The PS4 Pro and the Xbox One Scorpio are fascinating and interesting, not just because they are an altogether new paradigm for console gaming, but also because of the stark differences in the two approaches- the PS4 Pro is a relatively more conservative approach next to the Scorpio, which represents a total overhaul of the Xbox One.
So when we got the chance to sit down with Mark Williams, technical director at VooFoo Studios, developers of Mantis Burn Racing, we decided to ask him what he felt about the two systems, and the differences between Sony’s and Microsoft’s approach.
Williams believes that the extra power of the Scorpio will help devs and will undoubtedly mean far more games on Scorpio will hit true native 4K @ 60fps. “It has generally been more difficult to reach 60fps on Xbox One than on PS4, so Scorpio will be a very welcome change. I’ve yet to see the functional differences in the Scorpio GPU, so it remains to be seen how much of a difference there will actually be, but Scorpio definitely has a significant advantage in terms of memory bandwidth, so we’ll definitely be seeing higher fidelity games on there,” he stated.
But would the Scorpio’s power amount to anything meaningful, given Microsoft’s mandate that all games on Scorpio also be playable on standard Xbox One systems?
“Yes, definitely,” Williams said. “We have to maintain parity from a functional and gameplay point of view, but we can really go to town on ramping up the visual quality. It’s like having a PC game where you get a new graphics card and now you can ramp all the graphics settings up to maximum – it’s the same game, but it looks a hell of a lot nicer.”
