The PS4K is more and more a reality with each passing day, even though it still has not been officially confirmed yet. We have spent a lot of time on this site discussing what the implications of a move like a mid cycle iterative upgrade to an existing console could be, at least on the market, and for consumers- but the developer side of the equation is often forgotten about.
So when we got the chance to sit down with Rocket League developers Psyonix, we decided to take the chance and ask them what they thought of something like the PS4K- given a hypothetical where the console upgrade does in fact exist.
“Well, hypothetically in the situation you have raised, it’s no better than having any other additional platform to develop for,” Psyonix’s VP Jeremy Dunham said. “It’s- what’s interesting about the question, the hypothetical, is, would the introduction of this item change things severely? And the answer is, it doesn’t really change much if that is the case. Because it’s really just a matter of whether or not you can support another platform, and that’s really what it boils down to- how the pros and cons of the hardware, or the extra QA time needed, or the amount of new assets you have to build, those are all considerations that all developers have to make, any time they develop for any additional platform, be it Sony or Microsoft or even the iPad.
“So really what it boils down to is, does the team, were they to work on something like that, be able to handle coming to another platform? And so the broad answer is, if the team is prepared and willing to do it, I don’t see that being an issue. And if they can’t or won’t do it, then it would be an issue, so it would differ on a team by team basis, on whether or not that would be problematic.”
It sounds like a reasonable assessment of the situation- in the end, a new SKU like this is nothing more than one more console to develop for. As for whether or not that is preferable to developers, in the end, that comes down to one thing, and one thing only- can those developers support another build to develop for?
