Milia - More Games, Say Developers
CANNES, FRANCE, 1998 FEB 10 (Newsbytes) -- By Patrick McKenna,
Newsbytes.  Too much multimedia and not enough games, said Foo Katan,
managing director of Bit Studios of London, when asked about Milia 98.
Information and edutainment developers and publishers are here in
great numbers as exhibitors and attendees, but the appetites of this
year's crowd wanted more excitement and more technologies.
Bit Studios is a developer of games for Nintendo, Sony Playstation,
and personal computers. Known best for Nintendo's Terminator 2 game,
the Studio hoped Katan would find a stronger gaming presence. "I think
the show producers want to have Nintendo, Sega, and Sony
representation, but getting these companies here is not easy," added
Katan.   Why should they be represented at Milia 98? "Because game
developers are the ones creating the newest content, pushing the edges
of hardware," he continued. "Computer gaming earns billions of dollars
in revenues per year and it is important to have the field represented
here. The exhibitors have good products, but we are not seeing a lot
of new, cutting edge technologies."
As for gaming, Katan said, "This is still a console world." According
to him, Nintendo and Sony are leading the race, with Sega holding a
backseat.  Coming in fourth is game playing on personal computers. PCs
are set to move upward as a game platform, but every time PC
technology increases, console technology increases, said he. "It goes
in cycles."  Another element which goes in an upward cycle is
development costs. "Three years ago you could make a 16-bit console
game for $200,000," maintained Katan. "Now, you have at least a
million dollars to make a 64-bit game. Now you need musicians,
additional programmers, more testers; it is a serious business."
Perhaps the most expensive game to date is SquareSoft's Final Fantasy
VII.  Katan said the game is rumored to have cost more than $20
million.  "But you need to know they quickly sold five million units
worldwide for about $50 each," said he.  Katan also said there is
shortage of talent, and finding artistic people who know how to
program is a constant mission for his company. Along with talent, he
said, Bit Studios looks for great attitude and passion in new
recruits.
Another reason for bringing more gaming to Milia is a future of faster
machines which will require more programmers and more designers.
Katan said today's consoles render 150,000 polygons per second. Around
2000 to 2002, he said we will see consoles which use multiple
processors to render three to 10 million polygons per second. For
Katan, Milia could be the European event where content developers
learn about gaming opportunities unfolding today and tomorrow.
From:  Silicon Times Report / February 13, 1998 / No.1406
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