Conina said:
Since both consoles are quite similar in performance, available RAM, architecture and target groups most companies will focus on the cumulative 100million gamers. The overhead is negligible (especially with popular engines like Unreal Engine, Frostbite, Unity, CryEngine and id Tech), the additional sales will more than make up for the effort, even if the sales aren't a 50:50 split. Exclusives are only a thing if one of the platform owners pays for it. |
The 2 console's OSes are different enough to need workarounds and therefore support headaches, IMO.
If it was so easy to gain parity across platforms, as you suggest, even with the game engine you sited, then we wouldn't be seeing Digital Foundry pointing out that Mulitplatform-Game-X is better on PS4 than on Xbox One and in some cases (few admittedly) still better than the more powerful Xbox One X.
Having worked on multi-plaform frameworks, it is NOT as easy as most people think. Not even the best game engines get it right, as Digital Foundry points out time and time again. Hence my argument that focussing on 1 platform to get the best bang for buck initially will make more sense as the gap grows between PS4 and Xbox One sales. Then once that game does well or not, decide if it is worth porting to Xbox One to make more money.
The only way I can see that being reversed is if developers decide they'll develop for the most powerful console first, but then the ports to PS4 and the bigger market will suffer.
Time will tell which way the chips will fall. I think we'll have a pretty good idea of how game developers vote by the end of 2018.
