"It’s always been the plan to get The Falconeer to as many players as possible."

Was it always the plan to bring the game to more platforms, or was that something that came about based on reception from players?

It’s always been the plan to get The Falconeer to as many players as possible. I think that’s the goal for any artist or game developer regardless of their allegiances or prior engagements. In this case Microsoft supported the game at an early stage but it was always understood that this was a timed exclusivity situation. But that meant all focus was on Xbox from an early period. That said everything about The Falconeer technically was set up to be multiplatform from the start. I even have Switch builds that predate the first Xbox builds.  As a developer nowadays you cannot afford to think of only one platform, so Switch and PlayStation have been at the back of my mind and luckily the last year I’ve been able to bring that to the forefront in development.

What frame rate and resolution is the game targeting on the Switch in docked and undocked modes?

The target is 60fps in both modes. And the following isn’t set in stone yet, while final work and testing is done, that’s important to note. The setup I use to achieve that is to split GUI and 3D world into separate renders. The GUI, which is 3D itself (no textures are used in The Falconeer, and that goes for the GUI as well) is rendered at native resolution (so 1080p docked and 720 handheld). And then the 3D world can be rendered at a much lower resolution while the GUI remains readable and crisp, with a decent anti-aliasing solution thrown in. I believe that docked the 3D world is 720p, and handheld 450p. Which gets up sampled and anti-aliased. For me a 60fps target is more important than resolution at all times, and this combination seems to hold up well so far.

Given the vastly different specs on offer in the Switch-PS5 range, which The Falconeer is now of course targeting, how much of a challenge has it been to get the game ported to all of those systems while ensuring that it’s properly optimized across all of them?

Sometimes it seems there’s more development after release than before, for this game. But actually, a staggered release is quite good for development, as optimizations can continue and be added to an ever-improving version of the game. In that sense the Switch and PlayStation versions are already fairly optimized by virtue of the massive amounts of feedback and post release support. That said, the art style I use of course helps, I don’t use any texture, I love smooth gradients and sharp edges and I challenge myself to work within that rigid limitation, which means I often replace things simply done with textures by using maths to generate an effect. In certain aspects it’s very old school, focusing on the minimal amount of geometry I deem artistically sufficient to describe a scene, creature or location, and then throwing a ton of fancy maths-based effects at it to make that look the best it can.

And that approach can be heavy in places, but quite optimized in other places, so lots of optimization is figuring out what works smoothly and what is too heavy. The core lighting and atmospheric calculations (which does some heavy lifting in The Falconeer) is universal across all platforms. But things like real time shadows, Ambient occlusion and reflections can have a huge hit on a platform like Switch. One of the nifty parts (at least I think so) of the latest trailer, is that me and Benedict (the composer and also co-trailer editor) managed to make 2 trailers from separate footage. And you can just check out how the PS5 version compares to the Switch version of things. In some places it’s close, in other places you can clearly see the sacrifices. I kinda dig that both still look really good regardless.

"The world of the Ursee isn’t something I’m done with."

What sort of features can players expect from The Falconeer on PS5 as far as its implementation of DualSense features is concerned?

Well there are a number of guns, and the early game guns all have the same template (shoot many bullets straight ahead), but later on there’s charge-weapons, chain lightning type weapons and other variations, and each of those has its own feel. I think the implementation isn’t super heavy, it’s meant to support the feeling of firing heavy weapons, not hitting the limits and ceilings of the DualSense.

Beyond Edge of the World, do you have plans to keep adding to The Falconeer with more content or updates, or are you looking to move to new projects after that?

That is a hard question, let me say above all that the world of the Ursee, isn’t something I’m done with. And I think hearing of all the people that just want to explore and have a more zen experience (it’s there now, but it’s in between al the frenetic air combat bits, giant crabs, stargates, sea monsters and other bits), well that makes me think about a more friendly sailing experience. Being a captain of a fast clipper in this world, just sailing along, possibly in a more peaceful or prosperous time. I also have some really cool ideas on a sequel. I actually don’t plan out ahead that much, first see how this huge new audience feels about the game, be there to support it, and then when things calm down, some idea or another will present itself.

