Doak also commented on the prospects for Sony's online service on the PS3, saying that he has faith in the firm's ability to deliver a working service "because it absolutely must get it sorted out" - and arguing that Sony must follow Microsoft's lead with the Xbox Live service.

"There's a clear model that works, and I think that Sony has to follow that," he commented.

You can read the full interview with David Doak, which also covers issues such as developer independence and the ownership of IP, on the site today.

Picture of Games.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • gizmo #1 5 years ago

    Riiiigggggggghhhttttt

    /Dr Evil voice off

  • Nobuo #2 5 years ago

    Pots and pans aren't cutlery.

  • Azazel #3 5 years ago

    pots and pans may break my... dishes... but... um...

  • Zomoniac #4 5 years ago

    Is this the same Doak that I screamed at many times for being in the wrong place in the Facility in GoldenEye? White jacket and a beard? Give him a smack from me.

    PS - why censor fuck when people can read it about six words to the left?

  • skillian #5 5 years ago

    Is this the same Doak that I screamed at many times for being in the wrong place in the Facility in GoldenEye? White jacket and a beard? Give him a smack from me.

    Ahahahaha!

    Dr Doak, what an a-hole.

  • smoothpete #6 5 years ago

    Enough is enough! I have had it with the lack of motherfucking cutlery in this motherfucking new house

  • ecureuil #7 5 years ago

    He's probably right though, and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about.

    I'd rather take his word for it, than some random pleb on a games website who thinks all their 360 games could have been done on the original Xbox just by looking at them.

  • lambtron #8 5 years ago

    It is indeed Dr Doak! Man he was always in the wrong place when you tried to do the speedrun on facility.

    Ah happy days!

  • freedumb #9 5 years ago

    @ Nobuo

    'Pots and pans aren't cutlery.'

    'we've got no f**king cutlery. And we need to make the pots and pans.'

    Notice a disticntion between cutlery, then an AND pots and pans. Just as I thought schools were starting to teach grammar again...

  • coojam #10 5 years ago

    Apparently it's his actual face too...

  • Les #11 5 years ago

    maybe a big leap for the developmental effort, surely not a big leap in gameplay...

  • linkster #12 5 years ago

    "Apparently it's his actual face too... "

    It's quite spooky when you consider how old the game was. Minus the ponytail.

  • JayPee #13 5 years ago

    "maybe a big leap for the developmental effort, surely not a big leap in gameplay... "

    Could be a very true statement.

    All these "pots and pans" that will give us amazing physics, animation, graphics etc etc. Hopefully they will also bring about AI and other such changes that will actually influence the way we play games and make us take the next step in terms of gameplay.

  • chronom4n #14 5 years ago

    i agree that sony need to take on microsoft in offering internet gaming. If sony can't do that, then they will be failing in their duty as a company who claims to be on the cutting edge.

  • Hughes. #15 5 years ago

    "If sony can't do that, then they will be failing in their duty as a company who claims to be on the cutting edge."

    They clearly need to sharpen their next gen cutlery.

  • BraveArse #16 5 years ago

    "Notice a *disticntion* between cutlery, then an AND pots and pans. Just as I thought schools were starting to teach grammar again... "

    Those in glass houses...
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/06 @ 18:08

  • Eighthours #17 5 years ago

    Good interview. But Christ, the subbing on GI.biz has picked up some absolute HOWLERS. Grammar lessons please, gentlemen.

  • bingowings55 #18 5 years ago

    Kind of sad that he's been making the same game for the past 10 years, but they have never been as good as Goldeneye (and probably never will be). I wonder why.

  • Nobuo #19 5 years ago

    "Notice a disticntion between cutlery, then an AND pots and pans. Just as I thought schools were starting to teach grammar again..."

    That's 'distinction' ;p

    Besides, the word 'and' is a conjunction, not a distinction. The fullstop is the distinction, which shouldn't have been put there by whoever transcribed the quote, hence 'and'.

    With that in mind it reads to me like he's introducing his pots and pans with the word cutlery, especially since he doesn't mention cutlery as the seperate entity they should be elsewhere. But then I wasn't there to hear the way he said it.

    We obviously just mentally fixed his broken grammar in opposite ways. No matter, my comment was just made in jest at his wierd analogy anyway, so it shall remain.
    Edited by 2 at 10/11/06 @ 10:24

  • Mr_Bogus #20 5 years ago

    And just a few months ago they were saying "We won't use any cooking utensils that resemble what we were using in the past, 'cos they're no longer strong enough to match the sheer heat of our food". Or something metaphorically similar.

    That'll teach 'em :)