Well, what you are bringing is a discussion on what makes Xbox or any console have individual value which I agree, it's the games they offer that nobody else does or direct competitors don't that makes them standout.

But I am talking about the specific PR regarding XboxSex hardware. In this moment we have Micro getting their "exclusive" SEX games released between both old and new gen and as long as they do that people will point out that the potential of XboxSEX is not being demonstrated, or that new gen is not that impressive at all, even more difficult to claim a gap with your current gen competitor, PS5.

Couldn’t resist, your posts too juicy to ignore. 

Short answer: Sure it does. But it depends on the game design. Linear games, racing games, fighting games etc, not so much. Vast open world games I can imagine old hardware cant do as much detail in the scenery or draw distances etc. But even then you build high you can scale down like we saw in Witcher 3 for Switch. Scaling up then 100% old holds back new. I mean it would have to be a design choice so unique that it wouldn’t be possible to replicate, like the Ratchet and Clank quick loading of levels. 

Why not support for the full 9 years? Because gamers move on. Don’t see many core gamers still using Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2020. If old hardware has a market like Switch (not old per se but underpowered) then of course devs will do what they can to scale down: 

End of day we all know year 1-2 exclusives never take as much advantage as late gen games. That’s just a fact. Might as well take care of the late adopters at the same time. I see it as win win. 

maximum of one year from launch = two years 

The time frame of cross gen support does not support the idea that next gen XSX games will be held back. Hell most of their studios released games recently or are about to and won’t have games ready until that cross gen period is done. People are basically upset about launch window games which as we’ve seen in both events so far, aren’t pushing those SSDs anyway.

Never denied it can. But whatever you need to tell yourself in order to feel better, be my guest.

I’d argue cross gen arguably helps distinguish the difference. Halo Infinite base Xbox One vs Series X will show differences in FPS, resolution, draw distances, AI, textures, ray tracing. Maybe even a mode unique to Series X that Xbox One cant do. 

But nm that, as long as their games look next gen in their own right, regardless of the games being cross gen, concern trollers will make little difference. Series X is after all about 20% stronger then PS5 and I would think 1st party devs can leverage that. 

And I believe Sony is in a similar situation. Spiderman MM is supposedly built off the base game with upgrades next gen elements. GT7, Sackboy, Destruction All Stars, all games that PS4 could also do. 

What exactly have 3D-platformers on PS4/X1 better than Mario Galaxy besides better graphics?
What exactly have FPS games on PS4/X1 better than HL2 besides better graphics?
What exactly have puzzle games on PS4/X1 better than Portal 2 besides better graphics?
What exactly have Kart-Racing games on PS4/X1 better than MK8?
What exactly have open-world games on PS4/X1 better than BOTW besides better graphics?

So NO, the only thing that these consoles were holding back was the graphics department. PS5 games are not gonna be magically better than PS4/X1/Switch games just bcuz developers have more power to put more details into them, or should we expect Sackboy to be the most complex 3D platformer in history just bcuz is being developed for the PS5?

And I said it before and I will say it again: the only game that Sony has shown so far that possibly would not be able to run on PS4 is Ratchet & Clank (and even that is in the air bcuz we have seeing portal-jumping mechanics since.. well, Portal) everything besides that is just graphics.

Oh! and I'm actually expecting PS5 games to pop up more (visually) at first glance than XSX games, but that is because MS has committed to 60FPS and Sony hasn't.

As for your question: you should know by now that the hardcore crowd (A.K.A. the people who buy the most games) tend to upgrade on the first 2-3 years of the console cycle, so after that it makes little sense to keep supporting the old consoles since the volume of software sales just not make it worth it anymore. So yeah, both MS and Sony's decisions in this subject are purely business-driven.

I said next gen games typically means new experiences. More immersion is a new experience and that is what a generational jump in graphics usually means. The dimension jumping in Ratchet & Clank makes the game more immersive. Now if that had 30 second loading screens, it would completely break the immersion and it would have been pointless to put it in the game in the first place.

