Yesterday, Hewlett-Packard revealed plans to develop a brand-new gaming handheld. Known as MScape, one of the core concepts for the handheld is that it’ll utilize the player’s surroundings as part of the game’s backdrop. Rahul Sood, Chief Technology Officer for HP, explained why HP is taking this route. "We want to get kids off the couch," and even though the handheld is still in the prototype stages, Sood said he’s "really pleased with our progress so far." Sood elaborated a little more about the handheld, specifically mentioning that it’ll be equipped with a series of sensors, so it can display a city or park layout. Then, the game itself can utilize these environments in the actual game.
In other news, many PC bigwigs had some harsh things to say about the console market during HP’s presentation. Lars Butler, Founder of Trion World Network, said, "I believe the days of the console are numbered. There is one more generation of gaming consoles and that is it." He also went on to mention that the gaming potential of PCs would ultimately render consoles obsolete.
Other PC folks, like nVIDIA Vice President Roy Taylor, said that there is a huge difference between a PC and consoles. "Our advantage as developers is we know what is coming. And what is coming is far ahead of the console. You will see a huge difference between what you can get on a PC (personal computer) and a console."
