The Xbox Scorpio and the PS4 Pro (along side the just released Nintendo Switch) represent brand new console hardware by all three major console manufacturers, released at roughly the same time. At any other time, something like this would mark the beginning of a new generation of consoles. But owing to the incremental and iterative nature of the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One Scorpio, that is something that often remains up for debate among gaming enthusiasts.
So when GamingBolt had the chance to sit down and talk to Jean-François Fiset, the Community Manager of Parabole, who are currently working on Kona, we decided to ask him for his take: are the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One Scorpio a new generation? “Although Microsoft and Sony are making more powerful versions of their respective console, developers still have to make sure their games run on the regular version. This is why we believe it’s not a new console cycle,” he said.
We also asked him what he feels about the Xbox One Scorpio-specifically, the fact that in spite of the system being such a radical and dramatic upgrade over the existing Xbox One, it is tied to the base system anyway, meaning that it has no true exclusives of its own. Would something like this not hurt its chances on the market compared to if it had been a true next generation system with its own exclusive games?
According to Fiset, it might- but if the system launches with full VR support right off the bat, the situation can be tempered somewhat, since VR games will be exclusive only to the Xbox One Scorpio in the Xbox ecosystem. “The lack of exclusives can hurt a little, but if the full VR support is there on release, it will most likely make up for it,” he said.
That’s more or less a sensible stance to take, though of course, the question of the viability of VR games for the larger market is one that still remains. This will be something that we will only be sure of more as time goes on.