The PS4 NEO and the Xbox One Scorpio do promise a new paradigm of console gaming and console game development- but there is the little problem that for all the extra power that these upgraded new consoles may have, there can be no games to properly utilize them. Microsoft and Sony have both, after all, mandated that there can be no exclusive Xbox One Scorpio and PS4 NEO games.
Doesn’t that, in a sense, make these new consoles a bit redundant? When GamingBolt had a chance to sit down with Umbra COO Sampo Lappalainen, we decided to ask him this very question, to pick his brain on the matter.
“I hope that the developers have some say on what to do with the excess power,” he said. “For example, they could have a separate HD version of the game with nicer effects for the new consoles. This brings the consoles closer to PC and it seems like this is what the platform holders are going after. This is obviously more work for the developers so they aren’t necessarily all that happy if this is what happens.”
At the current moment in time, it doesn’t seem like something like this will come to pass, however- right now, it seems as though Sony and Microsoft are both prioritizing not alienating the millions of customers who purchased the standard PS4 and Xbox One not even three years ago. Still, one has to hope that both companies realize the wisdom in having exclusives for these new systems- there’s not much point to them otherwise.