Was Nintendo right to opt out of the graphics arms race?

[Chrkeller]

Norion said:

Chrkeller said:

That is where I disagree.  For starters Forbidden West takes a minute+ to load, the ps5 version, handful of seconds.  The ps4 version is locked at 30 fps, while the ps5 offers 60 fps + higher resolution + better draw distance + better volumetric + better textures + better particles.  Games scale, I don't think a game working on weaker hardware holds it back, not with today's modern engines.  

By taking advantage I'm referring to being able to do things that are just not possible on a CPU that weak or a hard drive. For the former one example is Act 3 in Baldur's Gate 3 being really CPU demanding to where the most demanding area can drop into the 30's on the PS5 even after the optimization work they've done and for the latter you have Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart where you get transported instantly to completely different areas where with a hard drive it takes way longer and destroys the creative intent.

On the GPU side ray tracing and DX12 Ultimate features like mesh shaders are things that don't work at all on hardware that wasn't built to support them which is why games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Doom the Dark Ages can run on a 3050 but not a 1080ti. Generations are for sure way less of a thing than before but they're not fully dead yet since there will be games that come out next decade that would not be able to run on gen 9 consoles, there will just be less of them than before compared to this gen and gen 8.

Fair points.  I suppose cross gen might hold back some developments  but it seems somewhat negligible at this point.  Plenty of games have optional RT, so the ps5 could push RT on cross gen ports.  Heck isn't spiderman one of those examples?

And all hardware eventually will be obsolete, that is a good point, the window is just much larger.