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Have the PS5 and XBSX hit the limit of practicality in terms of console power?

Quillion

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
5,937
With all this industry news in the past several months or so, it really seems like the writing is on the wall about the console arms race reaching its limit.
I've seen a lot of people blaming AAA budgets for getting out of control, and yes, that is one of the core problems with this whole deal. But I still can't help but think that just trying to make games that take advantage of the PS5 and XBSX's power is barely practical at this point, as seen by all the releases for those two consoles that amount to better-looking and/or performing ports of games for their predecessors. It's just too costly to do so.

Now, one wrinkle in this thought is the rise of AI, which has proven to be a big help in making coding a lot easier. Perhaps AI will be the key to getting over this hump if it is one, but that's a whole other can of worms.
 

BritishGuy54

Smash Ace
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
754
With cross-Gen games still being prevalent, and the Switch 2 on the horizon, I wouldn’t be surprised if the PS4 becomes the new PS2, with it still being supported because there is that large of an install base on it.

Nintendo hanging back in terms of power seems to be a good thing, as they can make their money back through hardware and software, alongside not being crushed by massive budgets.

Sony and Microsoft traditionally tried to sell consoles at a loss, and games to make up the profit, but with budgets increasing massively, they’ve had to branch out onto each other’s platforms, and PC.
 

Quillion

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
5,937
With cross-Gen games still being prevalent, and the Switch 2 on the horizon, I wouldn’t be surprised if the PS4 becomes the new PS2, with it still being supported because there is that large of an install base on it.
Isn't the PS4 already there?

Nah they reached that a few gens back
You've got a point in that the PS3/360 gen was very awkward since the HD leap drove up budgets back then too, and a lot of AAA games were forced to be linear because of it. At least by the mid-late part of that gen, studios got used to the tools and got better.

Maybe not so different from AI potentially assisting in AAA game development these days.
 

Quillion

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
5,937
The Switch 2’s possible parity to the PS4 would just extend the PS4 to having another few years under its belt for cross-platform releases.
Yeah, and I think that happened with the Wii and PS2 to some extent too.

It'll definitely be a lot more prevalent with the next Nintendo console and PS4 though considering how standardized game development frameworks and tools are nowadays.
 

Quillion

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
5,937
So Sony has finally announced a PS5 Pro as if it will somehow solve the problems that are plaguing the "current gen" consoles.

I stand by the PS5 and XSX already both being too powerful for their own good.
 

Guynamednelson

Smash Legend
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Dec 17, 2014
Messages
12,995
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Nelson340
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That power would at least be useful if game devs were finally using it as a reason to make all their games run at a stable 60 FPS.

That said, something interesting regarding console power is the evolution of car polycounts in the Gran Turismo games:
  • Cars made for the PS1 games had a few hundred polygons
  • Cars made for the PS2 had a few thousand polygons
  • "Premium" cars in the PS3 games (ones that have new models instead of recycled PS2 ones) had a few hundred thousand polygons
  • Cars in GT Sport and 7 have...several hundred thousand polygons
As a result, despite how GT Sport is supposed to be a purging of all the old car models regardless of their polycount, they've eventually brought back various PS3 car models in content updates for it and 7 since the differences in their car models aren't as substantial anymore.
 

Quillion

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
5,937
That power would at least be useful if game devs were finally using it as a reason to make all their games run at a stable 60 FPS.

That said, something interesting regarding console power is the evolution of car polycounts in the Gran Turismo games:
  • Cars made for the PS1 games had a few hundred polygons
  • Cars made for the PS2 had a few thousand polygons
  • "Premium" cars in the PS3 games (ones that have new models instead of recycled PS2 ones) had a few hundred thousand polygons
  • Cars in GT Sport and 7 have...several hundred thousand polygons
As a result, despite how GT Sport is supposed to be a purging of all the old car models regardless of their polycount, they've eventually brought back various PS3 car models in content updates for it and 7 since the differences in their car models aren't as substantial anymore.
I saw a video showing that PS5/XSX devs are focusing on rendering the vellus hairs (those small, nearly invisible hairs) on the characters' bare skin.

...yeah, they really need to rethink their priorities.
 
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