The Xbox Series S features lesser hardware compared to Xbox Series and Microsoft is pushing it as a 1440p/60fps console. Do you think it will be able to hold up for the graphically intensive next-gen games?

I think the Series S is a really great bit of kit, I’ve said so before; it packs a good punch. And it looks capable of doing everything its big brother does, just less of it. And with some simple math one can see the jump from 1080p to 2160p is one of at least a factor of 4. So would a series S be able to take a big AAA mid generation title and run it at 1080p or 1440p, I’d say that is highly likely. From my experience, Microsoft has put its money where its mouth is and delivered that promise in the Series S. And I suspect many households will see it as a great alternative for a kids room console, with a SXS on the big living room TV. Coupled with Game Pass and all the cross generational stuff Microsoft is doing, you can see how solid a strategy that is. Well at least from our perspective at the beginning of this console cycle.

"I think the Series S is a really great bit of kit, I’ve said so before; it packs a good punch."

Super Resolution is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. How do you think this will help game developers?

It’s a tough one, and I think lots of gamers would love to see a single answer, some sort of template of what next-gen is. But clearly each developer will have artistic and technical reasons for say going for 4k60 or 30fps or doing 1800p60 with new tech to upscale. It is really about what works per game, and developers will have another option with Super Resolution. I think a fair number will decide to use it, so they can spend that GPU power on pushing the graphical envelope forward to its breaking limit. Some might use and still decide to hit 30 fps or sub 4k, just to enable worlds that push nearly generational limits. I think all of this makes this generation of consoles really quite exciting.

In general, on the comparisons between hardware this generation, I think it is about removing limits for developers and artists to create. I’m one guy at the intersection of generations making an open world air combat game, there’s studios with 20 people doing mind bogglingly beautiful open world games or recreating entire galaxies. For me the hardware and tech becomes less and less relevant, the limits are being removed, the walls broken down, that’s what’s important. And you can see how different platforms are fostering different kinds of creativity and such a huge variety of scales, and heck that’s exciting.

What framerate and resolution does the game target on PS5 and PS4?

On PS4 it’s identical to the base Xbox One with it running on a mix of 1080 and 900p upscaled resolutions, the PS4 Pro going to 1440p and the PS5 is doing 4k60 handily at the moment. Though I’m not excluding the PS5 to get pushed further as new technologies and abilities are unlocked. It’s identical to the base Xbox One with it running on a mix of 1080p and 900p upscaled resolutions, the PS4 Pro going to 1440p and the PS5 is doing 4k60 handily at the moment. Though I’m not excluding the PS5 to get pushed further as new technologies and abilities are unlocked.

According to Sala, you can essentially expect parity with the Xbox versions. In a recent interview, Sala told us that on the PS5, The Falconeer: Warrior Edition is going to run at 4K and 60 FPS on the PS5, though he adds that that might “get pushed further as new technologies and abilities are unlocked.” On the base PS4, meanwhile, the resolution is going to be a mix of 1080p and 900p upscaled, while on PS4 Pro, that gets kicked up to 1440p.

And what about the Switch? Sala confirms that the game targets 60 FPS on the Switch in both handheld and consoles modes. Details about the resolution aren’t “set in stone yet” though.

“The setup I use to achieve that is to split GUI and 3D world into separate renders,” Sala explained. “The GUI, which is 3D itself (no textures are used in The Falconeer, and that goes for the GUI as well) is rendered at native resolution (so 1080p docked and 720p handheld). And then the 3D world can be rendered at a much lower resolution, while the GUI remains readable and crisp, with a decent anti-aliasing solution thrown in.”

As such, currently, Sala said that when the Switch is docked, the game’s 3D world is rendered at a 720p, or at 450p when playing in handheld mode, which “gets up sampled and anti-aliased.”

He added: “For me, a 60 FPS target is more important than resolution at all times, and this combination seems to hold up well so far.”

The Falconeer: Warrior Edition is going to launch for PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on August 5. Our full interview with Sala will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.

One such person is Tomas Sala, creator of The Falconeer. Speaking in a recent interview with GamingBolt, when asked abou his thoughts on the Xbox Series S and whether it’s going to be able to hold up for the more graphically intensive games of this generation, Sala called the console “a really great bit of kit,” saying that it “looks capable of doing everything its big brother does, just less of it.”

