Pushing for a big leap

Crytek made a name for themselves long ago as a developer pushing the technical boundaries on PC, and more recently on consoles as well. In line with this reputation, the company's R&D principal graphics engineer Tiago Sousa says when it comes time for the next generation of consoles, memory is at the top of their wishlist.

"My finger-pointing at Microsoft/Sony would really be on the memory side," he remarks. "It's way too low, and the biggest crippling factor from a visual perspective. I would really like to see next-gen console platforms with a minimum of 8GB."

For you, this would mean far more visual effects and more elements on-screen at any one time.

Microsoft jumped from 64MB with the Xbox to 512MB with its successor -- a move from there to 8GB sounds unlikely, then, though PC gamers would be pleased at being much less limited.

Sidenote: the PC crowd should be amused to hear about the design approach on Crysis. Talking about developing the PC exclusive versus the multiplatform Crysis 2, Sousa recalls, "Our attitude [then] was, 'oh what the heck, what's one more additional full resolution FP16 target or a couple of full-screen passes, let's just add it.' You can't take such a naive approach for consoles."