Talking Point: How Do You Feel About Cross-Gen Games?

I've never had issue with cross-gen games. Different teams, different builds generally.

As long as it’s properly optimized for all consoles then I’m perfectly fine with it. I feel like this how pc gaming has always been.

I think the issue with Sony here has been the inconsistent messaging. Do they believe in generations (Ryan) or don’t they (Hulst)? And what exactly does that mean anyways?

Recall that Ryan’s statement was made as a shot at Xbox’s Smart Delivery, yet now Sony is behaving (with HFW & GoW going to PS4) in the identical fashion that he criticized.

It's fine for most games. Most games aren't really gonna be pushing the hardware to its limit anyway. You do want some games that would only work on the new consoles though. If not, why bother getting the new consoles in the first place?

Horizon and God of War do seem like the wrong choices for cross-gen. Those feel like they should be pushing the hardware as much as possible.

I don’t have a problem with cross gen right now since many of these games currently being released were in development for a few years now and were designed with last gen in mind. Many of these games wouldn’t take full advantage of the new hardware and only improve the graphics which can be scaled. In a year or two when the devs fully understand the hardware and can innovate in things that directly affect gameplay instead of just visuals, they should drop cross gen. The problem people have with it currently seems to be the hypocrisy of Sony.

I was lucky enough to get my filthy mitts on both consoles so I'm very eager for us to leave the old generation behind. That said, I realise not many people have had my luck with the supply issues being what they are. I certainly wouldn't want all those people that haven't been able to upgrade left behind and from a install base perspective I can't blame publishers for sticking with the old gen. So overall I'm a bit disappointed but completely understand.

And hey, Ratchet and Clank comes out this week anyway which looks fantastic and MS Flight Sim should be around the corner which well and truly looks like a next gen experience. Besides, the cross gen games have looked pretty good anyway and the new consoles have other advantages besides new games.

I'm perfectly fine with it right now because Xbox Game Studios are making the real next-gen games and we all knew that it would take time. Most people that bought Series X at launch skipped Xbox One or wanted the quality of life improvements and "free" remasters. Now they are getting FPS boost, too.

In regard to third parties, it's very usual to have cross-gen games until the next-gen user base is much bigger. As others have pointed out before, the only problem is with Sony because of their deceptive marketing and hypocrisy.

I'm fine with it to be fair as stated earlier a lot of games releasing now were well into development before new gen tech was available. I feel with the shortage of consoles that this current gen launch has seen it will take longer for the cross gen stuff to fade because developers can't make thier money back on the small player bases of the current gen.

Sony and Microsoft will eventually turn to real next gen games in the next two years but at the moment with the amount of current ps4's/xbox ones still being used it makes sense especially more so for Sony due to the ps4 total sales meaning there's still atleast 80 million ps4 users without a ps5

I don’t have a problem with it necessarily, but I wish there were more Xbox next-gen only exclusives. There are not many on PS5 but there are a few, and I’m wanting a chance to really put the power of my XSX to the test/see what it can do.

Whilst the new consoles are so hard to get - which looks likely to be the case until next year - I think cross-gen games are inevitable. As long as devs actually make enhancements for the next-gen versions then I don’t have an issue.

I dont mind because a ps5 is impossible to get a hold on. Hzd2 and gow2 was my main reasons for getting it and now that they are coming to ps4 as well I no longer need to stress about buying one. The Series S is also my first xbox ever so I love the fact I can play older games on it. Plus as we all know gamepass is king.

Yeah I don't mind, but would like more exclusives look like Horizon Forbidden West look like PlayStation,
You heard right Microsoft It was the voice of a Microsoft fan

I'm fine with them, tbh. It does make the newer system seem slightly less shiny (metaphorically speaking, of course), though.

Mixed view, as long as the old generation version runs fine and that version doesn't hold back the vision of the game then crossgen releases are fine. Usually though at least the first point isn't the case.

Right now because of chip shortages its very important for software sales. So if was a game developer not only would I give all of my older gamer Series X upgrades I would make future games run on both.