“And with some simple math one can see the jump from 1080p to 2160p is one of at least a factor of 4. So would a Series S be able to take a big AAA mid generation title and run it at 1080p or 1440p? I’d say that is highly likely,” he added.

Sala went on to praise Microsoft for delivering a capable device, further adding that their dual-console approach, combined with their cross-gen outlook and Xbox Game Pass, makes for a “solid” strategy.

“From my experience, Microsoft has put its money where its mouth is and delivered that promise in the Series S,” he said. “And I suspect many households will see it as a great alternative for a kids room console, with an Xbox Series X on the big living room TV. Coupled with Game Pass and all the cross generational stuff Microsoft is doing, you can see how solid a strategy that is. Well, at least from our perspective at the beginning of this console cycle.”

Many in the industry have spoken positively about with the Xbox Series S, while Microsoft itself has also said that the console doesn’t hold back the new console generation, but rather advances it. At the same time, other developers in the industry have remained skeptical, with Remedy Entertainment talking about the complicated process of optimizing for the console, and 4A Games suggesting that it could present hurdles going forward.

Tomas Sala’s The Falconeer is available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. The Falconeer: Warrior Edition launches for PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on August 5. Our full interview with Sala will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.

Recently, we posed that question to Tomas Sala, solo developer of The Falconeer, whose response was as multifaceted as it was interesting. According to Sala, FSR is going to have a variety of applications, and how developers choose to use it will depend on what their artistic vision is, and what sort of an experience they’re looking to craft.

“It’s a tough one,” Sala said when asked about how Super Resolution on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S will help developers. “And I think lots of gamers would love to see a single answer, some sort of template of what next-gen is. But clearly each developer will have artistic and technical reasons for say going for 4k60 or 30fps or doing 1800p60 with new tech to upscale. It is really about what works per game, and developers will have another option with Super Resolution. I think a fair number will decide to use it, so they can spend that GPU power on pushing the graphical envelope forward to its breaking limit. Some might use and still decide to hit 30 fps or sub 4k, just to enable worlds that push nearly generational limits. I think all of this makes this generation of consoles really quite exciting.”

Sala went on to add that more than anything else, what’s defining hardware this generation – including AMD’s FSR tech – is the way developers are being allowed to fulfil their artistic visions with fewer limits.

“In general, on the comparisons between hardware this generation, I think it is about removing limits for developers and artists to create,” he said. “I’m one guy at the intersection of generations making an open world air combat game, there’s studios with 20 people doing mind bogglingly beautiful open world games or recreating entire galaxies. For me the hardware and tech becomes less and less relevant, the limits are being removed, the walls broken down, that’s what’s important. And you can see how different platforms are fostering different kinds of creativity and such a huge variety of scales, and heck that’s exciting.”

FidelityFX Super Resolution is launching on June 22. While not much is known right now about what we can expect to see from the tech on consoles, Microsoft recently said that they would have updates to share on that “soon”, so hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long for those details.

Tomas Sala’s The Falconeer is currently available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. The Falconeer: Warrior Edition is launching for PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on August 5.

Our full interview with Sala will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.

Developer Tomas Sala and publisher Wired Productions launched fantasy aerial combat game The Falconeer for Xbox consoles and PC in November last year, and those on other platforms have been eyeing the game ever since. Well, eye no longer- it’s been confirmed that it’s coming to PlayStation and Switch as well.

Wired Productions have announced with a trailer that The Falconeer: Warrior Edition will launch for PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on August 5. On top of the base game, it will also include all DLC and updates released for the game so far. On PS5 and PS4, the game’s physical edition will cost $29.99 / £24.99 / €29.99, and $34.99 / £29.99 / €34.99 on Switch. Meanwhile, the digital edition will be priced uniformly across all three systems at $29.99 / €29.99 / £24.99. On PS5, the game will run at 4K and 60 frames per second, and support haptic feedback.

At the same time, Wired Productions and Sala have also announced a new expansion for the game. Called Edge of the World, it will add unique mounts, new playable classes, new locations, and new side quests. It will be included in Warrior Edition, and will also become available for Xbox and PC players. It launches on August 5 as well.

Until then, The Falconeer is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.

