David Cage Isn't a Fan of the Xbox Series S, Says 'Most Developers Will Focus on the Lower-End Version' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2020 / 2,289 Views
The Xbox Series X according to Microsoft has been designed to be a console that runs next-generation games in 4K resolution, while the Xbox Series S is designed to run the same games, but at 1080p or 1440p.
Quantic Dream founder and CEO David Cage in an interview with Wccftech said he isn't a big fan of the Xbox Series S as he believes most developers will focus on the lower-end console to avoid doing two different versions of the same game. He says having two consoles is confusing to developers and players.
"Many developers prefer consoles to PC because on consoles you only have to deal with one hardware, whereas on PC there are so many configurations, graphic cards, drivers, controllers etc. that makes the development much more complex," said Cage.
"When a manufacturer offers two consoles with different specs, there is a strong chance that most developers will focus on the lower-end version to avoid doing two different versions. I must confess that I am really not a big fan of this situation. I think it is confusing for developers, but also for players, and although I can understand the commercial reasons behind this choice (a difference of €200 on the street price) I think the situation is questionable.
"Regarding Quantic Dream, as we develop our own technology and engines, we are determined to optimize our titles for each platform. Being now a PC developer, we are implementing scalable features based on the platform, which is very helpful to highlight what the hardware has best to offer."
Quantic Dream has mainly focused on developing games for PlayStation consoles in the last decade with games like Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human. However, they have begun releasing their games on PC.
The Xbox Series X and Series S will launch worldwide on November 10.
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.
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So then why develop for PC if you don't want to do configurations for different hardware?
Uh, money?
And correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Series X dev. kit the same development kit for the Series S and switching the product being developed for back and forth between the X and S as simple as changing a mode that is already on it? I thought I read this somewhere but I can't find it.
Common sense tells us that having three console specs to worry about (Series X, Series S, and PS5) is more difficult than having two. But, it's not like some huge hurdle that is going to force devs to make crappy games . As everyone has mentioned, PC devs work with infinite combinations of hardware and we don't hear whining about how hard it is to develop for PC.
"Man, developing for different spec systems sure is hard, I don't care for that sort of thing at all. Can't wait to really dive into that PC environment, where there's way less than 2 builds that I gotta worry about running my game. Also, regardless of the pissing and moaning I'm doing right now, please believe that my team is going to do a bang up job optimizing for the best capabilities of every platform, and that we're doing great with scalable tech."
Virtually all Xbox games are already designed to work on varying specs. Also, PC games don't need two versions to work on lower end and higher end specs. Adjusting the settings makes a big difference. There was actually a bigger spec disparity between base Xbox One and Xbox One X.
If a developer on PC is building a game for every single hardware configuration, then they are doing PC development wrong.
You build for the software ecosystem on PC, not the hardware.
You target Direct X feature sets, not GPU feature sets, the point of Direct X is to assume the GPU has the features required natively in hardware, hence why hardware has "Direct X compliance" as a big fat sticker on the side of a box.
Not to mention games are developed on PC anyway, even if they are console exclusive.
The PC has hardware superiority, so it expedites the development of games, eventually they get ported to a dev console and refined further to fit in lower end console specs.
Terrible excuse really.
So.. is that the news Quantic Dream was teasing for 2020?
Jokes aside, he could be right, he could be wrong. I don’t think they’ll ignore the Series S entirely though.
I agree. the series s will hold back full potential of the series x. People will develop for the series s and pretty it up a little on the x, such as ray tracing and up the resolution.
Makes sense, especially with the news that Yakuza: Like a dragon is 1440p/60 on Series X and 900p/60 on Series S. It's not the first time that people have complained about the Series S.
You probably don't realize what you typed is what everyone expected from the Series S. Plays the same game, but at a lower resolution/frame rate. It will most likely be 1440p 60 fps on PS5 also.
The Series S is more capable than the One X and PS4 Pro.
Series X normal mode= 1440p 60fps, resolution mode 4k 30fps, frame rate mode 1080p 60fps. Options are there. And this is a port from PS4. This was not a game designed from the ground up to take advantage of the new systems.
Can't disagree with him.
Funny enough, he didn’t single out the XBox Series consoles...
They’re reporting it so because it applies to the Series consoles, since Sony isn’t taking that approach for the PS5 [yet] (both may very well embrace the mid-gen console refresh like they did during the current gen). But Cage’s comment doesn’t mention he was pleased with the PlayStation approach during gen 8, and he was pretty general about his stance. So I don’t think your comment about him making excuses not to support XBox is warranted. Especially considering he mentioned being in the process of building a scalable engine to adjust to that new reality.
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