After Cyberpunk 2077, it pushes to the forefront an issue of developing new gen games on last gen consoles. (Which in my opinion contradicts the point of new gen in the first place)
Last gen console versions should be ditched so as they do not hamper/cripple the potential of new gen games.
Due to old gen hardware it can limit game development in regards to these main points:
1. Size of mission areas.
2. How assets are loaded into the game and how quickly. aka LOD, draw distance. Example, games designed to also be played on old hardware have serious issues with object and texture pop in.
3. How many enemies/friendlies can be on screen at once including particles, explosions, vehicles etc.
4. How advanced the AI of enemies and allies alike can be. Example, better AI is more CPU intensive and thus will have to be dumbed down for older hardware support.
5. Corpse and item persistency. Example how long dead enemies/friendlies and dropped weapons or vehicle wrecks stay in the gameworld before disappearing. Older hardware will have it so the game will have items and corpses disappearing very fast. So sadly no backtracking for dropped weapon pick-ups. And no battlefields littered with dead enemies to help add to the immersion that you are in an actual war. You may have noticed how the Brute drop pods in the Halo: Infinite July gameplay near instantaneously disappeared from the gameworld. Yeah designed for old gen console hardware.
To wrap this up I would also like to add that for a game that they want to last "10 years". It's going to be hard to support this game on old gen consoles for another additional 10 years when by the time this game releases the old gen hardware will be verging on 9 years old. This will also limit how good the additional content can be that is added to the game over the 10 years live service period when old gen consoles still need to be able to play it.
Thoughts?
Last gen console versions should be ditched so as they do not hamper/cripple the potential of new gen games.
Due to old gen hardware it can limit game development in regards to these main points:
1. Size of mission areas.
2. How assets are loaded into the game and how quickly. aka LOD, draw distance. Example, games designed to also be played on old hardware have serious issues with object and texture pop in.
3. How many enemies/friendlies can be on screen at once including particles, explosions, vehicles etc.
4. How advanced the AI of enemies and allies alike can be. Example, better AI is more CPU intensive and thus will have to be dumbed down for older hardware support.
5. Corpse and item persistency. Example how long dead enemies/friendlies and dropped weapons or vehicle wrecks stay in the gameworld before disappearing. Older hardware will have it so the game will have items and corpses disappearing very fast. So sadly no backtracking for dropped weapon pick-ups. And no battlefields littered with dead enemies to help add to the immersion that you are in an actual war. You may have noticed how the Brute drop pods in the Halo: Infinite July gameplay near instantaneously disappeared from the gameworld. Yeah designed for old gen console hardware.
To wrap this up I would also like to add that for a game that they want to last "10 years". It's going to be hard to support this game on old gen consoles for another additional 10 years when by the time this game releases the old gen hardware will be verging on 9 years old. This will also limit how good the additional content can be that is added to the game over the 10 years live service period when old gen consoles still need to be able to play it.
Thoughts?
