Earlier this month, Xbox boss Phil Spencer hinted at the future of Xbox,where instead of having traditional console cycles, we would have one continuous hardware platform with multiple upgrades, conclusively ending the idea of console generations once and for all.
But would something like this even work? Are developers even on board with a departure from the norm as radical as this. In an interview with VideoGamer, Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley speculated on exactly how such a move may help games, developers,and players.
“I don’t think anybody actually knows [what Microsoft has planned],” he said. “Yes, you will have to make the game to work on the existing, let’s call it lower-spec Xbox. You would also, depending on how the operating system works, have to anticipate the upgrade… We’re already working on Xbox One titles and we don’t know if there is another one coming. I guess at some stage we might know.
“It might just be that it would be a frame rate improvement, and it might just happen out of the box,” he speculated. “‘This one runs at a solid 30fps and with the new machine it runs at a solid 60fps.’ That I could imagine would be of value to some people.”
Definitely, at first, I can see things working out like that myself- a lot like how the New 3DS offers higher resolutions or better framerates to games, compared to older models, for example. But of course, this is all speculation for now- and without knowing exactly what Microsoft has planned, that’s all it will be.