Originally published in print February 2021.
2020 brought us a new generation of console hardware, finally replacing the aging jet-engines in our living rooms with sleek, shiny, quiet gaming machines. The line between generations has never been more blurred, with just one major launch game (Demon’s Souls on PS5) being truly exclusive to next-generation consoles. The rest of the software lineup across both major platforms is a jumbled mess of cross-generational games. I’m here on my soapbox to tell you that’s a bad thing. Here’s why.
Let’s begin by stating the obvious: this argument against blurred, fuzzy boundaries between console generations is not a new one. Indeed, it has been championed by some of the more outspoken members of the PC gaming community for as long as console gaming has existed. The most well-trodden argument is that old hardware holds back the “progress” of the industry. Perhaps no generational transition was more exemplary of this than the 7th-8th generation transition in 2013. When Grand Theft Auto V was initially released on PS3 and Xbox 360 in September that year, PC gamers recoiled at the thought of playing the game at 25 frames per second. Watch_Dogs was one of the most hotly anticipated launch games of the 8th generation, but was ridiculed into memehood by its unimpressive graphics, which many gamers blamed on the requirement for a previous-generation version. These are some of the classic case studies used to argue that a commitment to old hardware holds the industry back. There are more examples this generation, in games like Watch Dogs Legion and Spider Man: Miles Morales. Despite the advent of hardware accelerated ray-tracing on new consoles, the developers of these games were forced to create other lighting solutions in order to release on previous-generation machines. While it is undoubtedly true, the problem with this argument is it ignores everything but graphical fidelity, as if that is the only way games can benefit from development exclusively on new hardware.
It is seldom mentioned that, just as new software can suffer from running on old hardware, the reverse can also be true. Toward the end of the seventh generation, countless PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems finally threw in the towel to the Yellow Light and Red Ring of Death respectively, as developers pushed their cooling systems to the limit. My own original PS3 was a casualty, ascending to the great recycling centre in the sky at the hands of Bioshock Infinite in 2014. The deluge of melted consoles is proof of the fact that advancement in software can outstrip even the most future-proof hardware. As another example, my original PS3, as I bought it in 2007, would not have been able to even install Grand Theft Auto V if its 60GB hard drive hadn’t been upgraded.
Hardware issues aside, clinging on to old systems can hamper the actual development process as well as the fidelity of the final game. There is no better exemplar of this than the now infamous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which was plagued with game-breaking bugs, graphical glitches and unacceptable performance on Xbox One and PS4. One reason behind the botched launch was the absurd number of platforms the game targeted. In order to release on all major platforms, the team had to concurrently develop for ten versions of the game – PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia and PC. If you had a hard time keeping track while reading that list, just imagine the herculean task that the relatively small Q.A. and programing teams at CD Projekt Red needed to juggle. This is not to say that the launch would have been any less disastrous if it took place on fewer platforms, but the rumoured rocky development process could undoubtedly have been smoother if the previous generation versions had been axed – cutting the number of target platforms in half. Of course, that could never have happened as CD Projekt Red’s financial incentive to release a previous-generation version was too great to ignore. 8 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077 were pre-ordered before launch, many of which were PS4 or Xbox One versions. The potential cost of not shipping the game on previous generation hardware meant that the team had to attempt the impossible task of making the game run on seven-year-old consoles.
Unfortunately, not much can be done to entice large developers away from older consoles, which tend to have far more units sold through to consumers than newer hardware. More units in the wild means more people who can buy your game. So here is my proposal. Hardware manufacturers need to set a trend. Platform holders like Sony and Microsoft should direct their first party studios to move exclusively to new consoles as soon as the development tools are available.This would mean that many millions of players would not be able to play brand new games on their 6-year-old machines. I understand that such a situation would not be popular, but to the sceptics, I say this; Those next-generation exclusive games will never go anywhere – they’ll be ready and waiting whenever gamers may get their hands on a new console, be it one, two, three or ten years into a new generation, perhaps even at a cheaper price. My hope is that this platform-led move would set an expectation among gamers that new hardware means new games that can only be played there. This would be the only way to ensure developers have the freedom to let their project be unbridled by hardware limitations.
