PS5 and Xbox Scarlett Should Be Easier to Optimize for; Backward Compatibility Will Benefit Entire Industry – Exception Dev

Where the PS4 and Xbox One felt like half steps forward in terms of hardware capabilities, the PS5 and the Xbox Scarlett are looking like proper generational leaps. Developers have been expressing their excitement about the upcoming consoles, as they look ahead to how the new hardware enables them to create newer and better things. One such developer is Will Traxler, developer of the upcoming 2.5D combat platformer Exception – though more than anything else, he’s looking forward to hardware that’s easier to optimize for, especially for small indie developers.

Traxler recently spoke with GamingBolt about his upcoming title in an interview, before going on to speak about next gen hardware and his thoughts on it. After commenting on the inclusion of SSDs in both new consoles, Traxler also spoke about the Zen 2 processors that will be found in both the PS5 and the Xbox Scarlett, and how he feels that will make development easier.

“I’m really excited to see how the new hardware performs,” Traxler told GamingBolt. “Optimizing a title for consoles is challenging, especially when console hardware is close to five or six years old. I think this is less of an issue for large studios which can afford to assign a few developers to optimization alone. For a one-man shop, it’s tough to allocate a huge amount of time to optimization. Any hardware advancements that create meaningful performance improvements means that I can spend less time on optimization and more time on content creation. I’m excited about that. Can you tell that I’ve been working for a year and a half preparing Exception for consoles?”

Traxler also spoke about the benefits of backward compatibility, which both the PS5 and the Xbox Scarlett have been confirmed to be supporting. As per Traxler, backward compatibility in consoles is something that’ll be a “win/win for consumers and developers”, since it will incentivize developers to take advantage of new features being enabled by more powerful hardware.

“This is my first game so hopefully backwards compatibility will keep it from being left behind as new hardware becomes available,” he said. “With the advent of digital storefronts, this could be a win/win for consumers and developers. If the previous-generation titles are still selling on new hardware, it gives developers an incentive to update the old catalog to take advantage of new features.”

Exception is due out later this year for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Our full interview with Traxler will be live soon, so stay tuned.