Support NeoGAF

[pixelation]

"But absolutely, it is work. There's no doubt about that. The fact that you have two performance specs now, I'm not going to stand here or try to PR somebody and say two different specs is the same as having one spec. It's not. We're doing this because we want to expand the market."

Xbox Boss Phil Spencer On Series X Launch, Halo Infinite & Bethesda - Kotaku

There’s nothing normal about interviewing Xbox chief Phil Spencer these days. First, there’s the location. We’re in a pandemic, of course, so our latest

kotaku.com

All this time people have been acting like all devs needed to do was flip a magic switch or something, guess this proves that wrong.

 

[quickwhips]

How much more work is the question. Two is more than one so no shit.

 

[Fake]

Mild shock.
The genius in flesh and blood.

 

[01011001]

Spoiler

so is developing for different PC specs, which 99% of these devs will also have to do

 

[MasterCornholio]

We really didn't need Phil to tell us this. But it should be less work than developing for 2 consoles from different ecosystems.

 

[GHG]

Just flip a switch they said.

 

[01011001]

Spoiler

so is developing for different PC specs, which 99% of these devs will also have to do

I might also add, Switch developers also have to do this already...

they have to develop for a 393Gflops profile and for a 236Gflop profile (there are multiple mobile profiles below this that developers can choose in order to save battery life if the game runs well at lower speeds, but you get the idea)

 

[Kagey K]

Oh boy, we really scraping the bottom of the barrel now.

 

[Drunkensamurai]

no shit.

 

[Knitted Knight]

Some suspects are hiding from this thread.

I mean they went hiding when devs started to talk but now that the idol has spoken... there is not much recourse other than to hide.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Yeah but it was either that or the end of Xbox. Phil called it right.

 

[Aidah]

No shit, but at least they got the right idea with keeping the same CPU and SSD. Memory though...we'll see.

Also says he expects Series S to be the long term higher seller (so, their main console?). Also says part of the motivation for Series S is so that it can be attractive as a second console to someone with a non-xbox console.

Just flip a switch they said.

One button, perfect scaling.

 

[mejin]

Power your backtracking.

 

[THE DUCK]

Wow. And so is developing for ps5 and ps4.
And ps5 and pc. And xbox and switch. And xbox and pc. And for pc, xbox, ps5, and pc........wait I'm seeing trend here.....

 

[Sticks]

Bunch of crybabies them developers.

 

[Piku_Ringo]

Yeah but it was either that or the end of Xbox. Phil called it right.

xbox will never die

 

[ZehDon]

Power your backtracking.

Cool, so you don't know what backtracking means or you don't understand what's being discussed. Great contribution

Given that the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X both exist, the amount of the work to support to different console specs should be a known quantity at this point. I'm not even sure I'd consider this thread worthy, to be honest.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

well duh

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

What's there to 'admit', it's common sense.

Also, that might just be the first Madonna 'meme' I've ever seen onlne.

 

[Clear]

Wow. And so is developing for ps5 and ps4.
And ps5 and pc. And xbox and switch. And xbox and pc. And for pc, xbox, ps5, and pc........wait I'm seeing trend here.....

The point is adding two new targets in one stroke is unprecedented and frankly unneeded hassle. Especially as it seems they've upended their entire development environment in order to facilitate it.

The issue is that the whole, "do what's best for business, the devs will figure it out in time" attitude didn't endear Sony platforms to devs when Kutaragi did it, and I suspect it'll be the same deal here.

 

[sendit]

Wait till he hears about the varying specs on a PC......oops wrong thread.

 

[Self High Five]

How much is work is turning the slider down?

Yeesh.

 

[fersnake]

this sucks for the ppl who play those bethesda games on a ps system, thank god the only game i played (pc) was doom 2016 and it was this year lol. not gonna miss those games. so guys just buy a ps5 if already have a midrange pc.

 

[Ðuelist]

Wow. And so is developing for ps5 and ps4.
And ps5 and pc. And xbox and switch. And xbox and pc. And for pc, xbox, ps5, and pc........wait I'm seeing trend here.....

Yes but they're not going to be having PS4 for 7-10 years...

 

[Jimmyisback]

Lifting two things is more work than lifting one thing. People do you understand this concept. We are running out of things to talk about now or people trying to create narratives again?

 

[Grinchy]

Nah, I'll trust the random forum posters who say that the S will run every game exactly the same but at 1440p instead of 4K and it's just easy, simple scalability

 

[odhiex]

We knew this already.

Edit: I'm curious about the Xbox series S. Seems like there are less preview units available compare to Series X prior to launch. How much of a difference between the two.

 

[Warnen]

hey Look at it this way still coming up the same on the new Bethesda games at least.

 

[oldergamer]

Some suspects are hiding from this thread.

I mean they went hiding when devs started to talk but now that the idol has spoken... there is not much recourse other than to hide.

Of course its more work. But not anything developers are not accustomed to on the pc.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Thought it was more interesting he barely commented on Halo Infinite missing launch and what's also coming in 2021 in that interview.

Also, it's no secret they have a good relationship with Nintendo It's been said several times, seems a bit of a one way thing when it comes to the consumer , how about something on the Xbox side of things from Nintendo if it's a great relationship.

