Rein: NGP offers "ridiculously compelling" console experience
Epic Games boss Mark Rein has said the twin analogue controls of Sony's NGP provides the first true console-level experience on a handheld.
"I love console game experiences. I love, love, love playing Gears of War, Call of Duty, Borderlands – I just love those kinds of games," Rein Eurogamer at GDC. "And you really need the Dualshock type controls to do it effectively.
"The NGP delivers it in spades. You really do want to play those kinds of games on it for sustained periods of time. Sat down on your couch, or in a hotel room, or somewhere you don't have a big TV. It's a fantastic experience."
"The ability to have another device that can now play these kinds of games really well – I'm using my thumbs here - is huge," he added later.
"Yeah, I'm going to buy one. All I can ever do is speculate on what I think. That's the trap people get caught in, saying 'Well, I'd like one, but nobody else is going to buy one.' No – you need to stop that sentence at 'I'd like one.'"
Rein said the new portable offered a "ridiculously compelling experience".
"When you get your hands round that device and you see some of the things that are going to ship on it, you'll go 'Want. Want, want, want,'" he explained, before naming a few key franchises.
"Tell me, if they put Call of Duty on there – which they say they are - and World of Warcraft, don't you think it would sell like frickin' crazy? Of course it would."
Rein said gamers (and he personally) would be willing to fork out the NGP's price because it represents the same kind of investment as a full size console, and likened doubt over the platform to those who questioned the iPad's potential.
"Who would have thought iPad could survive? Everybody poo-pooed the idea of iPad and they've sold over 15 million of them," he argued. "It's an indispensable part of your life now."
Rein has previously praised Apple's iPad 2, while passing over the 3DS as unable to support the Unreal Engine's demands. Go go portable wars!