PS4 and PS4 Pro chief architect Mark Cerny thinks that all developers should find no problem in being able to support Sony’s newer, more powerful PS4 console- in his own words, it takes just 0.2 to 0.3 per cent of the effort to make sure the game is enhanced for Sony’s new console.
We’ve often felt that this assertion is missing the forest for the trees, but we’re not developers, so we decided to pitch this question straight to one of them when we got the chance to. And in an exclusive interview with GamingBolt, Bogdan Iliesiu of Angry Mob Games, developer of Brawlout, shared his opinion on just how much effort the PS4 Pro really needs.
“That definitely depends on the game. Brawlout already works flawlessly, at a greater than 60FPS in 4K, so it wouldn’t be much of a problem in our case,” he said. “For a smaller team, it’s definitely more work to support the PS4 Pro, as they require a separate Dev Kit, and some extra certification steps to check. It always depends on the tools developers use. We’re authoring the whole UI in 4K, so it’s already sharp and nice on the PS4 Pro. But if we didn’t have this, it would indeed require more work.”
I think that’s what it comes down to- the pitch for the PS4 originally was that it would the console that all developers, including and especially the smaller ones, would find it incredibly easy to develop for. And while Sony have largely stuck to that philosophy, even with the PS4 Pro, which is an easy machine to come to grips with, the simple fact remains that throwing in another SKU for developers to optimize for and get certifications for, can throw smaller developers off.