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potato_hamster on 17 June 2015
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gabzjmm23 said:
potato_hamster said:


Do you guys know anything about console video game development? Do you guys know anything about the costs associated with developing for more than one platform or spec? Do you guys have any idea have such a move would lead to the complete and utter abandonment of third parties? Anyone?

You guys need to let this idea go, and let it go quickly. Before you go saying something along the lines of games "scaling up and down". It simply does not work that way, and even if it did, it would require tremendously good developer tools, and Nintendo's developer tools are the absolute worst, and I really do mean the worst by a country mile. It's almost twice as hard to make a game run well on the Wii U than it is to make it run well on the PS4.  Now you need to make a game run well on three or four specs? Forget it. Absolutely forget it. Third parties wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.


because you are talking about Wii U developer kit which is under IBM PowerPC against X1 and PS4 x86 architecture which is really different.  The topic is NX, if NX adopts the x86 archictecture, scaling down and up the graphics for power consumption and other things, it is possible. hence 3rd party would really come to NX.  If Nintendo decides to go to the x86 route.

Yes, I know the Wii U is Power PC based. I've made games for it. Guess what other two consoles are Power PC based? The PS3 and Xbox 360. The Wii was also PowerPC based for that matter. How did porting go from the Xbox 360 to Wii? Ohh I know, because I did it. Many times. It's absolutely terrible.  As it turns out, you couldn't just "scale the game down". You're acting as if the CPU's architecture is the primary problem. I can promise you it isn't. You don't simply make a PS4 game and "scale it down" slightly to for the Xbox one, even though the X1 is slightly underpowered compared to the PS4. In fact, each console's architecture is different by just enough that it's actually a bigger pain in the ass to get games running well on both consoles than one might think. Go ahead and read up on any of the big multi-platform third parties talk about developing for both the X1 and PS4. Let me know when you find one that describes it as developing for one and just "scaling it up or down" depending on the console. I won't hold my breath.

Even if Nintendo were to adopt an x86 architecture going forward for their Nintendo NX 3+ consoles, it would still be a royal pain to port to the NX. Would it be a bigger pain in the ass if they kept the Power PC arctiecture? Sure. But's not nearly that simple. Let's assume NX is 4 different consoles. You get the game running well on the NX Hardcore because it's pretty much just like the PS4. You still have to optimize the game for another 3 consoles. You still need to re-do the 3D models and textures for another 3 consoles. You still need to resample the audio at different bit rates for another 3 consoles You still need to test another 3 consoles. You still need to certify another 3 consoles. You still need to deal with the little quirks and nuances that each and every console in the history of consoles has, but for another 3 models.  You still need 4 times the developers kits for dozens, if not hundreds of game developers per studio, which is an additional investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars. What part of this is sounding easier to you?