The Xbox One Scorpio is being touted as the most powerful console ever made. And yet, given Microsoft’s diktat that all games have maintain parity with standard Xbox One systems, and that there can be no Scorpio exclusives, the question of whether or not all that power will ever be able to put to meaningful use is one that persistently remains with us.
So when we got a chance to talk to Kai Tuovinen from Frozenbyte, the developers of Trine who are currently working on Has Been Heroes, we posed this question: would the Scorpio’s excess power go to waste given the parity mandate? “Tough question – I’m sure there are developers that have games they would love to be Scorpio exclusives because it will be easier to get them to run, but at the same time the main install base will be on the standard Xbox One, so developers would have to make a difficult choice either way,” Kai said. “I still think Scorpio will be a good purchase or upgrade for a lot of consumers if they are looking to play at a bigger resolution for example.”
That is ultimately a good point- while Scorpio exclusivity may be an alluring prospect, a lot of developers will still choose to make games also for the Xbox One simply because the majority of the install base will be there. Just look at how long we continued to get Xbox 360-PS3 cross gen games, well into the current generation. Functionally, then, even the mandate not being there really wouldn’t change much in the end.