PS5 owner perspective yes Sony did lie really.
Do I care a little bit.
But when you have Returnal and Ratchet and Clank that are PS5 exclusive it softens the blow.
Could HZDFW be better just being a PS5 exclusive, yes of course just like any cross generation game could be. Including Halo Infinite just being a series x exclusive.
But after seeing HZDFW and seeing they have taken time to use some of the PS5 power then the blow gets softened again.
Not ideal but I think we are stuck with cross generation games for a while.
But at least Sony are mixing up a bit with a few PS5 exclusives.
Will be very interesting to see what Xbox has on June the 13th. I think it will cross generation games for this year definitely and maybe next year as well.
A lot depends on the quality of the development and developer to how good it all turns out.

I think games should cross even more generations than they do now. I hope they release Halo Infinite on Game Boy Color

@ralphdibny Day 1 for Halo Infinite GBC. 😁

If it's the entire generation, I'll be quite upset. But if it's the next two years, starting from Nov 2020, I'm perfectly alright with. Remember the gamers on older gens, while fine tuning everything for current gen.

@EVIL-C woop woop, I expect a fully 3D environment to move around in with 2D sprites and textures 😂

At the beginning of the generation i expect cross gen. Just makes business sense from a sales perspective and also most games would have started development on the previous gen anyways. Any games announced after the launch of the series X should be next gen only. At the very least based on the series x and downgraded to the one by removing features if necessary but not holding back the new gen.

@ralphdibny Don't forget 4P link cable multiplayer! XD

I personally prefer cross-dressing games, but hey, call me old fashioned.

100% fine with it. It's been happening for decades, it's silly people get so upset by it imo.

On one hand it does kind of ruin some of the magic of owning a new console and knowing there are games only you can play.

On the other hand it’s really just like the PC market where games run better on beefier hardware but you can still get something from a lower spec machine.

@The_New_Butler I interpreted the “we believe in generations” thing to be that Sony really didn’t want to bother with backwards compatibility, and they only included it to be competitive. I could be wrong here, but that would explain why PS5’s back compact is… halfassed?

@The_New_Butler
PS5 owner here and I thought he meant all new games would be PS5 only.
This debate could go on forever, but I’m ok with it.
We have had Astro Bots, Returnal and Ratchet and Clank, also a cheeky one Demon Souls remake as PS5 exclusive. Additionally we have had sack boy, miles morales etc as cross generation PS4 with some PS5 enhancements.
That’s better thank sweet nothing in the first 6 months of a consoles life from in house studios, 2nd party studios. Just a little dig Mr Trillion Dollar Company.
Then when you see a full 14 minutes game play of HZDFW on PS5, then I’m happy even more, even if it is cross generation. And when it releases there won’t be another next generation game that can touch it for ages.
So I’m happy so far overall.

As @redd214 said, it’s been happening for generations already. Except previously, you had 2 separate copies of the game so if you wanted to play on both systems you had to buy it twice.

Of course, not with every game. So yea would be good to get some that are exclusively next-gen.

The best is when a game comes out that really was not possible on a previous generation. The most recent example of something like that for me is the original Dead Rising on 360. Though, coming up, I would say Flight Sim fills that description

@The_New_Butler
I’m not overall happy about it but we are getting new games and new experiences, especially if the duelsense controller is used well.
I think it will be the same for Microsoft as well, definitely this year and probably next. We shall see.
Sometimes it all depends on what you call next generation. You could argue the only game that maybe qualifies for next generation due to the ssd and faster memory is ratchet and clank.
Everything else so far can be cut down resolution, graphical effects or frame rate wise on all old consoles. It’s a tough one as we are starting to see diminishing returns.

Another thing to think about, what is a true next generation game.
If you take an old PS4 or Xbox one game up the resolution to 4K and 120fps and put it on a next generation console, is that a next generation game because you can’t run the game with those settings on the PS4 or Xbox one?

Also there will be games released on the PS5 and Series x in the future, that if you cut the resolution and FPS and maybe a few little graphical settings back you would be able to run on PS4 and XBOX ONE, does that make those next generation games, not true next generation games.

Or is there a strict rule that says, no matter what you do to the gaming code the game would never ever be able to run on a last generation console, that’s a true next generation game.

It’s a tough call, as technology advances we are getting more near to diminishing returns.

Halo Infinite should be exclusive to Xbox Series X|S and PC.

At least Microsoft have been honest about cross-gen, unlike Sony.

This is the first ever gen I have gone with Microsoft Xbox.

