Fanning the flames, I know, but just read through the article and my analysis before raging in the comments. When Sony announced the PS4, developers went a little bonkers hyping the system and how easy it is to develop for and how it’s basically the greatest gift the gaming community has ever received. Whether or not that’s true remains to be seen, however, speaking to Gaming Bolt, Avalanche Studios CTO Linus Blomberg made some very “powerful” remarks concerning his view of the upcoming next-gen console.
He began by discussing how it was high time consoles got an upgrade, as going so many years without a technical overhaul left gamers in the dark when compared to the PC gaming crowd’s ever-changing landscape. “It’s always very exciting with a new console cycle, for a number of reasons. The consoles desperately need a boost since having been overtaken in terms of performance by PC’s several years ago, and also losing market share to mobile platforms” Blomberg said.
He then went on to describe the hardware of the PS4 and why he believes it will be worthy of comparison against the majority of PCs. “The PS4 will not only be a very powerful gaming machine from a hardware perspective, but it will also be a social tool and integrated marketplace more akin to the successful mobile devices. It’s the best of all worlds in a way; great performance for demanding high-end gaming, good social ecosystem and connectivity, and integrated business marketplace. For Avalanche Studios as an open-world games developer this is super exciting and opens up many new opportunities.”
“It’s a perfect fit for the types of games we do, and we are confident that we’ll bring open-world gaming to a whole new level because of it. I’m glad Sony decided to go with 8gb RAM because it means that the PS4 will out-power most PC’s for years to come.”
Adding what makes the PS4’s approach to development so enticing, he added that, “the off-the-shelf philosophy behind the architecture makes sense from a pricing and heating point of view, but it also means that Sony more easily can make incremental improvements of their system.”
Avalanche, known for developing open-world games such as Just Cause seem to believe that the PS4 will allow them the creative freedom to create innovative new game mechanics in sandbox games.
Now, let’s take a look at a few things before every gets in a tizzy. First of all, it should be noted that Blomberg specifically says the PS4 will outlast “most” PCs for years to come, and technically, that’s true. Think about it, the majority of PCs are NOT gaming PCs. In fact, the vast majority of computers are used for little more than browsing the web, creating documents within Microsoft Office, and the occasional casual/non-hardware-intensive game. Most PCs for years to come that will inhabit the homes and offices of the vast majority will be mid-range PCs, and to the effect, yes the PS4 will remain more powerful.
For the PC elitists, this claim will still obviously infuriate you. Just to give everyone else a better understanding, most PCs could have better specs than the PS4 right now, for those willing to spend somewhere in the thousands for their rig. And to everyone who thinks that the PS4’s 8GB of GDDR5 RAM is worthy of exemplary praise, consider this: The PS4 uses unified RAM, meaning that those 8 gigs will be compensating for the entire machine. To break that down a bit, and of course without hard data these percentages are not to be taken literally, the machine will probably run something like this: 2 gigs dedicated to loading video assets, 1 or 2 gigs dedicated to the operating system, and somewhere around 4-5 gigs for loading game data. That’s great and all, especially compared to what consoles are running currently, but it certainly won’t be defining a new PC standard, especially a couple years from now. So, before you rage about which platform is superior, (seriously, who cares? As long as you’re playing great games, it doesn’t matter what you play them on) just know that Blomberg was speaking from a general standpoint, and that he was not saying the PS4 will be superior to gaming PCs. Until console become adaptable with upgradeable hardware, PC will always be the cutting-edge platform.
Basically, the questions this leads me to are, where do you think PC hardware will be a few years from now? What would it take for console gaming to gain the upper hand in the constant war against PC hardware? Alright, I’m sure you all still have plenty to say about this, so when you’re done punching your wall or monitor or however you deal with sudden fits of rage, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below. Just, I don’t know, try to respect other people’s opinions? And use facts to support your argument, not just personal opinion. Challengers… choose your weapons.
Chris Hernandez
I feel the need to chime in on this subject as it seems to not be entirely understood by many. Specifications in regards to console hardware can not be directly compared to PC hardware, aside from the fact that they happen to use the same components. They operate in vastly different ways, at least in regards to games being played based on said hardware.
Because games are typically “coded to metal” or programmed to use the maximum amount of teh hardware available, as there are no unknown background process as would be typical on a PC it is much easier for a console to pull of High-end rig graphics without the high end specs.
So in this sense, the PS4 can most certainly play side by side with dedicated gaming rigs for at least a coupe years without barely breaking a sweat.