The Xbox One Scorpio may be the most powerful console ever made when it releases later this year, but in the end, the bulk of the market will still be tied up in less powerful machines, such as the PS4, Xbox One, and PS4 Pro. So of course, it sounds like developers will want to ensure they are still hitting those consoles and hitting them well- while they would like to make full use of the Scorpio and all that it has to offer, it can’t come at the expense of the bulk of the market.
This is what Rory Newbrough, the lead designer at Hi-Rez Studios, had to say on the matter when he was chatting exclusively with us. When we asked him this question, Newbrough pointed out that they would not lose sight of the lower end machines, just because higher end options were available.
“We like to develop from the bottom up, ensuring the low end machines and last generation hardware performs its best with the game,” he said. “The Scorpio brings an opportunity to take advantage of our ultra or enthusiast level settings, but we won’t lose sight of those of us who still hang on to their current machines.”
Which sounds good, on the whole- it means they hit the largest portion of the market possible. But there’s still a part of me that feels as though Microsoft really missed beat here by not making the Scorpio a full fledged next generation successor to the Xbox One.
Furthermore, these statements by Newbrough doesn’t confirm that Paladins is coming to Xbox Scorpio, PS4 or Xbox One but they told us that they have a team that looks after console development and that they hope to share some news on a potential console version in the future.