@Oval_Griffin
I have always wanted Halo Infinite to be series and pc exclusive.

As for Sony I will stick with their lie and remember it, but they are pumping new games out be it cross generation or PS5 exclusive.

And even though they lied, I’m not missing Miles morales, sack boy and PS5 exclusives Returnal and of course Ratchet and Clank this Friday.

Just the same I’m pissed with Halo Infinite being cross generation, unless it is really bad I will be playing it, Even if it is because I have GPU.

I'm definitely cool with it, and it makes sense for the first few years as well. Also happy about Halo Infinite being cross gen too, no way some of my friends will be able to get a Series X by then.

Cross gen is to be expected. All this talk about it is partly Sony's fault for selling 115 million PS4's. It would be ludicrous to develop a game and not hit that user base. You'd be denying yourself of a jackpot just because of new hardware. Hardware advances each new generation are in diminishing returns right now. This new generation is nowhere near the huge leaps we got from 8 bit to 16 bit, Sega Genesis to PS1/N64, N64 to Xbox/PS2, PS2 to PS3. Since then we have had fairly modest advances, not leaps.

Anyone who thinks this new gen is going to introduce anything revolutionary other than loading times or streaming benefits is kidding themselves. The GPU's are only twice as powerful, a far cry from 5 to 10 times advancements we got in the past. All the real advancements this gen are going to come from software, such as UE5, not hardware. Cross gen makes the most sense and they will continue to do it until the new generation's user base is sufficiently large to make decent money.

If no console last gen had sold more than 50 million units I'd say they would be pushing next gen a lot harder right now, but it's impossible to ignore a 115 million base and with hardware advancements that are in diminishing returns, nowhere near the leaps we used to get.

I consider myself lucky to have grown up with all this and seen every single generation and the advancements that came after each one ended. Younger people don't understand that we just don't get those leaps and bounds anymore out of new hardware. It will never happen again until a paradigm shift in hardware happens in the future. That could be decades from now. Every new generation from this point forward is going to be cross gen for the first half of it. We may have to come up with some new terminology because 'Next Gen' is losing its meaning more and more with diminishing returns on hardware and as time goes.

I have no problem with cross-gen, but I am excited to see just what the Series X can do.

Perfectly fine, it’s expected that almost all the games released in the first couple of years of a console start development as prev gen games anyways.

@Xiovanni and Unreal 5 basically rolled out a few months ago. It will take a game started in U5 to actually take advantage of those features, and a Triple A game takes at least 3 years to be made from the ground up.

I'm perfectly fine with it. If it's a great game, then it's still a great game no matter if it's made specifically for the new gen or not.

I feel like this poll needs another option: "This has been a thing for the past couple of generations and is nothing new".

I haven't played a cross-gen game that's felt held back yet.

Though is suspect that's coming.

@The_New_Butler you're right, if you look at whats being done with Forza Motorsport that is some true next gen engine being built that will probably look slightly better than FM7 does on the Series X(those games have always been fairly bland and sim like visually anyway).

all my friends have last gen so cross gen means that we can play all the latest games without having to worry about whether they can play it, so as long as they get put on gamepass i don't care

@The_New_Butler I suppose the thing is that previously the console makers would want to get as many people shifted across to the new consoles as quickly as possible. But nowadays it seems like they are much more keen to support the legacy console for a lot longer, and presumably because they know just how much money is still tied into it. That and despite the huge number of people owning PS4s, it's probably only a small percentage of that number who are willing to be an early adopter.

I was perhaps a bit flippant in my initial comment, but I just feel that this notion of defined console generations is so outmoded now. It's not like in the past where you saw a massive leap from 2D to 3D for example. And I realise I'm making an assumption, but I can't help but think that the people so defiantly making a point of set generations have clearly never experienced PC gaming, which has been somewhat timeless in terms of content for a very long time now.

Still, I can understand wanting a game that's really going to push the boundaries of the latest console, and when you invest money, you want to see that pay off. And it will come — but most likely towards the end of the generation, as was typically the case with all previous console generations.

From a pure gamer standpoint, I would like their resources to be 100% on the best version of the game.

But lets be realistic here, they would be idiots not catering to millions of buyers on the older systems that people are still playing. Massive loss of revenue. That would be just dumb.