 

[Matsuchezz]

Uncle Phil at it again. He is serving the kool aid directly to fans' mouth and they are loving it. BAU.

 

[oldergamer]

Yet another pathetic attempt at concern trolling threads again. Its like the 5th one this week.

 

[Kataploom]

Welp, oc it is, tho it's not even close to port from PS5 to PS4 cause it's basically graphics since the only meaningfull change is the GPU.

People acting as they knew nothing about software development... OH WAIT, well, let's say you can't compare downgrading graphics (specially when it's 4K vs 2K/FHD) to downgrade actually essencial game logic.

The later will remain untouched due to CPU/IO, and that's why people here say it's the same as in PC low vs high settings.

 

[oldergamer]

Uncle Phil at it again. He is serving the kool aid directly to fans' mouth and they are loving it. BAU.

Koolaid? Sure.... or are u still thinking that "we believe in generations bullshit" when all those exclusive games were planned for ps4 that entire time. Id rather drink it occasionally then swim in it 24/7 amirite?

 

[teezzy]

Uncle Phil at it again. He is serving the kool aid directly to fans' mouth and they are loving it. BAU.

 

[THE DUCK]

The point is adding two new targets in one stroke is unprecedented and frankly unneeded hassle. Especially as it seems they've upended their entire development environment in order to facilitate it.

The issue is that the whole, "do what's best for business, the devs will figure it out in time" attitude didn't endear Sony platforms to devs when Kutaragi did it, and I suspect it'll be the same deal here.

Its not really a huge deal when the architecture is so similar. Most developers are used to mutiple platforms, look at this gen, most had to do pc, ps4, ps4 pro, xbox and xbox one x all at the same time. This is largely a non issue.

 

[THE DUCK]

Yes but they're not going to be having PS4 for 7-10 years...

Just a ps5 and then a ps5 pro........there is no end to it. And pc based on thier business plan......

 

[oldergamer]

OP you left out this part

"I think we have proof points, like we've said, on PC, that show that you can get absolutely amazing-looking games on great hardware and have those games scale to the hardware capability."

Games that scale to the hardware. Where did we hear that before? Oh yeah.... Kinda getting tired of the fanboy driven threads. Sony fans should give it a rest and talk about ps5 instead of trying to point out fake concern with xbox.

 

[Fake]

So, are some people here will defend crunch when starts to happen or not?

 

[oagboghi2]

Yeah but it was either that or the end of Xbox. Phil called it right.

"the end of xbox"

I swear, the hyperbolic bullshit people are spouting to defend this worthless toy is something else

 

[oldergamer]

So, are some people here will defend crunch when starts to happen or not?

Fake. Trying to change the subject?

 

[Fake]

Fake. Trying to change the subject?

Always.

 

[Codes 208]

I imagine it can't be much worse than developing for both the xbox one OG and X. The power gap was larger (1.3 vs 6 being around 5x), the one and one s had esram which made developing absolute ass for developers early on and the ram wasn't just slower, it was a different type (8gb ddr3 vs 12gb gddr5)

with the SS and the SX the main differences are just the power gap (4.2 vs 12 which is 3x) and less ram but they're roughly the same in every other aspect. They're close enough to where it really is like pc's where you're mainly scaling resolution for similar framerate and perhaps tweaking some other aspects like lower rez assets.

 

[Kumomeme]

more work= more resources

resource can be manpower, time, money
not all studio can manage that especially smaller one.

also devs work never been easy. even they did it all the time doesnt mean it just a flip of switch. be it pc or console.

smartphones? there lot of complaint that some devs just get lazy and dont bother to optimize their game or app properly just because phones nowdays has ridiculously high amount of ram. then later people scratching their head how iphone with lower memory can perform better for example.

pc has more resource and it getting bigger by the year while console remain that for atleast 5-6 years. while pc game minimum requirement constantly increasing.

 

[JTCx]

Uncle Phil at it again. He is serving the kool aid directly to fans' mouth and they are loving it. BAU.

 

[AllBizness]

No shit, but at least they got the right idea with keeping the same CPU and SSD. Memory though...we'll see.

Also says he expects Series S to be the long term higher seller (so, main console?). Also says part of the motivation for Series S is so that it can serve as a second console.


One button, perfect scaling.

If I were going Xbox I'd have another Series X as a 2nd console.

 

[Kagey K]

On the flip side Zenimax/Bethesda job got easier because they only have to program for 2 on the same architecture instead of 3 on 2 different architectures.

 

[Aidah]

If I were going Xbox I'd have another Series X as a 2nd console.

I/He meant as a second console to someone's non-xbox console.

I edited to make it clearer.

 

[Dr Bass]

Koolaid? Sure.... or are u still thinking that "we believe in generations bullshit" when all those exclusive games were planned for ps4 that entire time. Id rather drink it occasionally then swim in it 24/7 amirite?

I feel like in this analogy Sony would still be the one where you're only drinking it occasionally and swimming in it 24/7 would be the Xbox side of things ...

I mean you're talking about one gotcha vs. years of basically empty promises. Or am I missing something ...

 

[Barakov]

Phil Spencer, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good to know everyone got to know this when *squints* the series X and series S launch in a little over a month. I still think the Series S is a mistake and they should've focused 100% on the Series X. At best they should've launched a Series X that was digital only.