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At GDC Taipei, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney revealed what he believes the future of gaming will be. And to him, a good chunk of said future lies in the ever-growing realm of "free-to-play".

In regards to this, he said, "North American and European developers are far, far behind the state-of-the-art Asian business models. We've been building these games like Gears of War where you go into the store and you buy a piece of plastic! You just buy this DVD. That is going to change rapidly."

Sweeney also believes that console manufacturers should embrace the free-to-play model, which has primarily been seen in mobile and Facebook games, as well as throughout Asia. "I think the console business we see in the United States and Europe will be just another platform," he said. It could get to the point that a freemium game ships to PC, and to consoles, simultaneously. "That is a very realistic possibility."

Along with his views on free-to-play, Sweeney also talked about how video game platforms are quickly beginning to converge with one another. He noted the iPad 3, which is quickly nearing the performance capabilities of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. "[We've been] very, very surprised to see how fast smartphone and tablet devices are improving." He added that "We're also seeing an interesting thing happen in terms of the overall development pattern globally."

This talk of platforms converging led him to Unreal Engine 4 and their new strategy for the engine, which is "Unreal Everywhere". Sweeney described it as so: "Put this one engine on all platforms worldwide." This includes online PCs, web browsers with Flash, iOS, Android, and consoles. The important thing, he said, is to build scalable games, not to have to rebuild for other platforms. This could potentially be a game-changer where game development is concerned." 

To see all of what Sweeney said, click on the source link below.

Source: Gamasutra

Peter Grimm A writer, journalist, and aspiring storyteller, Peter Grimm has been gaming since the days of the Nintendo 64, and reporting on the goings-on in the World of Gaming since late 2011. His base of writing operations is located within the void between Here and There, or so he would have you think.

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