Comparisons between the PS5 and the Xbox Series X and the tech powering each console are going to dominate conversations for some time to come. It’s clear that each console has its own unique strengths, but the one area where Microsoft’s next-gen system has the edge is raw power- specifically, with its GPU, which boasts a clock speed of 12 TFLOPS as opposed to the PS5’s variable clock rate of 10.28 TFLOPS.
There have been plenty of analyses about what this difference will amount to, but what do developers in the industry think about it? Recently, we conducted an interview with Nimble Giant Entertainment, developers of the upcoming competitive shooter Quantum League, and asked them about their opinion on the same, and if they think the difference between the two consoles will matter in the long run.
Balthazar Auger, lead game designer on Quantum League, told us that while it’s something that will prove to be beneficial to developers working on Xbox exclusives, for multiplatform studios, it won’t make too much of a difference, because, they’ll be “bound by the lowest-spec target hardware.”
“I think it will mostly matter to Xbox-exclusive titles, which will be able to be programmed to get every drop of extra juice from the machine,” Auger said. “It may also buy the new console a longer generation cycle. However, all developers building multi-platform titles are bound by the lowest-spec target hardware, so the only advantage I can imagine there would be stabler framerates on higher-end resolutions for the Xbox Series X.”
Given that Microsoft themselves have committed to releasing all their games for the foreseeable future on the Xbox One as well as the Xbox Series X, it should be interesting to see how long it will be before we can see developers take full advantage of the next-gen console’s hardware. The Xbox One S – which is the lowest-spec target hardware in this scenario – is a lot weaker than the Series X, after all.
Nimble Giant’s Quantum League is due out for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC later this year. Our full interview with Auger will be going live soon, so stay tuned for that.
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