Developer claims ‘many’ studios are asking Xbox to drop mandatory Series S compatibility

[Veinz]

Developer claims ‘many’ studios are asking Xbox to drop mandatory Series S compatibility | VGC

Bossa Studios dev argues the console has “turned out to be an albatross around the neck of production”…

www.videogameschronicle.com

In a series of since-deleted tweets last week, which were initially sparked by the news that Gotham Knights won’t have performance options on consoles and runs at 30 FPS, Rocksteady senior character technical artist Lee Devonald also claimed that trade-offs need to be made because of Xbox Series S.

“I wish gamers understood what 60fps means, in terms of all of the things they lose to make the game run that fast,” he said (via Gamerant). “Especially taking into account that we have a current-gen console that’s not much better than a last gen one.”

Not surprised by this at all.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

This is a lazy way for developers to get out of implementing graphical sliders on console, something that's been on PC's for years. PC2 gave us some options to play around with (ok not as much as the PC version) but if we had a low/medium/high option for resolution, lod, shadows, reflections, draw distance, partical effects etc in an advanced graphic options then we could do as we please. By all means leave a recommended global setting for people that don't understand like basic difficulty settings but give us a custom option aswell.

Recommended Series S settings blah blah blah.
Recommended Series X settings blah blah blah.

 

[Tornado]

Especially taking into account that we have a current-gen console that’s not much better than a last gen one.

I could see how someone who is part of a development team too incompetent to get their game to run at 60fps on anything would say something that dumb.

 

[Jtheripper]

Uhmm, so why does their game not run smoothly on top consoles ps5, xsx then if it had to be lowered graphically for xss?
Seems like a lame excuse, even though it be a reason to not have the fanciest tech i guess in your game.

 

[MagpieRacer]

The interesting thing about this is, quite a lot of people have been very vocal about developers dropping the previous gen consoles and that next/current gen development has somewhat been held back by this unprecedented level of support for the old consoles. The Series S isn't kuch different to an previous gen console bar a few bells and whistles so I do kind of understand this argument.

Of course there will be an argument alongside that about scalable graphics and so on but, that's not really why we buy consoles. We buy consoles to get the best out of the box experience, not have to faff about with graphics menus.

 

[Terronium-12]

“I wish gamers understood what 60fps means, in terms of all of the things they lose to make the game run that fast,” he said (via Gamerant). “Especially taking into account that we have a current-gen console that’s not much better than a last gen one.”

That has to explain why GK can't hold 30fps on the PS5 and Series X then, correct?

No. That doesn't sound right, considering Forbidden West can hold 30 and 60fps without issue in a world far more populated than GK's. So I'll go ahead and call bs on that "claim". Optimize your game and stop blaming hardware.

 

[Jtheripper]

Seems it be opposite, if they need make it run on xss then it should be easier to make it run smoother on top consoles.
Weird comment from dev.
I read it has pop-ups even on ps5 when running the bike.
How does it run on xss i wonder.

Edit: i notice it's rocksteady saying this, maybe they are not aiming for 60fps either in their next game i presume.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

This might become an issue later on. I'm not sure Gotham Knights is a good game to spearhead this concern.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

The interesting thing about this is, quite a lot of people have been very vocal about developers dropping the previous gen consoles and that next/current gen development has somewhat been held back by this unprecedented level of support for the old consoles. The Series S isn't kuch different to an previous gen console bar a few bells and whistles so I do kind of understand this argument.

Of course there will be an argument alongside that about scalable graphics and so on but, that's not really why we buy consoles. We buy consoles to get the best out of the box experience, not have to faff about with graphics menus.

That's why I said at least give us the option, just like remapping default controller settings.

By all means give us the default option but let us adjust it if we wish, then everyone's happy.

 

[Veinz]

delete

 

[kjb]

That's why I said at least give us the option, just like remapping default controller settings.

By all means give us the default option but let us adjust it if we wish, then everyone's happy.

That makes too much sense. So it will probably not happen

 

[MagpieRacer]

That's why I said at least give us the option, just like remapping default controller settings.

By all means give us the default option but let us adjust it if we wish, then everyone's happy.

We've coped for decades without adjustability.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

We've coped for decades without adjustability.

We have & I don't disagree with you, we've coped because the opportunity/option has never been there, consoles now are more like little form factor PC's, even now though (people on driving games especially) would choose frame rate over graphics. I still do with PC2 on the SX, I probably don't need to but I turn off all the graphic stuff that's of no importance to me like God rays, bloom, camera dirt/rain drops etc.

We coped for years with a 1 button joystick, then 2, 3, 6, 10, now we have 14 buttons+ with all sorts of bells & whistles, it's all evolution.

So the developer says it has to 30fps because we developed a 4k hdr game that looks beautiful so please buy it, I might own the console to play it that way but my tv is only 1080p sdr, so I'm losing the ability to play at 60fps because the developer has forced this specific setting upon me.

I'm just saying the option would be nice that's all.

 

[MagpieRacer]

We have & I don't disagree with you, we've coped because the opportunity/option has never been there, consoles now are more like little form factor PC's, even now though (people on driving games especially) would choose frame rate over graphics. I still do with PC2 on the SX, I probably don't need to but I turn off all the graphic stuff that's of no importance to me like God rays, bloom, camera dirt/rain drops etc.

We coped for years with a 1 button joystick, then 2, 3, 6, 10, now we have 14 buttons+ with all sorts of bells & whistles, it's all evolution.

So the developer says it has to 30fps because we developed a 4k hdr game but please buy it, I might own the console to play it that way but my tv is only 1080p sdr, so I'm losing the ability to play at 60fps because the developer has forced this upon me.

I'm just saying the option would be nice that's all.

Yeah maybe it would be, but you could just buy a PC for that experience no? Which is why we have scalable graphics, specifically for PC gaming and the vast array of components and capabilities PC can have. Consoles don't have that problem. At most it should just be a quality or performance mode and people who want frame rate can go performance and those who want resolution/RTX can do so. Anything more than that is just unnecessary for a console.

With the controller example, we've pretty much had 16 + thumbsticks since the PS1. Hasn't evolved that much in the modern 3D gaming era.

 

[mika haka]

Series s is a great wee console

Bought one for the bedroom and its a bargain for 250.

It isn't that hard to develop for both. Seems some folk are just lazy.