There were many games that came with the launch of new generation consoles in November of last year ranging from small scale indie titles to mainstream hits. One of those on the Xbox side was The Falconeer. The game saw you in high-flying situations as you rode a giant falcon in the sky. It’s been doing a good job of getting updates as well, including the free Kraken update the end of last year. Now, there’s more, and it seems to include a pirate’s life.

A new update has now been released for the game, called Atun’s Folly. It will see a new pirate settlement where players can receive missions and raid Imperium’s traders. Like the Kraken update mentioned above, this was free of charge to all versions of the game. Alongside the update, there is also a trailer giving you a look at what to expect. You can see it in full below.

The Falconeer is available now on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. The Atun’s Folly update is live now across all platforms. You can read our full review of the game through here.

Microsoft has announced its first wave of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass this February, starting with Ghost of a Tale (PC) along with Project Winter and The Falconeer (Android, PC, console) on February 4th. Project Winter serves as a nice alternative to Among Us, especially with its survival mechanics. The Falconeer, meanwhile, was a decent launch title for Xbox Series X/S especially with its aesthetics.

On February 11th, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age (console and PC) and Frontier’s Jurassic World Evolution (Android and console) arriv on the service. The underrated Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones (Android and console) is also available on the same. Wolfenstein: Youngblood for Android rounds out the list.

Thankfully, not too many games are leaving this month. De Blob and Ninja Gaiden 2 are leaving from the console side along with World of Horror on PC from February 15th. Cult classic Shadows of the Damned will be gone on February 16th. Stay tuned for more details on other Game Pass announcements later this month.

The launch for the next generation consoles ended up being pretty packed this go around, and there were lots of gems that were hidden for both Sony and Microsoft’s systems. On the Xbox side was The Falconeer, a very solid title that didn’t quite hit the mark, but was still a good time. Now it gets some free content for those that dipped in.

The new update is called The Kraken, and there was a brief teaser given which you can see below. It’s free of charge and adds new locations, missions and some quality of life improvements said to be based on community feedback such as improved AI and combat functions. This is planned to be the first of many updates planned to continue on through 2021.

The Falconeer is available now for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. The Kraken is available and live now across all platforms.

Meanwhile, another impressive indie feat that was built on Unity was the recently released Xbox Series X/S launch game, The Falconeer, which, incredibly enough, was developed entirely by one man, Tomas Sala. To speak more about that, about the future of indies, and about the course of the industry in the coming years, we recently shot across some of our questions to Sala and to Unity’s chief product officer and industry veteran Brett Bibby. You can read our extensive conversation below.

"Thanks to tools like our High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) and our growing support for ray-tracing, combined with our close collaborative partnerships with console makers, Unity developers have had the ability to consider next-gen projects for some time now. "

First, we would like to ask you how uptake of Unity has been for next generation consoles. It feels like there a fair few games using Unity available at launch. Would you be able to speak to its adoption amongst developers for next generation machines?

Brett Bibby (Chief Product Officer, Unity): Thanks to tools like our High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) and our growing support for ray-tracing, combined with our close collaborative partnerships with console makers, Unity developers have had the ability to consider next-gen projects for some time now. The Falconeer is a great example of this, and takes advantage of nearly everything the Xbox Series X has to offer. Over on the PS5, The Pathless is seeing similar acclaim.

Beyond big next-gen debuts though, what we’re really seeing today is a milestone in cross-generational releases. Indie games that have accrued success on earlier platforms – such as Overcooked, Yes, Your Grace, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps – are all able to reach a new audience day and date when these new consoles ship. For indie studios, this is a huge opportunity.

As a one man team for a whole game, the choice of engine can be paramount. What were the reasons you chose to develop The Falconeer with Unity?

Tomas Sala (Developer, The Falconeer): Unity is really flexible, and it can be molded to how my own personal pipeline is set up. As The Falconeer takes a different technical approach to art than most games, eschewing pre-generated textures, having that flexibility is key. I’ve been making projects in Unity for nearly a decade, so for The Falconeer, I had plenty of experience to know what Unity would be capable of.

What in your opinion are the features that endear Unity to so many independent game developers?

Sala: Again, for me, that flexibility is key. I’ve also found that Unity is very approachable. I have a background in visual art, not programming — but unlike some other paths to entering game development, my lack of prior knowledge didn’t create an impossible roadblock.

