In recent gaming news, there has been rumors, speculation, and reports that both Sony and Microsoft will be announcing a new console shortly. If these rumors hold any weight, it’s likely we’ll hear more about these new consoles as we approach E3 this year. Regardless, it’s still a hot topic to talk about right now and even BioWare co-founder, Greg Zeschuk, has decided to weigh in on his opinion of the matter.
Talking to GameSpot, BioWare co-founder, Greg Zeschuk, talked against the idea of both Sony and Microsoft going back to the drawing board for a new console release, especially since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are in their mid-cycle.
Greg Zeschuk feels as if the consoles were made to lock-in the specifications for developers to create video games on. It’s quite different than PC as developers and gamers won’t have to rely on the different settings scale within the game, but instead have a title that will run exactly how the developers created it.
I just think it’s bad, 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.
This, however, is not the first time Greg Zeschuk noticed Microsoft changing their console hardware mid-cycle. Apparently, on the original Xbox, Microsoft swapped out various DVD drives which ultimately gave certain games a bit of a performance increase.
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.
The BioWare co-founder went on to say that consoles are not like iPhones or portable handheld systems. They cost for an upgrade can be high and it would be a tough sell trying to get gamers to upgrade their console after just paying for the previous hardware iteration.
Nevertheless, these are simply rumors for now as neither Microsoft nor Sony has officially announced any new hardware upgrades. However, out of pure speculation, one could say that Microsoft may be trying to bring out a stronger console compared to the Sony PlayStation 4 while Sony is looking to close the gap between its console and higher-end PCs.
