| Pemalite said: 1. Consoles are always playing Catch-up to the PC, that's always been the way things have been. 2. Not just better visuals, faster load times, better frame pacing and so on. 3. It was just as significant as the jump from 6th to 7th gen from a hardware perspective, there was a large paradigm shift in rendering technologies as well. Battlefield 3 on Xbox 360 and Battlefield 5 on Xbox One X look generationally different. 5. More and more of the development costs aren't actually attributed to development at all... But rather advertising, so much cash is sunk on Advertising, same thing goes with movies. 6. Consoles are leveraging PC technology, which has development tools that have been "evolving" for 30+ decades, they are well and truly a known quantity at this point, so that translates over to the 8th gen rather well. |
1. I agree, but it seems like it's now more than ever that consoles are borrowing more and more from PC technology. This generation was the first that adopted PC hardware and development tools/techniques across the board. Even the Switch's Tegra X1 is based on Nvidia's PC graphics technology. It's also the first generation to move away from heavily custom hardware, in favor of cheap, off-the-shelf parts. You can argue that this was all foreshadowed by the original Xbox in 2001. In retrospect, that console was seriously ahead of its time in terms of how it approached game development.
2. True, but again, casual audiences really aren't going to notice such subtle details like that.
3. Don't get me wrong, 8th generation is definitely big enough of a leap to be called a new generation, and some impressive visuals and worlds came out of this era so far that do look better than what 7th gen had. But for the most part, it really feels like gen 7.5 to me, A smoother, more polished version of what gen 7 established. The main focus this gen IMO is less on more powerful hardware, but rather simpler and more intuitive hardware for developers. Back then, generation leaps were a necessity for developers of all sizes, as the more powerful hardware allowed for new gameplay possibilities and mechanics that weren't possible before. Today however, only AAA games really need next gen or even current gen hardware. All three of today's consoles have more than enough power to do nearly every game genre and gameplay style well. Sure, the more powerful the system, the more benefits you get, but these benefits are likely to become more and more superficial as the generations pass IMO.
4. I can see that. However, your casual everyday gamer who just wants to play a game on their television probably won't notice such small details like that. Which is my point about diminishing returns. Sure hardware can always get better, but were at a point where it's harder and harder to truly wow people with new graphics or more powerful hardware. Thus, we need to make other experiences that can have bigger pull. Just look at some of the most popular games this generation. Minecraft, Rocket League, Fortnite, Overwatch. All of these games can run on toasters, but still pull millions of gamers in anyway because they're fun to play and still look good.
5. I do agree that marketing budgets do eat up a large chunk of the games' development costs. But it wouldn't surprise me if the ever increasing scale and complexity of AAA games is also growing in costs as well.
6. I agree, and I'm so glad 8th generation has adopted a PC-like development mentality. It allows developers to work with hardware they're already familiar with, plus allows them to use tools they regularly use, and engines and graphical features in ways they've been used to for years without having to try and adapt those for a heavily customized hardware set. This allows for games to be easier than ever to make, as well as drive down development costs for smaller studios, thus leading to more unique ideas. This is a big reason why I think indie games have gotten much more popularity on consoles this generation.
Last edited by TheMisterManGuy - on 18 January 2019
