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Two years deep, Why are there so few next gen exclusive games?

Kenpachii

Member
Dev costs are ballooning, next gen consoles are not selling stellar amounts because of supply issue's. So crossgen is the focus.
Also PC lower end wants to probably play the games and 4k focus on consoles also won't help specially when multi platform release is considered.
 
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Very little incentive not to release crossgen games when the PS5 is supply constrained, specially when it comes to bigger IPs (seems like Sony was on the fence about which games they were going to make crossgen and which they were going to make next gen only and looks like they decided that all the bigger releases would be crossgen).

For third parties and Xbox, the existence of the Series S makes the gap so small that it pushes them even more into the direction of crossgen games.
 
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Series S or gaming on Ryzen iGPUs is for some/many good enough, for me even PS360 is still okay, HDR and 4k are certainly nice, but just that nice, so I am more wondering why Sony did not launch a PS4 superslim or PS5FHD to offer something for cheapassgamers. High/medium End PCs and Series X is a market they compete in but either a 149 PS4 or a 299 PS5FHD could aim at a different group (and make true next gen only games even less likely). Demand is still high, but "do I really need it" "is the upgrade worth it" is this gen probably much more prevalent than at the previos transition phases.
 

Dane

Member
The generation gap is smaller than ever so you can easily downgrade to run in older hardware. I can't even believe people believe that Horizon Forbidden West and GT7 were downgraded when these games compared to both generations have minimal differences that it would have made it feasible to run on PS4.
 
The industry seems to have moved on from exclusives tied to specific consoles. On one hand, the same game is more available to a wider base of players because of multiplatform...but on the other, it makes me miss unique systems. The Wii U was basically the last time I remember getting a system for it's specific features and games actually took advantage of the Gamepad and whatnot
It kills the reason for PC gamers to buy a PS5 or Xbox.

If you were a PC only player in 2000 you would have missed at least half the gaming industry. Twenty years later everything is available.
 

leo-j

Member
Ratchet and clank is an example of current gen games. Demons souls too, which looks a half gen better than Elden ring arguably. Hopefully TLOU remake and spidey 2 illustrate ps5 visuals next year.
 
The generation gap is smaller than ever so you can easily downgrade to run in older hardware.

That's because you've only seen previous gen games so far. Developers really hate Jaguar and platter drives, dumping the PS4/XBO should make their lives a lot easier.
 
Exclusives a side. There is really a lack of any new games, outside of aa and indies. As a steam deck, ps5, switch and pc guy it's been all I see and Sony ports. Nintendo is the only one making a lot of new games and exclusives. Sonys trickle out 1 a year. And if you don't like the franchise that's it nothing else from them. Xbox hasn't had a release outside of halo infinite yet.

No elder scrolls game in over a decade. Still waiting for diablo 4, vampire bloodlines 2 and baldurs gate 3. Where is half life 3, or hell a new quake, thief, etc...

I'd also like to see some competition in city builder, rts games. No one wants to take city skylines on. No age of empire competition? We used to have devs try to compete, now they just get bought up and get regulated to a back room making micro transactions and gaas bs.
 
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That's because you've only seen previous gen games so far. Developers really hate Jaguar and platter drives, dumping the PS4/XBO should make their lives a lot easier.
Ssds are a lot of hype for a few seconds loading. My steam deck games launch maybe 2sec faster on the 4x gen3 ssd vs the micro sd. The game play fps is identical.

Yes jaguar cores were crappy, but devs made more games on the older systems. Less power meant less time making assets and knowing your restrictions meant no feature creep (see star citizen).

They werent also all getting gobbled up by mega corps either. I think that is effecting things too.
 

Dane

Member
That's because you've only seen previous gen games so far. Developers really hate Jaguar and platter drives, dumping the PS4/XBO should make their lives a lot easier.
Everyone loves to do in top notch hardware available, there will be high profile games being crossgen even for the fall 2023 possibly, back in the old days you would have said projects being planned from the start or switched early on for the next gen only.
 

OldBoyGamer

Banned
The pandemic hit the AAA studios the hardest I think.
I also think they are struggling to recruit the numbers of people they need but also the key individuals they need to get their games over the line.

Where’s a AA game needs one director/lead coder/lead artist etc, AAA’s need multiples of those roles. I think they’re struggling to find the right people.

I also think the same is true for the shop floor - where a AA game might need 10’s of people in each discipline, a AAA studio needs a hundred or more in each discipline. (AAAA even more right?)

They can offer to pay a kings ransom but those skills are not necessarily available in the quantity required.
 

small_law

Member
The pandemic is a big reason. From what I've read, games that were already in the pipe continued development, but early concept and planning phases for new games stopped almost entirely. It's sad to say, but the normal flow of releases may be disrupted for years.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
The generation gap is smaller than ever so you can easily downgrade to run in older hardware. I can't even believe people believe that Horizon Forbidden West and GT7 were downgraded when these games compared to both generations have minimal differences that it would have made it feasible to run on PS4.

With GT7 and Horizon zero dawn by having the PS4 as the base they canT design the game around new PS5 Features like the SSD + io stack, primitive shaders, ray tracing and other new features.

Im still torn on how a big a visual leap this gen will be though I think the first 4yrs games are going to have iterative visual improvements, nothing drastic.
In the 2nd half the gen when Devs fully embrace all the new features and hardware these consoles offer is when will start to see games approaching what some of these tech demos look like.
 
It seems, for all intents and purposes, next-gen really starts in 2023. Let's hope there aren't further game delays. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to convince my wife to let me buy a Switch. I still need to play BoTW and Mario Odyssey. Once BoTW 2 and Metroid Prime 4 release, nothing will be able to stop my primal gaming urges lol.
she will be mine GIF
 

SSfox

Member
Seeing people wanting Tekken 8 to be on PS4 and Xbox One make want to puke. Hopefull it won't be the case.
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
Since last gen has basically the same architecture than current gen, there is no reason to not release games on last gen with somewhat graphical downgrades.

Also, the other explation is that current gen came too early, offering diminishing returns. The only "impressive" new tech is the SSD, and as most of us predicted, this just mean faster loading screens, nothing else.
 
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