Bibby: By developing games in the Unity environment, creators can build once and deploy anywhere. This is something that is appealing to all creators, but is especially beneficial for smaller studios whose resources might otherwise prevent them from porting to new platforms and reaching a new audience. The difference between success and failure can come down to wide platform support and finding your audience on the platform they’re on. What we’re seeing today, with the strong Made With Unity launch line-up on day one for next-gen consoles, is a testament to that.

The Falconeer runs at a staggering 120FPS on Xbox Series X, a feat made even more impressive given the fact that you developed the entire game by yourself. How much help was Unity in helping you achieve this framerate?

Sala: I think it’s a mixture here of two things; the Xbox Series X/S are really great machines, and I’m a huge fan of the S – what this thing can do for such a small box, at the price point is incredible. The second element here, is the ease of creating and testing via unity. The engine allows me to imagine my world and simply play with settings to create that performance profile. Honestly, it only to a few days to get the game running at a really impressive resolution and framerate tailored for a new device.

Given that most major systems released in the last few years have launched with Unity support, it sounds like you guys get involved in the development timeline pretty early. Is it the platform holders who approach you to port Unity to their systems and facilitate wider development, or do you have to reach out to them?

Bibby: We have ongoing collaborative relationships with platform holders spanning many years. We tend to start talking together early in the design of a new platform, sharing information, trends, insights, opinions, experience, etc. and there is a natural progression of that conversation to supporting new platforms, working with early developers and ultimately supporting a platform’s launch titles.

"Unity is really flexible, and it can be molded to how my own personal pipeline is set up. As The Falconeer takes a different technical approach to art than most games, eschewing pre-generated textures, having that flexibility is key."

Indie game productions have gotten more and more impressive over the last few years. There are indie games that are so incredibly high quality and well made that they stand toe to toe with, and indeed, in a lot of cases, even exceed, major high budget AAA games. What kind of further advancements and progress do you think we will see with indie games in the coming generation, technologically speaking?

Bibby: Through platforms like Unity, we’ve seen a real democratization of tools for development. Things that were once out of reach without massive teams and astronomical budgets are now entirely within the realm of possibility for a solo creator working independently. As we work through this generation, I think we’re only going to see this parity in technical quality get even greater, as more indies explore and adapt to the tools that are now available to them. We’re also seeing a shift from the tools themselves to what you can do with them. As screen density increases the sheer amount of content needed is an intractable problem if you can’t leverage that technology to assist artists in creating content through more artist friendly tools combined with AI and machine learning techniques to accelerate workflows. This is especially true for small teams.

Sala: There’s lots of things developers will want to do graphically, but I think the major benefit in this generation is two-fold. Framerate is going to be less of an issue, as we now have powerful enough CPUs to deal with intensive work, where the previous generation, they were a little underpowered as the generation drew to a close. Unity allows me to still deliver a great experience at 60fps on Xbox One. Secondly, there will be a lot less smoke and mirrors. If I want to create a constantly running system across the world, previously, I might have had to trigger it at certain points, but now I can just create the system and let it go. This will lead to more detail worlds, better AI and ultimately, more believable worlds, because the tricks we used in the past aren’t needed.

Continuing on from the previous question, what role do you think will indie games play on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5?

Bibby: Indie games have become one of the cornerstones of gaming culture over the last two decades, and there’s every reason to believe that we’ll see this blossoming continue on next-gen consoles. Indie developers push creative boundaries and innovate in ways that larger, established studios don’t. All three major platform holders put a lot of time and emphasis on building relationships with smaller companies to help shine a light on the great experiences that are being created, and with new distribution models like Game Pass out there, players now have even more opportunities to find their new favorite indie gems.

Sala: I think we’ve seen, even more so in recent years, AAA titles will deliver that blockbuster appeal, while indie titles will showcase unique experiences that the big games wouldn’t dream of trying. Not because the developers aren’t talented, or they don’t want to, but because they have a commercial checklist within their projected development. X feature exposes us to this audience, and Y allows us to go wider within this demographic. Ultimately, myself and many other indie developers dream of this game we’d like to make, and as long as we enjoy making them, and people enjoy playing them, that’s what matters, and that’s what we’ll make.