MS's strategy isn't only about the Xbox One. Obviously they'll not be supporting it for another 7 years. But since they're not pushing next gen tech, MS will just look at how they'll potentially reach the biggest user base and target the lowest common denominator. They'll likely be targeting a 4Tflops Lockhart and low-end pc for the remainder of next gen. Not sure how a low-end pc will compare to Series X, 4 years from now. But it might take a while before RTX2080 like performance and NVME SSD becomes standard on pc.

Of course it all depends on what kind of game they're making. If it's a 2D platformer then yeah, its not going to be pushing SSD and those 12Tflops. The cool thing with next gen consoles is that developers can think about completely new and vastly more ambitious game concepts when they specifically target next gen consoles. 

Historically speaking we typically don't see the big ip's coming out in the first 1 or 2 years. That doesn't mean early games can't potentially take full advantage of the hardware, though. Killzone SF and something like the Order 1886 still look pretty darn good today, they just weren't great games. But what is stopping GG from turning HZW into a next gen showcase early on?

Actually xbox one ran rdr 2 really well. But that's the thing first party exclusives will be built from the ground up for series x then scaling it down. It can be done. It has been proven with x enhanced games how easy it is to increase visuals of the game to take advantage of the machines. 

Yea it will work, it will jsut have downgraded visuals, 900p resolutions, 30fps and loading screens. Its not hard to reduce all of that. So far the first party for Sony first party games haven't impressed me with their visuals taking advantage of its ssd and better cpu and gpu. 

Current gen is leaps and bounds better than last gen and yet it took the middle years before we saw games blowing the doors off for this generation. Titanfall was one of the best games around the launch of these consoles which shows that innovation didn't come in terms of hardware, it came in terms of game design. Which is exactly my point. PS4 offered Bloodborne, a game that is designed identically to all its predecessors, nothing next gen about it aside from its graphics (Bells and Whistles) Same can be said with Infamous Second Son, a game that didn't require PS4 hardware to make, it plays like the original games with again, all its (Bells and Whistles) which is what makes them stand out. This gen, you have been playing games that didn't require next gen hardware to be created for you to enjoy the games. 

Weather you agree with the decision of Phil's comments does not change the fact that its what they are focusing on. Go buy a PC game like RE2Remake, run it with its lowest settings, than play it again with everything turned on and you will see major differences. That is what Phil is saying. XSX is for those who want the ultimate versions of the games, and it will also be doing next gen games as well, because 3rd party games have the freedom to go with current or next gen designs. If you don't want to buy a XSX or are not interested in the games on it, than just don't, its pretty simple. The system is not for you.

I play a lot of Switch games and i cannot complain, Switch games are amazing and the last thing i think about when playing those games is the visuals, i just love the gameplay Nintendo offers me. Lets see how Halo Infinite looks at this event because that's designed around the XB1 and will see how disappointing it will look in your eyes.

The only reason why RDR2 is possible on weak sauce current gen hardware is because the game is 100% optimized for them. That's the whole beauty of consoles as developers can go for the best bang for the buck on the base console versions. With RDR2 for example, they're using a mix of lower than the lowest, and ultra settings from the pc version.

If you have games that are THAT optimized, it's going to be a lot harder to scale things down. Like I said, current gen consoles have something like the equivalent of a GTX750 but it's literally impossible to run RDR2 on say a GTX730 even at the lowest settings and 360p. We need to see more from Sony but fact is that the ps5 exclusives don't need to scale with a bunch of different devices. Meaning they can potentially go completely crazy with things like ai, physics, geometry, level design, asset variation, npc's etc and push the ps5 to its absolute limits. This is what makes for a new level of immersion and new experiences compared to current gen. 

Unfortunately, that's something entirely different than the scalable graphics Phil is talking about on pc and Series X. The whole core game design (levels, ai, physics, npc's, asset variation etc.) will be designed to hit at least 30fps/1080p (maybe 720p) on Xbox One, and Series X will be shackled to those limits. Since parity is a thing that developers need to work around, all they can do on Series X is use those 12Tflops to boost resolution, fps and add some ray tracing. Obviously it will look a lot better, but its still the same game designed around the hard limits of the xone. Just like you're getting the same experience when you're playing Gears 5 on a 1,3Tflops Xbox as on a $3000 uber pc.