Xbox One X Has Helped PS4 Pro In Terms of Developer Support And Graphics Enhancements – Pachter

You've probably heard all there is to hear about the Xbox One X and how powerful of a console it is. Perhaps unsurprisingly, developers have been jumping on board to enhance their titles for the console. From what developers have been saying, it doesn't even take that much effort to properly optimize a game for Microsoft's platform. So it's good news for the company, right?

[threefootwang]

I doubt it's helping the PS4 Pro specifically. I do however believe future console releases will definitely be influenced by the design and architecture of the X.

You don't have to be a fanboy to recognize a well engineered box.

[tontontam0]

lol "design and architecture of the X. "

[GrubsterBeater]

@tontontam0

Lol. This is the general jist of how XBox
fanatics talk of the One X:

"The One X... a marvel of hardware and gaming engineering, delivered by our savior, Phil Spencer. One X sets a new precedence for not only power, but also class and aesthetic perfection. Future consoles will use the One X for the go-to blueprint for quality, power, and sheer greatness. Behold the One X... and revel in it's brilliance...surely it was built by the Gods... for we were not worthy, but He delivered upon us... da beast...dude..."

[rainslacker]

Patcher is clueless. It takes less effort to enhance a game from the base ps4 to the pro. The enhancements just aren't coming as much as they should because there just isn't much need to accommodate the smaller user base. Some devs take more effort, but the x1x has nothing to do with it, and the x1x is going to run into the same dwindling enhancements now that the hype is gone.

@wooly

And the ps4p enhancements are still "a joke". Just wait a few months and you'll see that just like the pro, the level and quality of the enhancements isn't going to be that amazing. X1x hasn't changed anything, nor will devs just transfer enhancements from the x1x to the pro like patcher insinuates. It's more likely to be the other way around because the pro will act as the baseline for the enhancements.

Don't believe me if you want. I'm not one to usually say I told you so when what I say ends up being true, despite almost everything I've said would come to pass around the launch window has pretty much happened.

[zaherdab]

uh ... ok

[rainslacker]

So to all the disagrees, how can people say that the enhancements are somehow meaningful when less than 10% of all the games available have enhancements? Even more so when less than half of that 10% are even worth talking about the enhancements to begin with?

This is what happened on the Pro, and I see no reason why it'll be any different on the X1X.

The pro is easier to enhance ports on, because the hardware is essentially the same, and very little change to the code is needed to get the enhancements. X1X can go either way, and mostly depends on the base models ESRAM implementation, which sometimes requires a lot more direct optimization.

Patcher is clueless, because in no way is X1X helping, or will it help enhancements on the PS4P. The PS4P enhancements will be easy enough to port to X1X, so that is the more likely scenario, but that doesn't change the lack of interest in the dev community in general, or at least the lack of resources from most publishers, to actually take much advantage from what's available.

To date, both the PS4P and X1X could deliver a lot more than what's been shown, but no one is taking advantage of it.

Disagrees care to rebuke my argument?

The cold hard truth is that neither MS nor Sony mandate that enhancements have to be made. Unless they do that, then it's going to be entirely up to the publisher to provide resources to make it happen. Given the install base, there isn't much reason for most publishers to do that to any significant degree. They'll do some modest enhancements, with the few and far between which really take advantage of it. Same on both systems, so it's not even me trying to hate on Xbox. The mid-gens have been mostly disappointing, because they've failed to really deliver on their potential.

[Obscure_Observer]

@rainslacker

"Some devs take more effort, but the x1x has nothing to do with it, and the x1x is going to run into the same dwindling enhancements now that the hype is gone."

That´s where your arguments falls short. You make a lot of predictions based on assumptions that never translates in reality! If Patcher is clueless you´re no better than him based on your comments above. What? So, according to you Xbox One X owners should be prepared for 1440/1600p resolution for most of their games now that "the hype is gone"?

That´s BS and people will remind you of the nonsense that you said once the new games are out!

If anything, enhancements will only get better now that the X is out! For both PS4 Pro and Xbox One X!

