A Way Out Developer Speaks On The PS4 Hardware Power Controversy: ‘It Was Taken Out Of Context’

Some time ago, Josef Fares of Hazelight, the folks who brought us Brothers, and who are now working on A Way Out, made an observation that really shouldn’t have been controversial– that the PS4 is not all that powerful anymore, and more resembles a five year old PC than cutting edge tech. Anyone who has followed the progress of technology knows this statement is true- it shouldn’t have created any controversy.

Unfortunately, the quote was reported out of context, leading to a lot of backlash from fans, and furore and uproar that has since, thankfully, died down. When we got the chance to talk to Fares, however, we wanted to ask him what he had felt about the entire incident. His response? Exactly the reasonable response you would expect- it was entirely taken out of context.

“[It was] so taken out of context,” he said. “And I don’t even want to comment on that. It’s so… I mean, the people who wrote that, it’s so silly, it’s not even worth commenting on. And if I meet this journalist, I would ask them, “like what were you trying to do here?”

Fares went on to add that he doesn’t care about the hardware in the end, so the fact that he had unwittingly become caught up in the middle of a console war for an innocuous statement didn’t sit well with him.

“Look, here’s the fact. Let me make this one thing straight: I’m a passion driven man. I don’t care about hardware. I don’t care about console war, that’s all bullshit, okay?” he said. “That was really, extremely, extremely taken out of context. It’s not even worth commenting on, because it’s so silly, you know. I own every single console, I don’t even care about that. I care about games– who cares about consoles, and if they are good or not good? But people seem to like this console war, and so some journalist wanted to have some clicks on his page, I don’t know.”

I agree with Fares here- the hardware exists to facilitate games (some of the best games of this year were made for PS3 level hardware), and his initial remark, which wasn’t even wrong, totally was taken out of context as well. I would be pretty miffed about that furore, too. Thankfully, it has died down since.

Look forward to our full interview with Fares in the coming days.