What have been some indie games in recent years that have impressed you the most?

Bibby: Innovative and interesting experiences like The Falconeer always capture my attention. There’s so many great games made by our community. Lately I’ve been playing Among Us and Fall Guys.

In a world of democratized game development, and millions of aspiring developers hoping to reach billions of players, across so many different platforms and technologies, how does Unity prioritize which systems it will support? How do you decide what you work on first?

Bibby: Internally one of our core values is being Users First. We look at the platform and how it will benefit creators using Unity and ensure we support the platforms that will enable their success.

The Falconeer features pretty vast open spaces that players can traverse through at really high speeds. Rapid streaming of data in open world games, and really, just open world games in general, have proven to be a technical challenge to even many AAA developers. How much work, then, was the impressive design of The Falconeer for you? How much help did Unity prove to be in this process?

Sala: I think Unity gave me the chance to work with geometry and not textures, which means a lot of what I’m pushing to a screen is just maths, so specifically, it nullifies the need to stream gigabytes of data – effectively, the entire game is loaded into memory, so there’s no need to stream data. Now that is a really strange approach, but it works.  And in that lies the magic of something like Unity3d.  It’s literally where there is a will there is a way, and if you are smart you can create those open worlds. Of course there is no replacement for 300 people working on minute detail. But leveraging all that performance with an engine that accepts radically different solutions does level the playing field in really cool new ways.

"Through platforms like Unity, we’ve seen a real democratization of tools for development. Things that were once out of reach without massive teams and astronomical budgets are now entirely within the realm of possibility for a solo creator working independently."

What kind of role do you think initiatives like Smart Delivery (and their equivalent on other platforms) have for indie games in the coming generation? Do you imagine these will prove to be popular, and available through the course of the generation? Or is this one of those things that fizzles out shortly after launch?

Sala: Making games playable across generations is a great way to extend the life of a game – especially if it’s one that keeps players engaged with seasonal content or ongoing updates. Smart Delivery is an especially clever way to do this, as it lets creators deliver an optimized version of their game to whichever platform a player prefers.

Bibby: Giving players more options to play is always a winning move. Smart Delivery on Xbox is a great example, no doubt extending the life of many Xbox Ones that would otherwise be sitting in a closet once replaced. And by using the PS4 to stream PS5 play, Sony is creating a similar opportunity for their audience. Games have long ago left that “niche” feel behind them; they’re something everybody does. The changes we’re seeing this generation really reflect this, providing more opportunities to play what you want when you want – and wherever you want.

In your opinion, what still needs to be done to make development of video games more accessible and democratized than ever before?

Bibby: We believe the world is a better place with more creators in it – and creativity can and should come from anyone, anywhere. We focus the power of our talent, technology and grants to empower anyone to foster a more sustainable and inclusive world.

Change happens when all voices are heard. That’s why we’re investing time, money and resources into making Unity education more accessible, creating economic opportunities for underrepresented creators, and maximizing the impact that their work has on local communities and the world.

Since the reveal of the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s specs, a lot of comparisons have been made between the GPU speeds of the two consoles’ GPUs, with the PS5 at 10.28 TFLOPS and the Xbox Series X at 12 TFLOPS- but how much of an impact on development do you think that difference will have?

Bibby: Since Moore’s Law has given out, performance is largely determined by how data oriented your content is and how well you can process that data in parallel. The best experiences will be had when the code and content work together like a symphony, and Unity continues to invest heavily in providing creators with an underlying engine that lets them take advantage of everything a console has to offer.

The PS5 features an incredibly fast SSD with 5.5GB/s raw bandwidth. This is faster than anything that is available out there. How can developers take advantage of this? How does this compare to Series X’s 2.4GB/s raw ?

Bibby: The theory is that the SSD speed may be the differentiator this generation because it allows developers to not have to worry about how to fit all their content into main memory because it can be streamed on demand per frame. It will take some time for developers to learn the right balance and how to organize their content, but we are seeing the dawn of experiences no longer limited or constrained by memory.

There is a difference in the Zen 2 CPUs of both consoles. The Xbox series X features 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz, whereas the PS5 features 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz. Your thoughts on this difference?

