Why? Mostly cause Xbox leadership lied, is my guess. They had their fans running around shouting about 'Azure' and 'the cloud' for years while they didn't have anything to play....
I agree with this, but leadership was pretty different, besides, they use it today as a gag. (you have to read the text for you to spotted):
PS4 has two libraries to be fair.
One DirextX wrapper that is identical yo DirectX and so was made to make devs like you feel familiar with the DevTools.
And the other more simple and close to metal (I don’t remember the name) where you can get the best of PS4.
That simple and close to metal API is easier to use than DirectX due the non-multiplatform nature but if you are developing for multiplatform DirextX makes it easier to be ready to all platforms but you lose the low overhead of the PS4 API.
Alright, I probably seen that one which was more close to metal, because shareds were written in C99 type of code, which is in string, that's probably indication that it was not meant to be for indie devs. And well, I don't think that you have to give much thought, when you are doing multiplayt code, because that Direct X is same across the platforms, it's just a matter of config file, how much stuff you are allowed to appear on the screen. There was not any low-level Xbox specific fuckery, when I was there and I obviously asked about it. But sure, I don't try to program for the PS4 so far, so I don't know : )
PS4's memory was just naturally easier to use as well. There's more knicks and bolts to it than just "familiarity"
Yeah, but from the code perspective, you don't manage memory pool by hand, even low-level api do it for you, because that would be crazy amount of work. On Xbox it was hidden behind API, so programing for XB1 and XB1X was the same. Anyway with "familiarity" I meant myself, who has done some small Direct X projects. So that's what I meant. These days you really don't have to think much about physical HW rather, what API allows you to do and how nice it runs, it's not easier than before, because to stay competitive, you have to use latest "tricks", but there many whitepapers on this everywhere (many studios have engineers, who work on this research stuff), but it's more like what approach you use to for example create this light, than that you would have be concerned how to write that in DWORDs, so hardware can even run it. That's the advantage of common feature set between consoles today.