Red Faction Maxes out Xbox 360 - Volition turn to Xbox 720

[Sri Lumpa]

megaman2 said:

Gameplayer: So you’re saying that RFG is pushing the hardware as far as it can go? Squeezing every drop of juice out of the Xbox 360?

Rick White: Yeah, we’ve got it to the point where we can’t even put an extra vehicle into a world, because it’ll blow the memory. Every little change we make we have to be hyper-critical about it because it could just bring the whole system down. We evaluate every little change in the game, and then we run our tools on it to make sure it isn’t going to break the game and then we move forward, so it really is about pushing the engine as far as we can, and pushing the hardware as far as we can, and then looking at what is the next set of hardware that’s going to come out. Where can we take it then? You know we’re already thinking about if we had XYZ X number of years from now, what would we do with our engine?

Gameplayer: So you’ve got a lot of plans for this engine?

Rick White: I think as the consoles grow, be it the 720 or whatever, it’s going to increase our ability to deliver a better looking game with more destruction, or more dense environments. I mean, one thing we have now, because we’re throwing so many polys around we’re not as dense as Saints Row 2. One thing that you could see with a more powerful console with more dense environments.

Gameplayer: We see a lot of developers these days juggling multiple projects, what’s the secret to success?

Rick White: That’s an interesting question. I think part of it is timing, part of it is luck, and it’s having dedicated teams. With Saints Row 2 and RFG we had our own separate teams, and we steal from each other as far as technology goes, but we do our own thing and we have our own staff.

• http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-253647.aspx
• http://www.gameplayer.com.au/gp_documents/Red-Faction-Interview.aspx?Page=3

It seems my debate with Mrstickball that the Xbox 360 has peaked too early has sufficed, developers are already looking at the next console.

Mrstickball what is your response to this?

Plz Discuss

I am not MrStickball and I own neither HD console (yet) but if I was him I would say that given that they say they maxed out the 360 due to its memory limitation I would guess that due to the PS3 having as little memory as the 360 either they maxed out the PS3 too (if its multiplatform) or, if it is 360 only (or 360/PC) that the game might only be doable on the 360 due to its  more flexible memory architecture and that it more than maxes out the PS3.

Either way it would not look good for the PS3 in your debate as it either would be maxed out at the same time as the 360 (but earlier in its life) or it would be maxed out before the 360 and while the PS3 cried uncle the 360 kept on chugging just a little bit longer.

So don't look at that article to help you in your debate.

That being said, memory is only one component of a console and they did not say whether they maxed out the GPU and CPU too. Plus, maxed out would only mean 100% utilisation at all time, not that that utilisation cannot be made more efficient in a later game and thus result in a better game. This of course apply to all consoles.

So as usual we arrive at the conclusion that the only use for a developer to say he maxed out a given console is for generating hype: "looke me, no RAM left. BUY MY GAME".