BioWare Founder: Upgraded PS4 and Xbox One Would be a 'Gigantic Pain in the Ass' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 11 April 2016 / 5,287 Views
There have been multiple rumors that Sony is currently working on an updated PlayStation 4, dubbed the PlayStation 4K.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer originally stated that Microsoft could release an upgraded Xbox One in the future, however, he later retracted that by saying he is "not a big fan of Xbox One and a half."
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk, who is now retired, told GameSpot that the idea of a mid generation upgrade is a bad idea.
"I'd say that'd be a gigantic pain in the ass that flies in the face of the purpose of consoles," said Zeschuk. "It's funny, there's actually some stories behind that. For example, the original Xbox...Microsoft actually had multiple different DVD drives. They didn't tell anyone that, but as a developer you discovered that you have different performance and sometimes you'd have these boxes of refurbished drives and different brands and different equipment. It caused incredible variability."
Having only one console to work on for many years makes it easier for the developer according to Zeschuk.
"The whole purpose of consoles is the set of requirements that you work against from a hardware perspective," he said. "To change that is complete lunacy."
"I just think it's bad," he added. "I think, 'lock it' and let developers do their thing. But at the end of the day, if you can focus your development effort on one set of hardware requirements and target, you are going to get a better result. It's easier than having to split it, adding more people, having to port things across.
"It's like dipping your toe back into the PC pool where you have to consider all these things. It was nice on console not having to consider like performance sliders. But it's just crazy. I guess maybe [Microsoft and Sony] feel the need to."
Zeschuck also feels that consumers be "really irritated" and he doesn't "think they can pull an Apple and get you to upgrade mid-cycle."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
