安卓电视将颠覆游戏王国

    “虚幻引擎4”这样的技术会如何给跨设备及跨平台的游戏体验带来新机遇？

    当游戏开发者投资打造“虚幻引擎4”这样的技术后，它就能以更低的增量成本开拓更大的市场。将其与Google PlayGames Services这类系统结合后，就能真正通过跨平台、跨设备和多用户游戏来做些有趣的事了。

    随着玩家具备先在路上玩，回到家又继续在大屏幕上玩的能力，您怎么看待他们的游戏体验由此获得的提升？

    大多数游戏都有云端的解决方案，比如Play Games Services，这样当玩家买了新手机后，就能保留游戏状态，不会失去通关进程。由于我们在安卓电视上也用了同样的核心平台，因此所有同类技术还是管用的。开发者非常乐见的情景是，玩家买了一款电视上玩的游戏，同时又把它装在手机上，反之亦然。大家会发现，我们会继续在这类跨设备体验的开发上投入重金。

    目前安卓平台的游戏开发者面临的主要挑战之一是不同设备的数量问题。据称像安卓电视这样的统一平台可以让开发者更容易关注创意而不是与大量端口适配，对此您怎么看？

    在安卓电视的技术规范中，我们规定了CPU和GPU的性能要求。我们希望开发者了解，就算在低端设备上他们也有施展的空间。总会有一些设备的性能远超这些规范，也总会有开发者希望能利用好这些性能。这种情况和PC游戏领域很像，这也是多年来一直运作良好的模式。我想游戏开发者会十分喜欢这种方法的。

    过去几年来，像“图睿”系列芯片这样的技术突飞猛进，在此背景下，您认为更先进也更复杂的游戏会对一直由索尼、微软和任天堂这些巨头统治的传统游戏机领域产生何种影响？

    技术最终总会颠覆现有产业。只需要看看手机领域，对比一下2006年大卖的机型和2014年的大卖机型就能看出这一点。我不认为客厅这个领域会有所不同，但也不可能预测最终谁赢谁输。等过了五六年后再回头看吧。

    在打造安卓电视时，你们和游戏开发者们到底是如何合作的？

    几乎一年以前我们就开始遴选游戏开发者了，并向密切合作伙伴透露了自己的计划。我们还与英伟达公司及其Nvidia Shield目前的开发者们密切合作，使其应用能适用于非触控领域。在打造安卓电视的过程中最好的一部分可能就是，围绕着我们的努力，不同的游戏开发者是那么积极乐观、全力支持。安卓有一支令人难以置信的开发者关系团队，它是由许多充满活力的玩家组成的。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远

    How does technology like Unreal Engine 4 open up new opportunities for cross-device and cross-platform gaming experiences?

    When a game developer invests in something like Unreal Engine 4 for the core of their experience, it broadens the market they can address with a lower incremental cost. Couple this with a system like Google Play Games Services, and you can really do some fun things with cross-platform, multi-device and multi-user gaming.

    How do you see the actual gameplay experiences evolving with the ability to play on the road and then continue on the big screen at home?

    Most games have a cloud-based solution, like Play Games Services, for save game state so you don’t lose your progress if you get a new phone. Since we are using the same core platform for Android TV, all the same technologies continue to work. Developers love that if you buy a game on your TV, it’s installable on your phone and vice-versa. You will see us investing heavily in these sort of cross-device experiences going forward.

    One of the current challenges facing game developers on Android is the sheer number of different devices. How do you see a unified platform like Android TV making things easier for developers to focus on creativity versus ports?

    We have CPU and GPU performance requirement built into the Android TV spec. We want game developers to know that even on the low-end devices they are going to have room to play. There will always be devices that perform well beyond these specs, and there will always be game developers that want to take advantage of those capabilities when they are present. This looks a lot like the PC gaming space, and it is a model that has worked well for years. I think game developers are going to be pretty happy with this approach.

    Given the speed at which we’ve seen technology, including the Tegra line of chips, advance over the last few years, how do you see more advanced and complex games impacting the traditional console business dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo?

    Technology always ends up disrupting existing industries. You just need to look at the mobile space and compare the big players in 2006 with the big players in 2014 to see this in action. I don’t think that the living room will be any different, but it’s impossible to predict the winners and losers. Let’s look back in five to six years.

    How have you worked with actual game developers in creating Android TV?

    We started reaching out to select game developers almost a year ago and disclosed our plans with close partners. We also worked closely with Nvidia and their existing Nvidia Shield developers to get their apps ready for a non-touch world. Probably one of the best parts of building Android TV has been how positive and supportive the various game developers have been around our efforts. Android has an incredible Developer Relations team that is filled with avid gamers.