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SvennoJ on 04 June 2021
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V-r0cK said:

Two ways I can see this and I'm sort of in the middle:

- The first few years of a new gen, all AAA games should be cross-gen because how else can they make money/recoup when the install base is much less, while last gen has +100M userbase
or..
- AAA games should remain new gen exclusive because if it's so good and with less games out, then the majority of new console owners will pick that up and it'll sell like hot cakes.

There's a third way that is already proving to work to get people to upgrade

- Next-gen enhancements / extras / exclusive features for coss-gen first party games

Apparently BC enhancements are already enough to keep the consoles selling out. So why wouldn't enhancements on first party games work the same? They can do it much better even since it's not BC, they can be tailored to take more advantage of the SSD, dual sense, RT and faster CPU. There is no parity clause at work here.

Forza Horizon 2 did the same yet that took two studios since the architecture was quite different. This gen it's much easier downscale to PS4 and add more features for PS5. GT7 could have dynamic weather on PS5, static on PS4. More cars on track on PS5, more limited on PS4 etc. It doesn't just have to be 4K vs 1080p. God of War can cut out the loading corridors for PS5 / speed up the loading elevators. Perhaps add exclusive valkyri fights or equivalent that can't be pulled off on ps4. Both can make full use of the dual sense. Just because its cross-gen doesn't mean the ps5 version will just be the ps4 version running at 4K60 or 4K120.

Those that don't really care about the shiniest, fastest, most complete version, ie are happy just to play the game, or also not the ones that upgrade early. They bought ps4 late and still have plenty to play on that. Better to entice them to buy God of War early, instead of buying it for cheap when they're ready to get a ps5 in 3 years or later. Plus since it's out early (in the gen), the more people on ps4 play it, the more will be looking forward to the next one which will be exclusive to ps5 and use all its capabilities.

The only reason to keep 1st party exclusive to next gen from day one is to drive up next gen console sales. Since it seems impossible to satisfy demand for the time being, that reason is null and void. And those who care about the shiniest will want to play the shiniest version anyway.