Last gen is not holding back current gen. Some current gen features, like FidelityFX are just starting to get available for developers, who are not yet familiar with new tech and engines like Unreal 5 anyway.

In the meantime, while devs are still learning how to develop for next gen, it's totally natural that most games will be cross gen. That's even desirable, since in the consumer side, shortages have prevented people from purchasing the newest consoles.

I couldn't care less. Not 'every' game is going to be designed in such a way that it 'cannot' be scaled for whatever reason and so I have no issue with games being scaled down for last gen hardware.

That doesn't mean that the games that are released on multiple generations are somehow 'compromised' because of older hardware, it just means that the design is conducive.

Even R&C 'could' be ported to PS4 despite the rifts transporting you to other worlds - the difference is that its going to take a lot longer to load up the 'next' world so would be stuck in the rift waiting for much longer. Its the same principal as Fast Travel - in games like Horizon: Forbidden West, instant fast travel isn't as disruptive because its a 'choice', where as in R&C its part of the game-play. You can play Horizon without ever Fast Travelling so its an 'option' and 'normal' for that gen to take time to fast travel, but you don't want to be stuck in too many 'loading' screens (hidden or otherwise) that interrupt the 'flow'.

Point is, the majority of games can be scaled down. Its just whether or not it makes 'sense' to do so - whether that's because of wanting to sell more 'next gen' consoles or sell more games to a larger audience, Whether the 'features' of the game are optional or integral etc.

A game like the Witcher 3 was never built for Switch, let alone PS4/XB1. CDPR built the game for the 'high End' PC's of that day with scalable settings to run on 'weaker hardware'. They had to port the game to consoles and lower settings, frame rates etc to 'run' on PS4/XB1. Someone else handled the Witcher 3 port to Switch but they turned the settings down even further, reduced Foliage density (on a slider) to reduce the amount of objects in the scene...

That just shows that even a game designed for vastly superior Hardware can be made to run on a 'hand held' system with little RAM and very little 'bandwidth' comparatively. The Switch didn't hold back the Witcher 3, Doom or Wolfenstein. The time, effort and compromises were deemed to be financially worthwhile as the sales of the Switch port would cover the cost. If there wasn't an Audience and they didn't port those games, you would 'believe' that these games were too much for the Switch to run.

The hardware was designed to eliminate many of the bottlenecks in gaming - like 'streaming' assets from storage, decompressing and loading to RAM. Eliminating pop-in, increasing LoD's, Improving lighting (RT), handling much larger 'files' of higher quality models and textures and doing all of this at much faster frame rates.

1080/30 to 4k/60 is an 8x jump - 4x the image size and twice as many per second. That's assuming the only difference is resolution and frame rate. Increase the quality of assets, audio, visual settings, density etc and that's where all the 'power' of the hardware, the speeds of Data transfer, decompression, Audio processing etc etc are being utilised and why the game looks, runs, loads etc as well as it does. There will be games designed that won't 'work' on last gen - not at a playable frame rate or without compromising on something fundamental - like the game-play flow. However, I don't expect many in the early years of this gen.

I don't mind cross gen games as long as their more powerful system gets an optimized version.. I can see why Sony doesn't want to abandon 115 million PS4 owners..

I dont mind it as long as they are honest about the messaging like Phil spencer has been.

sony on the other hand have been disingenuous at best

@Dezzy70 "I have always wanted Halo Infinite to be series and pc exclusive."

Then, you should like my comment.

I don't have any issues of cross Gen games so long as development was started first, and foremost, for next Gen. Then setting dialed back for older hardware, same way you do on a PC. Non oof the greedy BS companies have been pulling such as making you buy the game again for next Gen, or having to may a "nominal" fee to change the setting sliders.

I have no idea why anyone would be against it. In fact this next gen has been so disappointing and hard to get into, Sony has embraced cross-gen themselves.

No issues here. We are still very early in the cycle so not everyone is going to have next gen yet, and if its anything like the PC GPU market at the moment then we will need to have cross gen for some time to enable everyone to enjoy new releases.

Anyone that has a problem with cross gen games or feel that a previous gen game holds back current gen games has never gamed on a pc. There’s a myriad of graphic cards and gaming is never held back. I mean console don’t hold back pc. It’s a ridiculous argument to even make.