With The Switch Almost Here, The Graphical Focus Of Microsoft's Scorpio Already Feels Outdated
Considering that the Nintendo Switch is almost upon us with its focus on functional variety, can console gaming really support another graphical powerhouse like Microsoft’s Scorpio?
Set for release this summer, Microsoft’s Scorpio is already being touted as a big step up in terms of graphical potency for console gaming. When it was covered by Microsoft back in June of last year, the main emphasis on this new console was the increase in its graphical prowess.
The two problems with this are that games are something you play rather than simply watch and that we are already at capacity when it comes to big budget games.
This is because the real limitation on gaming is no longer technical but budgetary. We have already reached a point in the development of games where increases in cost are primarily spent on art resources and the resultant complexities of game production. In short, the logistics of building a game and creating all the necessary visual assets on modern gaming hardware has reached an unsustainable point.
This is why Nintendo’s focus on the Switch is more about what the console can offer functionally rather than just its graphics. This in turn forces an upper limit on game development expenditure and gives a much-needed fiscal reality check for publishers.
The Scorpio’s focus on graphics then feels very much at odds with the survival of console gaming itself.
Don’t forget that it was Microsoft’s blockbuster AAA approach on the 360 thatresulted in the loss of 80% of the game developers we had in the West. So what does the Scorpio actually offer gaming? Better visuals often don’t make games play any better and makes them functionally very standardized. Not to mention that the inevitable increase in production budgets to leverage this new graphical potency will likely destroy what remaining game studios we have left.
Compared to the upcoming Switch, the Scorpio only offers a dead end in terms of gaming. Games are about what you do and not just what you see. Considering how fragile console gaming is currently and the shrewd functional focus of the Switch, the Scorpio really feels at odds with the long-term survival of the medium.
Just a copy/paste, but i found it very interesting to discuss.
Thoughts?
