A Way Out is getting some buzz as an interesting co-op game, but one of the developers has pointed out that there’s a specific reason we’re not seeing more unique and interesting games, and says that it is due to hardware limitations on consoles compared to PC. This topic came up due to the forced split-screen in A Way Out (Even when playing online), which requires more processing power.
In an interview with Engadget, the director of A Way Out, Josef Fares, said that the PS4 isn’t as powerful as people think it is, and that it’s holding back game development.
“Do you want the honest truth? This machine is not so strong as you think. This is like a five-year-old PC. If consoles were as powerful as PCs are today, you would see all different games. Most of the work developers put out there is to make them work on consoles.” – Josef Fares
These comments have some console gamers upset to the point of wanting to boycott this game and the previous title he directed, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. That seems a bit extreme. If you’re not interested in the game, that’s one thing. If you were interested until he compared the PS4 to a 5 year old PC, you might want to reconsider.
It’s an odd comment to make, either way. The PS4 came out in 2013 and it’s 2017 now so the console itself is nearly 5 years old. Also, the average PC gamer isn’t playing on a bleeding edge system and a mid range PC from a few years ago isn’t going to be worlds different from a current generation console in terms of what they can play.. It does stand to reason that developers aren’t going to go balls to the walls to max out high-end gaming PCs with their games when most people won’t be able to play those games, but to attribute a lack of innovation to the hardware limits on consoles seems strange as well.