[rainslacker]

@obscure

Sure, it's assumption. But it's based on history now with the PS4P. On top of that, a lot of my assumptions have panned out to be true in many topics where I speculate. Just go read through my history, and you'll see I've been right about a lot of things. Almost everything I said about cloud, DX12, X1 in general, MS current direction, etc, has come to pass. I changed some of my predictions when Spencer took over because he appeared he wanted to change things, but ultimately, my original assumption was right.

When I talk technical here about ease of coding, that is just the way it is. It isn't assumption. It's what I do for a living, so I know what these systems can do, and what it takes to get software running on them. So, I also base my assumptions on that.

Having experience with how things work in the industry, how much publishers don't really care to spend resources to support things that don't return them any money, and general tight development schedules, it makes it easy to make these assumptions.

I may be wrong one day, but as of right now, there is nothing that says I will be.

Here's some food for thought.

All these enhanced games help sell the mid-gens. They do absolutely nothing to little at all to help sell the software. Let that sink in.

So, why are the publishers going to expend any significant resources to fund these enhancements in a meaningful way? They aren't on the PS4P to any great degree, and it's not that hard to get them up and running since the PS4P is essentially the same hardware with a few tweaks. X1X has a couple major departures from the OGX1 to really take advantage of it, and I just don't see resources being funneled into making use of them to great effect. Maybe one day when MS removes the OGX1 mandate, if that day comes. But by then, we'll likely be in a new generation.

The X1X is a very capable machine, and to date, not one single game really takes advantage of what the hardware has to offer. That's a good thing because it means it's capable of more than what you already see, but a bad thing because it means that all these improvements which some claim are so easy, aren't actually as straight forward as they assume. I could say the same for the PS4P in terms of taking advantage of the hardware, although some games come close.

As far as what X1X owners should expect. I am saying don't expect a huge boon of titles really using the hardware to great effect. They'll likely have some enhancements, just not so often or so many like some seem to be expecting.

People will be free to remind me if I'm wrong. I'm capable of accepting when I'm wrong, and will change my view should I be wrong. But one or two games that stand out is not meaningful support. As I said earlier, less than 10% of the game available for the system have enhancements. Less than half of those have meaningful ones that really make a difference, and less than half of those have enhancements that are any more than you see on the PS4P.

If you disagree, do the math yourself and show me the numbers.

[carmelo43]

@threeforwang, please do tell us how the xbox one x is design will make other future consoles better? lmfao

[Obscure_Observer]

The Pro is definelly getting better support now that the X is out. Before the X, most devs just throwed 1440p resolution for games like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and call it a day.

Now, they will push things further on the Pro. Good news for gamers.

[Ashlen]

This is a ridiculous premise.

First off PS4 Pro had around 100 enhanced games before the X even launched. And secondly almost every AAA game that was released since it's launch had Pro support. So the idea that X has anything to do with the Pro's success is ridiculous.

[blackblades]

Agreed

[TheUndertaker85]

You're twisting by far. Support does not equal success in context.

Considering it's clearly easier to make a One X product versus a Pro product I fail to see how the premise is incorrect. Further it then turns easier for developers to dial down the One X product to a Pro product rather than go from a PS4 product up to a Pro product.

[zaherdab]

I think all the guy is saying is that with another power console on the market and probably due to deals microsoft made to get more games supported more developers were willing to revisit their games and hence retouching their code on both consoles

[Ashlen]

This is the false assumption.

Most of the Xbox games that are enhanced were enhanced on PS4 Pro first not the other way around. And Sony was making "deals" to get games enhanced for a full year before the X was even released. And I'd like to point out that PS4 Pro has more enhanced games than the X.

If anything the success of the Pro paved the way for the X not the other way around.

[zaherdab]

Thr title says it helped not caused the success ... the witcher 3 was a definte no before enhancements were annouced for the xbox and some other games followed the dame pattern

[rainslacker]

The thing is, the support(or enhancements) themselves have mostly not been that compelling. Maybe 1 in 5 games has some real work put into the enhancements.

There is no actual mandate from MS or Sony that any enhancements have to be done. Some are relatively easy to implement though, and they often are because it only requires a bit of change in a setting here or there.

