And brand new consoles have always looked better than contemporary PC's. Leading to the boring "Death of PC Gaming" talk that always accompanies a new console generation.
I don't know if it will be as true any more, what with all the things they're talking about consoles doing other than playing games, but a console can get away with less powerful components because it's a dedicated closed system. It doesn't have to run Windows and all the other background crap that hogs your PC's CPU. The console UI shuts down when you start a game and there is no multitasking. Look at the specs of a current console and you can see a Windows PC wouldn't even run on that hardware.
Carmack knows what he's talking about. He spent years chasing technology to make better looking graphics. It's at the point now where the improvements are marginal and not compelling to the average person.
MS and Sony aren't talking PUBLICLY. It takes years to develop a game. Developers like Carmack are already working on games for next gen systems, even if they're 1 or 2 years away. They know what's in them.
If he's thiking "fully interactive" as in EVERYTHING moves, EVERYTHING is destructible and EVERYTHING works as you would expect it to in real life, then it would be innovative. We're nowhere near that right now.
Apple takes 30% of the sale price and they pay the developer monthly (so they earn interest on money sitting in their bank account for up to a month). Note that's for doing nothing but hosting the download and keeping track of the sales. Why they feel the need to use virtual slave labor to make their devices is beyond me.
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