Normally the biggest selling console is the lead one for development, but this time it’s a little different. Pretty much most games are going to released on both consoles and PC. Combined PC and XSX will sell more games than the PS5, and as the PC is getting more and more Direct X, does it make sense now to have Direct X, and by default the XSX, as the lead platform? If they do run with Direct X as the lead devs will be more likely to use DX 12 extensions like Mesh Shading, VRS and SFS, which should translate to more optimized XSX games. Microsoft has worked really hard with both AMD and Nvidia to get as much DX baked into their GPUs as they can, which could end up really helping get the best for XSX.
1 Like
The notion of lead development platforms is completely dead. Nobody works in this way anymore. Architectures are so similar that you don’t need to make a game on one architecture then ‘port it across’ as happened back in the 360/PS3 days.
4 Likes
PC
Devs use PC’s.
4 Likes
the simple yet boring truth
They may use PC’s for development. But that doesnt mean surely they are focused on optimising for say Nvidia spec PC’s over say an Xbox console or a Playstation. Surely they can choose to spend as little or a smuch time as they want optimising with a particular tool set? Look at Forza Horizon 3 for example, ran with many issues on PC for months and months, yet ran very well on Xbox from the start. I even remember Playground saying that Xbox was the lead platform.
Also if nothing is a lead development platform anymore because all architecture is the same, which third parties will make use of series x specific features yet to be utilised?
I would think certain platforms still get more focus than others in terms of optimisation. Even last gen we saw CoD perform better on PS4 Pro over X1X, when clearly in most games the x1x ran things better.
As to the OP intent. I would think PS5 may get more focus at times due to potentially selling more consoles. However as MS are buying so many studios, there’s going to be a huge number of Xbox focussed titles to come this gen. And who knows how sales progress as time goes on.
I’m gonna go off on a limb and say games like Spider Man 2 will be developed with PS5 as lead platform and Hellblade 2 for Series X.
In all seriousness, probably mid range PC for most and up/down scaled from there.
My hope is that with Direct X 12 U becoming intertwined with both AMD and Nvidia, if devs to us PC as the lead platform then they are more likely to use alot of Direct X extensions, thereby working out better for Xbox.
I think it’s gonna shift for Xbox when Gamecore is ready
If u can have a console version, PC version and cloud version without optimisation, it’s a real game changer
U can developp one game for like 30 millions Xbox, 80 millions PC and 10 millions cloud gamers in 2022
This
High end PC then downscale
PC and therefore Xbox.
The one which will sell more and have more sales.
1 Like
PS5, because it’s the market leader. Until MS is able to produce a truly viable alternative that isn’t going to change
I don’t think anyone really knows at this point. There is a divergence in specs that we haven’t seen in a while now. And there’s a gamble on Sony’s part and on Microsoft’s part in what direction they both went with for their next gen consoles.
For Sony, going with an ultra fast SSD can change how games are designed. The only problem being that crossgen games will prevent PS5 games from taking full advantage of it, and games that are also intended for the PC will prevent games being designed to take full advantage of it. We are talking about an SSD that’s so fast that it can load new assets as a character is turning around in third person.
For Microsoft it’s going with DX12U features that aren’t supported in the previous gen and on most PCs barring the few that have the latest and greatest video cards. This means features like Direct ML That can be leveraged heavily in advanced animations, physics, character AI, and so on. A game that is cross-gen cannot be designed to be reliant on those features. Game that is also intended for the PC cannot be designed to be reliant on DML being used for advanced animations. That is not until DX12U is a standard on at least X% of PCs. You can’t design an engine that leverages Sampler Feedback when that feature doesn’t exist on most other consoles and PCs.
So if you ask me, the lead development platform will be a middle ground between all of these machines. That few third-party games will leverage things like advanced AI because the PS5, previous consoles, and most PCs are holding everyone back in that regard. Few third-party games will rely on a blazingly fast SSD in their game design because the Xbox Series consoles, last gen consoles, and most PCs will hold everyone back in that regard.
Obviously a lot of these in-house and middleware engines will take as much advantage as they can of all of these features. But when you’re designing a game you simply cannot design it around these features unless it’s exclusive to that console. You can try to add some tweaks around some of these features, but you can’t design your game around them.
I think it’s underappreciated how much the last generation will hold back the next generation especially when it comes to getting the most out of the CPU. When titles are crossgen (especially if they are crossplay) they cannot feature a completely different set of advanced physics, or animations, or AI that’s afforded by the new CPUs.
This is why I like the idea of Microsoft not selling any Xbox Ones and in selling the Series S instead. It has a fast CPU, it has the SSD, It has the DX12U compatibility for things like ray tracing, DML, and sampler feedback. The sooner users migrate their consoles and their PCs to be DX12U compatible, the sooner we’ll see the benefits of all this stuff.
2 Likes