Personally, I can't see any reason why publishers would spend money on an X1X enhancement, only to dumb it down for the PS4P. The more likely scenario is that they'd work on the PS4P version, then allow the X1X to use the same settings(to keep the explanation simple), and maybe tweak a few things to get a bit better performance on the X1X. The so called brute force method.

The reason I believe this is for those cases where enhancements aren't half assed....which most are right now IMO....the PS4P has a much larger install base to cater to, while as of now, the X1X is just not really that high on the list. Publishers aren't going to expend exhorbitant resources supporting the lower install base of the mid gens. I said this would be the case when these mid-gens were just rumors, and so far, I've been proved right, because IMO, such a small number of games actually really take advantage of the mid-gens available power. Truly, people really haven't even seen what these systems are capable of from either company, because they are capable of a lot more than we've seen so far. I've seen tech demos made in our company that would blow people's minds.

@TheUndertaker

How is it easier to make a X1X product compared to a PS4P product. The PS4P is essentially the same as the PS4 to the software itself. OTOH, the X1X may require more optimization depending on how much ESRAM was implemented in the base version of the game. I see a lot of people equating the ease of getting port running on an X1X as somehow indicative that it's easy to get that game running well, or highly optimized on the X1X, and I'm afraid it just doesn't work like that. Both systems require added optimization or enabling of new hardware commands within the software in order to take advantage of any new code. There is no single button solution in any game that is highly optimized, but a highly optimized game on the PS4 will simply run better on the PS4P without any optimization to the new version. The reverse isn't true for X1->X1X.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Ugh pacther you are drunk go home

[MagicBeanz]

lol, Pachter.

[superchiller]

Yet another lame article from Trollingbolt, don't give them the clicks.

[Evolve]

"I think that the PS4 Pro also has the benefit of being priced lower, and it seems to be selling a bit better"

A bit better??? Where did your math come from?

[nismo370]

gamingbolt = lol!!

[B1uBurneR]

FACTS!!!

[-volt-]

Should I buy a PRO or XB 1X?

[johndoe11211]

It depends. do you want to play a whole list of interesting and new AAA games, or do you want a box that looks pretty that you can sit and stare at and hope that you get something interesting to play besides the same racer and two shooters every year? I can give you some advise depending on how you answer that question.

[Elda]

If you want a slew of diverse exclusives from 1st,2nd & 3rd party developers including you having a 4k hdr tv,go for the Pro where Sony's first party titles shine on the console.

[chiefJohn117]

Depends on what type of gamer you are and games you enjoy. If you like a larger variety of games and niche genre and Japanese games no doubt PS4 pro hands down. If you mostly play multiplats and the most popular genres and don't care for those Japanese/niche genre plus want better visuals One X no doubt.

[MasterCornholio]

If you are just looking for power go for the XB1X. If you are looking at software I recommend looking at the exclusives that each one has and make your decision based off the ones that you want to play the most.

[Elda]

Ridiculous article.

[bluebenjamin]

Buy a used slim and get the X for better console visuals/performance on third party games

[rlow1]

Did anybody in the above comments read the article??? He actually says that 4k tvs are helping the sales of both consoles. Talk about being clueless, by not reading the article but commenting

[chiefJohn117]

True, competition is a good thing. A few games had no plans to be enhanced for the pro till the X

[TheOttomatic91]

Agreed

[Belinker300]

The reality is you won't be playing highly optimised 1st party titles in the vein of Last Of Us 2,GOW,Death Stranding etc on the Xbox this year that will look better than third party Xbox enhanced games...drop mic

[Belinker300]

Spiderman, Days Gone,Ghost of Tsushima,Ace Combat 7...I think we're good

[MrVux000]

Another day, another gamingbolt article to keep away...

[SixFragz]

PS4 will continue to dominate this generation and well into the next.

The PS4's dominance is because of it being an outstanding console. Its success is earned, and should not be attributed to Microsh!t's boring, mundane console.

If anything, M$ has been helping Sony since it unveiled its sleek, marvelous set top box (/s). But then again, Sony and the PS4 don't need the help of a tanking M$ and countless, useless XBone iterations.

The future is bleak for XBone.

The PS4 holds its own. Simple. Have a good day everyone.