Bibby: Similar to the previous answer, it isn’t about the differences between them, it will come down to how developers take advantage of what’s there. We’ve never had so much power in a console before and as developers get more familiar and experienced with the technology they’ll be able to progressively take advantage of everything a console has to offer.

"Giving players more options to play is always a winning move. Smart Delivery on Xbox is a great example, no doubt extending the life of many Xbox Ones that would otherwise be sitting in a closet once replaced."

The Xbox Series S features lesser hardware compared to Xbox Series and Microsoft is pushing it as a 1440p/60fps console. Do you think it will be hold up for the graphically intensive next-gen games?

Sala: With Smart Delivery, the Xbox team has ensured that games can be optimized regardless of which platform you’re playing them on. This will give creators the opportunity to tailor their releases to both the Series S and Series X without needing to make compromises for either player. I also think it will come down to what the game experience is intended to be. More and more it’s not about photorealistic graphics, it’s about innovative, incredible, fluid, engaging experiences which will outnumber in aggregate the number of purely realistic ones. At the end of the day content is king and the console with the best games will prevail.

Bibby: It’s important to remember that the majority of people don’t have a screen that does 4k120, so there’s an audience that the S is designed for. They perhaps won’t need some of the detail the X can achieve. However, it’s important to remember the S is an extremely capable machine, because those hardware differences are focused on delivering a similar experience at a lower resolution. That is a really smart approach, the device has ray-tracing SSD, nominally the same CPU as a series X- the only thing it lacks is the power to run at 4K. Which simply isn’t always needed. The bedroom tv on of some teenage gamer isn’t likely to be a 4k wallhanger beast, so it’s great for those situations. I would expect the Xbox Series S will be a real differentiator this generation.

Launching a new generation console at a price of just $299 has been an impressively move by Microsoft, but though it’s likely to boost their sales significantly in the coming years, many have been concerned by the console’s lower specs and the gulf in power between it and the flagship Xbox Series X.

We recently had the chance to conduct an interview with the developers of the Unity Engine, one of the most widely used development engines in the industry, as well as one developer in particular who has been able to use that engine for something truly impressive- Unity Chief Product Officer Brett Bibby and solo developer of Xbox Series X/S launch title The Falconeer Tomas Sala respectively. And both of them feel the Xbox Series S is more than capable to hold its own for the entirety of this console generation.

“It’s important to remember that the majority of people don’t have a screen that does 4K120, so there’s an audience that the S is designed for,” said Bibby. “They perhaps won’t need some of the detail the X can achieve. However, it’s important to remember the S is an extremely capable machine, because those hardware differences are focused on delivering a similar experience at a lower resolution.”

Bibby went on to emphasize that the Xbox Series S has almost all the features that define its more powerful counterpart, from support for ray-tracing to an SSD to a largely similar CPU.

“That is a really smart approach, the device has ray tracing, an SSD, nominally the same CPU as a Series X,” he said. “The only thing it lacks is the power to run  at 4K- which simply isn’t always needed, the bedroom TV of some teenage gamer isn’t likely to be a 4K wallhanger beast, so its great for those situations. I would expect the Xbox Series S will be a real differentiator this generation.”

Meanwhile, The Falconeer developer Sala pointed out that thanks to features such as Smart Delivery, the power gap between the Xbox Series S and X is easy for developers to deal with. He went on to add, however, that the generation is going to be more about gameplay innovations than visual leaps, and that on that front, the Xbox Series S’ hardware isn’t lacking.

“With Smart Delivery, the Xbox team has ensured that games can be optimized regardless of which platform you’re playing them on,” Sala said. “This will give creators the opportunity to tailor their releases to both the Series S and Series X without needing to make compromises for either player. I also think it will come down to what the game experience is intended to be. More and more it’s not about photorealistic graphics, it’s about innovative, incredible, fluid, engaging experiences which will outnumber in aggregate the number of purely realistic ones. At the end of the day content is king and the console with the best games will prevail.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Xbox system architect Andrew Goossen spoke about the Xbox Series S’ perceived lack of power as well, saying that the console doesn’t hold back next-gen, but rather advances it. Read more about that through here.

Our full interview with Bibby and Sala will be going live soon, so stay tuned for that.