BioWare Founder on PS4/Xbox One Upgrades: It'd Be a "Gigantic Pain in the Ass"

[Mr Puggsly]

potato_hamster said:

Mr Puggsly said:

Look at New 3DS, we already see developers utilizing the upgraded specs just performance and graphical improvments. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-nintendo-3ds-vs-new-3ds-face-off

In theory the primary focus is optimizing the game for the original CPU and GPU as they do now. For new specs which would be running the same architecture, they should be able to raise graphics settings without ruining performance kinda like a PC game. Perhaps I am over simplifying the process but we already see it happening with New 3DS.

If for some reason utilizing the new specs is too difficult (expensive) for some developers, they can simply optimize their game for old specs so the entire audience has access to their game. Many indie games for example don't need the extra power unless they wanna push 4K or something like that.

Maybe I make it seem to simple but you're making this a bigger problem than it actually is.

You want to use the new 3DS as an example? Really? A device that has been out for over a year and less than 5% of the games that have come out for it since actually take advantage of the hardware, and the most of the ones that do are first-party Nintendo or Nintendo-published games? The new 3DS is a perfect example of why this concept desn't work!

See that part where you mention how it's too expensive for some developers so they'll just develop for the old spec. That's the problem! That's exactly what will happen for about 95% of games, because why bother putting in the extra time and effort when there's nothing to gain?  This makes owning hardware with addtional processing power completely and utterly pointless for 95% of uses as it is quite literally offering the exact same experience as the lower spec.

So why should Sony, MS, or anyone bother in the first place? This is why if there is a "PS4K" it probably won't offer additional processing power for games in the way you imagine -  because it makes no sense. It'll probably play 4K blu-rays though.

I've used New 3DS as an example that it can be done. Lets be honest, the New 3DS audience doesn't really care about graphics and performance as much the 8th gen console gamers. So there is less incentive to use New 3DS specs. Nintendo and Capcom are the few developers that push 3DS specs. While many developers push X1 and PS4 specs.

Not all developers have to use the new specs, but I'm sure many would. Especially if it could be done simply. Many don't know but a lot of games used the N64 expansion likely because it was easy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expansion_Pak

Frankly, its possible instead of doing a price cut they could instead put a considerably more powerful CPU and/or GPU in newer models. As long as the new specs are there and easy for developers to use them, they will be used. At the very least it would be interesting experiment.