"I'd say that'd be a gigantic pain in the ass that flies in the face of the purpose of consoles," he said. "It's funny, there's actually some stories behind that. For example, the original Xbox...Microsoft actually had multiple different DVD drives. They didn't tell anyone that, but as a developer you discovered that you have different performance and sometimes you'd have these boxes of refurbished drives and different brands and different equipment. It caused incredible variability."

Zeschuk went on to say the benefit of having locked system specs as consoles currently do is that it's clear to developers what they are working with.

"The whole purpose of consoles is the set of requirements that you work against from a hardware perspective," he said. "To change that is complete lunacy."

The discussion around a mid-cycle hardware upgrade stems back most recently to the beginning of March. At an industry event, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was quoted as saying, "You'll actually see us come out with new hardware capability during a generation." He didn't say this generation, however. Still, it's an interesting development, and one that Zeschuk says may come from Microsoft feeling as if its Xbox One was outmatched from a technical perspective compared to the PlayStation 4.

"It's almost like Microsoft may feel that Sony got overpowered versus them at the start, and maybe wants to kind of catch up," he said. "And Sony's like, 'Well, if you want to do that, we'll play this game.'"

Whatever the reason, Zeschuk isn't on board with the idea.

Full articlle: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/bioware-founder-on-ps4xbox-one-upgrades-itd-be-a-g/1100-6438664/

"I just think it's bad," he said. "I think, 'lock it' and let developers do their thing. But at the end of the day, if you can focus your development effort on one set of hardware requirements and target, you are going to get a better result. It's easier than having to split it, adding more people, having to port things across."

"It's like dipping your toe back into the PC pool where you have to consider all these things. It was nice on console not having to consider like performance sliders. But it's just crazy. I guess maybe [Microsoft and Sony] feel the need to."

So much win in his comments

I strongly agree with him as that's what differentiate consoles and PC and makes console so great.

I'd likely say that MS started it with their statement so with Sony in the lead they'd be stupid not to jump in on this and let their competitors possibly take over. Granted MS could be generalizing or bluffing but Sony shouldn't take the chance.

....and then you have all the complainers about how this gen's consoles are soooo underpowered. Can't please them all.

To be fair, they are.

Thats fine though, I have a gaming PC for multiplats anyway. If people have an issue with how weak XBO and PS4 are theres always another option.

Imagine them having to consider last gen, current gen and the.5 upgrades as well as PC, that's already a load of specifications to adhere to already, I can see why they would see that as a pain in the ass. They should just wait for another gen where the 2 or all 3 console manufacturers go for a bigger jump in hardware or possibly take another safe route and make the same move as this gen, even if they make another move the same as this gen with hardware they are going to take risks on lagging behind.

I'm open to better after about 5 years. We could have significantly better specs for about $350.

Games on the new hardware would simply run higher graphics and performance. It can be that simple.

I can agree with that. I don't think it's necessarily needed.

On the other hand, one slight upgrade in the middle of a generation isn't so bad, as long as 100% backwards and forwards compatibility between the two is assured. It just has to be done in such a way that the hardware handles the upgrade and the software is basically blind to the difference.

Honestly, I think the basis of this is Microsoft realizing they screwed up with their eSRAM solution.

No surprise there, and QB is a good example of why it's not that simple
As things stand, it simply isn't possible to achieve a smooth frame-rate on any PC hardware configuration and thanks to the profound limitations imposed on gamers by the Universal Windows Platform, there's no way to fix it.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-what-went-wrong-with-quantum-break-pc
That could easily become the same on consoles with different hardware specs.

Cant agree more with him

And this is why ps4.5 never existed in the first place.
It's funny a major dev doesn't have any info on it but kotaku has "reliable sources" on it.