Update |Rumor| Shapshel_Nick: Final Fantasy 16 is coming to Xbox Series X|S. Xbox says FF7 Intergrade & 16 on Xbox up to SE.

[arvfab]

What ever money they pour into the port wont jeopardies the quality we expect from SIE when they develop ps5 games.

But quality is affected the moment they start planning their engines around PC support. We have seen a decrease in quality on multiple Sony first party titles this gen, partly due to COVID, but also because of the cross gen period, where devs had to support multiple platforms.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

We knew that was the play from SIE, release first on PS5 then have a second run on the PC.

There numerous benefits from targeting a single platform, for example:

1. Keeps cost of development down - Having a single platform to target means less complication during development.
2. Simplified testing - Single platform to test against.
3. Dedicated platform vendor support - Sony has a team of internal developers who support 1st and 3rd party studios to utilize hardware.
4. No compromise in creative vision rather trying to reach a wider audience - They dont have to limit there creativity to the lowest dominator.
5. Technical feasibility and vision - Hardware limitations are a known variable from the onset (so no cone of uncertainty)

What ever money they pour into the port wont jeopardies the quality we expect from SIE when they develop ps5 games.

There's a big problem here: we know now that some of these Marvel games, like Wolverine, are being developed on console & PC concurrently. So many of the benefits you just listed, don't actually exist. It was likely a similar situation with Naughty Dog for Factions 2, but at least that was a GaaS title so the strategy of concurrent platform development made sense there.

For something like Wolverine, same with the Day 1 PS5 & PC contract clause (or at least, both versions within the same year) under the idea the game couldn't do 6 million in its first year on PS consoles alone, that type of development strategy makes little sense and means PS console owners have to wait longer for 1P games that likely will be less optimized at launch than counterparts were during the PS4 and especially PS3/2/1 generations.

But quality is affected the moment they start planning their engines around PC support. We have seen a decrease in quality on multiple Sony first party titles this gen, partly due to COVID, but also because of the cross gen period, where devs had to support multiple platforms.

If we're talking "quality" in terms of launch day polish, then in some cases yes. The issues with HFW at launch were exaggerated especially by Soulsborne fanboys on PC and Xbox console warriors, but that game did have a few more bugs at launch than Sony 1P AAA would normally have had. That said, in HFW's case a lot of it could be blamed on COVID lockdowns, but it's also maybe partially possible that work on the PC port started before the PS4 & PS5 versions went gold.

Unless things change with the PC strategy internally, I kind of worry the problem is going to compound by magnitudes with titles like Wolverine. Is condensing the porting window to a point where concurrent console/PC development is required, worth doing when the customer base on the latter is a pittance of the console's in units, revenue and profit margins? Is the appeal to the console base worth jeopardizing just to chase the latter so fervently?