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John Carmack reckons PS Vita will look 'pretty pokey' compared to smartphones in a few years

Twice as powerful now, but lead will dwindle

John Carmack reckons PS Vita will look 'pretty pokey' compared to smartphones in a few years
Willing to admit Sony has learned its lesson post PS3 by serving up a platform developers will want to work on, John Carmack has still cast doubt over PS Vita's long term chances.

The id Software co-founder has claimed in an interview with GameSpot that, while the device currently offers twice the power as smartphones sporting the same chips, such superiority will have eroded by the time the handheld launches.

Future focus

"I think that Sony learned a lot from the PS3, and they've gone out of their way to make sure that the development is as easy as possible on there," Carmack told the site as E3 came to a close, admitting he'd not yet had a chance to play with PS Vita.

"However, I wouldn't want to be the executive making the decision to launch a new portable gaming machine in the post-smartphone world."

Carmack said that PS Vita's specs are 'eminently suitable', and studios will be used to a developer environment similar to that employed on home consoles, but at launch, PS Vita may have fallen behind.

"By the time they actually ship, there may be smartphones or these tablets with twice as much power as what they're shipping with on there," he added.

"And a year or two after that, it's going to look pretty pokey."

Sticky Apple

As such, Carmack believes Sony will encourage PS3 developers to make the move to Vita, rather than attempting to bring smartphone studios over – a risky strategy, given it follows the direction taken with the original PSP almost to the letter.

Carmack's studio, however, will continue to focus on iOS from a portable perspective in the future, despite having considered a move to Android.

"I made the decision finally, that OK, we should start doing Android stuff, but then we hired a guy to work on Android and wound up putting him on iOS stuff," Carmack concluded.

"But, the data certainly isn't showing AAA doing well on iOS.

"And the counter-argument that some people make that I find interesting is it's great to have 50 million people playing Angry Birds or whatever because it's easier to sell a AAA title to somebody that's had fun in some gaming experience than somebody that never even thinks about games."

[source: GameSpot]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.