One thing that has seen a stunning reversal this generation, from the past two generations, is that Sony` is actually seeing the better versions of multiplat games this time around; and it’s not even minor differences, these are fully observable and visible with the naked eye, with major resolution and framerate differences already perceptible this early on in the generation.
Even developers have come out and said that the Xbox One is notably weaker than the PlayStation 4; however, now, the creator of Oddworld has come out to speak in defense of the Xbox One.
“So I would say, months ago, there was a wider gap,” said Lanning. “Part of it was the development systems,” he explained. “[But] we’re hearing and seeing that that curve is getting closer. I think at the end of the day when people maximize both systems, they’re each powerful enough[…] They’re in that class of when you watch the basketball, you’re going to be like, ‘Is that TV? Or is that a game?’”
“I think they’ve been improving the toolset really fast, improving the development environment and shaving that curve down… I think they’re getting comparable.”
“You know, if you want to run at 1080p, Battlefield, I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to tax the system at that higher end, but I’m sure in couple of years it won’t be a problem. We’re early.
“I have to say, the PlayStation 4 has been pretty amazing and that’s where we’ve been spending a lot of our time,” he continued. “But I don’t see a huge gap like there used to be. There used to be a significant gap.”
A large part of what he is saying makes sense, although it is to be remembered that sheer hardware differences, such as the ones that exist between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, simply cannot be overcome after a certain point- once you hit that wall, no amount of software improvements will help you. We’ll see.