John Carmack praises Nintendo success, talks about company one-upmanship, and PC/console debate

“Of course it’s exciting to see how well Nintendo has done, because people were counting them out in the last generation, that they were going to be the next SEGA, and here they go and really kicked everyone’s butt in this generation. Nintendo’s always been our kind of least-friendly first-party out there, but I cheer success. They went against the conventional wisdom, they did something different and they won big - and that’s great to see.” - John Carmack, id

I really wish we would see more from id on the Wii. I am still hoping for that Orcs and Elves sequel on the Wii. Mr. Carmack also had a bit to say about the console wars…

“I know internally how many steps away the 3D hardware vendors are from where they think they’ll be pitching consoles. And honestly it would be great if this generation of consoles lasted twice as long as the last one, if we had a viable eight-year commercial lifespan for this generation of titles, and I know some people are saying this is the plan - I don’t think it’s going to turn out that way. I think it’s going to be far too tempting to one-up your competitor because they don’t think you’re doing this but you really are to get it out earlier and try and get some first-mover advantage. So I don’t think it’s going to be too long. There are people that honestly believe the PC will come back and make consoles obsolete. I think that probably is a naive view.”

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