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Julien Merceron joins Konami to oversee Fox Engine
Konami is betting big on Fox Engine, Kojima Productions' development suite powering the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Julien Merceron has just been brought on to oversee Fox Engine as Konami's new worldwide technology director. "He will be a key member of our talented development community and be integral to ensuring that future titles will push the limits of what can be technically achieved, while ensuring they retain Konami's famed gameplay," Konami's European president, Shinji Hirano, told GamesIndustry International in a statement. "We welcome him and his talents to the team." Merceron spent the last seven years under the Square Enix umbrella, where he served as CTO at IO Interactive, Eidos and Crystal Dynamics before ascending to the position of global technology director for Square Enix proper. Prior to joining Square Enix, Merceron also served a stint at Ubisoft as worldwide technical director throughout the late '90s.
Square Enix tech director on Agni's Philosophy demo, next-gen hurdles
Square Enix worldwide technology director Julien Merceron realizes the Agni's Philosophy tech demo shows off impressive graphics that could drive next-gen Final Fantasy games, but he also knows that, as a developer, focusing on graphics alone is "a big mistake.""Focusing on graphics only would be a huge mistake," Merceron tells Games Industry International. "You start to have super-great graphics, characters look really good and you end up in the uncanny valley, but you don't have animation at the same quality level. Same thing with behavior and AI; it animates well and looks good, but it is making stupid decisions. It simply won't be immersive."As graphics improve, other problems arise, such as facial animations, physics and AI not hitting the same level and creating an obvious uncanny valley, where on-screen actions are disturbing to watch. The uncanny valley will always exist, and balancing engaging gameplay with upgraded graphics and other elements is key to player immersion, Merceron says.Another key aspect is the hardware itself – this generation of consoles has lasted "way too long" and has helped usher in alternative forms of gaming, via browsers and mobile devices, Merceron says."Now you don't need to manage longevity by complexity of programming, because your longevity is ensured by your online model," he says. "And I would suggest that maybe we don't want long generations. We have Sony and Microsoft talking about this generation lasting seven, eight, nine or even 10 years and it's the biggest mistake they've ever made."Square Enix has recently focused on developing high-end 3D experiences for web browsers, a platform Merceron sees as "instrumental in the world of tomorrow.""We shouldn't underestimate the kind of experience that you can have in a web browser. Immediately you can play from anywhere. You have browsers all over the place. These cloud storage and computing interfaces will provide better ways for consumers to interact with the experiences they want to have."
This holiday season will make or break the Wii
At least, that's what Eidos's Julien Merceron believes. The company's chief technology officer said recently in an interview, "Either third party developers and publishers will make money on the Wii platform [this Christmas], or they won't - and if most of them don't I think we'll see a big drop in support for the Wii next year, which could have some consequences for Nintendo, and very positive ones for Microsoft and Sony." The way Merceron sees it, it's obvious that some Nintendo titles will make money this season, but third party games are another story. Of course, if third parties produce unimpressive stuff, we think that they shouldn't expect to be rewarded. Yet, it's a shame if quality games like Zack & Wiki don't succeed. But, what do you think? Will third party games sell well on the Wii this holiday season, and, more importantly, is the Wii's success depending on it?
