The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X are both substantially more powerful systems than their base SKUs, with PS4 Pro taking a more conservative approach, and Xbox Oe X representing a substantial overhaul of the base Xbox One consoles. But what is the difference for a developer when tuning their games for these two different SKUs?
According to Matt Pettit, Producer of Defiance 2050, the differences mostly manifest themselves in the form of resolution. “The main difference is in the resolution. Making sure to accommodate the 4K resolution is both a benefit and a hurdle with game development. It has also been interesting to see FPS rates on the updated Pro and X platforms, and testing those compared to the originals. They offer sizeable boosts in performance without even needing to do anything special.”
He also confirmed that the game will run at 60 frames on both machines, as well as upscaled 4K resolution. “The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X will run at over 60FPS with V-Sync turned off. It will run at 4k resolution, but not 4k native (1080p Upscaled).”
In the end, with successors for both the PS4 and Xbox One on the horizon, it is unclear whether the full potential for Xbox One X and PS4 Pro will ever be harvested, in my opinion- for now, I guess, it is good to see that developers are still leveraging them in whatever ways they can.