id’s Carmack: in 2 years mobile gaming will overtake consoles

In an interview with IndustryGamers, legendary programmer John Carmack has predicted that mobile devices will overtake consoles in terms of power and influence in the next two years.

Most renowned for his work as the lead programmer of PC hit shooters Doom and Quake, John Carmack has taken a dip in Apple’s iPool with the popular Doom II RPG, among others.

He took time out from current home console project Rage to highlight his admiration for the technical advances in Apple’s products.

“It’s amazing to think that when we started Rage, iOS didn’t exist. There was no iPhone. All of that has happened just in the space of one project development timeline. And that’s a little scary when you think about it, because major landscape change could be happening underneath our feet as we work on these large scale projects."

With such fast growth in such short time Carmack discussed his vision of the future for mobile gamers.

“[T]he fact that it’s gotten that close that fast - that means that almost certainly, 2 years from now, there will be mobile devices more powerful than what we’re doing all these fabulous games on right now."

Carmack did point out, however, that he doesn’t believe consoles will die by mobile's hand.

“Could the bottom drop out on the triple A market because everyone’s playing Angry Birds? It doesn’t seem to be happening. The numbers don’t show that. We’re selling more big titles than ever before, despite having all of these other platforms out there. So it looks like it’s parallel growth rather than one stealing from the other.”

Can you see a future where mobile devices and home consoles go hand in hand into the sunset?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below.