Thief developer says the gap between console and PC has "massively reduced"

Russ Boswell

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Eidos Montreal, the creative minds behind "Thief," believe that the development gap has been greatly reduced between console and PC thanks to the PS4 and Xbox One. This is great news for PC gamers out there who are frustrated by console exclusive titles. Unfortunately it takes a lot of extra man power in order to localize titles between outlets and as a product we end up with companies who create a game for either console or PC and refuse to spend the extra money to "cross the development gap."

But that may change in the near future, and according to Thief art technical director, Jean-Normand Bucci, the gap between consoles and PC's is much smaller in the newest generation. In an interview with DSO Gaming, Bucci spoke the following about the recent differences in PC and console:

"The new consoles are very strong, very powerful. They allow for much more than what a console gamer is used to. The gap between PC and next gen has massively reduced for sure. The new consoles and high-end PC offer better frame rate, higher resolution, and many new features along with DX11 support."

Although this will surely spark another debate on "why PC is better than console," it should give console gamers a nice boost of confidence as we move into the future. When the development gap is "miniscule" we all win. Developers are happy because it doesn't take nearly as many resources to cross-platform their works of art, and gamers benefit because they don't have to worry about owning a specific system just to play a game they are interested in. I for one am really happy to hear this, and although I own both PC and console I'm excited (and hopeful) to see a day when there is no longer a technology gap between these outlets.

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This will last for a year or sth around that then the same what happened with Ps3/xBox360
until thy came up with somehow an "upgradable console" there will always be a gap
 
Been saying exactly this for the past 6 months as the new consoles have been getting press, no crap the gap has been reduced. Anyone with a brain knows the last gen consoles both had exclusive architectures requiring a lot of man power to cross develop and then there was the PC, which again, was very different. And they stuck around far too long to even compare to PC hardware advances. Now that everything uses x86-x64 CPUs and RAM is no longer a limitation games will be, eh sorry, SHOULD be released on PS4/Xbox1/PC simultaneously with no bull crap excuses. However, this is the gaming industry and its run by a lot of people who just don't care about final products and love to make up excuses about why they can't do their job. Finally, this will only be temporary, as the NEW consoles are barely capable of keeping up with my 3 year old gaming PC, let alone what's new and exciting from AMD/nVidia. But that's not such a big deal, because if, this is a big IF, developers make games that can scale visually for PCs we won't be having nightmares like RAGE any more. But, I live in a fantasy world filled with unicorns and gum drop fairies right?
 
It won't matter as PC gamers will still get ****ed on the majority of games as they are "streamlined" for consoles.
 
What's the max resolution for the PS4 and Xbox 1 again? 1080p?
That resolution was impressive about what....7 years ago?
 
I don't know if I'd use the word "greatly" in the development gap. It certainly has closed, considering the old consoles were damn near 7 year old technology. But just your average gaming PC will blow away the new consoles.
 
This will last for a year or sth around that then the same what happened with Ps3/xBox360
until thy came up with somehow an "upgradable console" there will always be a gap

I really wish by next generation of consoles they will be upgradable
 
Been saying exactly this for the past 6 months as the new consoles have been getting press, no crap the gap has been reduced. Anyone with a brain knows the last gen consoles both had exclusive architectures requiring a lot of man power to cross develop and then there was the PC, which again, was very different. And they stuck around far too long to even compare to PC hardware advances. Now that everything uses x86-x64 CPUs and RAM is no longer a limitation games will be, eh sorry, SHOULD be released on PS4/Xbox1/PC simultaneously with no bull crap excuses. However, this is the gaming industry and its run by a lot of people who just don't care about final products and love to make up excuses about why they can't do their job. Finally, this will only be temporary, as the NEW consoles are barely capable of keeping up with my 3 year old gaming PC, let alone what's new and exciting from AMD/nVidia. But that's not such a big deal, because if, this is a big IF, developers make games that can scale visually for PCs we won't be having nightmares like RAGE any more. But, I live in a fantasy world filled with unicorns and gum drop fairies right?


Come on man if you believe that then your a fool. All the consoles will ever do is mess up everything for everyone. Why do we need consoles anymore with mantle, steamOS, and VR? Its just causing the game Devs to split up which causes crappier rehashed games across the spectrum. Also when games are being built for the consoles theory are leaving out tons of features to be able to play the games on consoles. Were ushering into the VR era and 4k gaming, yet instead of major dev companies focusing on these new advancements they are stuck figuring out how to get there games running in 900p @ 35fps. Your comment was soooo full of ****. December 16th the new huwai phone will have an octacore apu that will probably evenly match the power of these new consoles. Screw that **** let the consoles die everyone switch to PC and let's see just where gaming can really head to.
 
Console exclusive titles are much less of a problem, as those are one of the most important selling factors of these machines: exclusive titles, and we can understand that (at least, the more mature players).
The real pains in the *ss are:
- butchered control: Witcher 1 vs Witcher 2, Mass Effect 1 vs Mass Effect 2, Crysis 1 vs Crysis 2
all the above games have been greatly degraded in the control aspect to better fit them to console controllers.
- standalone HD texture packs: Skyrim, Crysis 2, etc.
- locked keyboard assignments
- extremely limited graphics settings: low, medium, high, ultra. Nothing else, just that four.
 
The only reason why there was and will be a gap is because while manufacturing these consoles they use current hardware. As I read above they need to create a console which can be upgraded. Any newer console is basically a PC inside. Just with a different operating system that is specific for games and movies. A console you can upgrade is the future but in doing this manufactures limit their income. If you can upgrade why buy a new one?
 
I know this post Is mostly about graphic fidelity but whats more important to gamers are, in the end, games.
I hope that with all of the sucess that steam has been getting that some developers will drop their exclusivity because, lets face it, both the xbox and the ps4 were made and meant to preform on the same level and the only real diference between the is the exclusive games they each have.
In my opinion pc is still geting "wronged" in this department, and by this I mean no great developers like polyphony digital, turn10 studios, naughty dog, a bit of square enix etc... when especially now that their architectures are so close there's really no real motive to not port those games except for remaining exclusive.
The thing is, the PC is still superior to these two in almost all points except for price point, and exclusive games, the latter I've had my rant about and as for the price point there are rummors that some steam consoles will sell for the same price as the next gen consoles.
I for one am not going to buy a next gen console just to play 2 exclusive games that I'm interested in where if they were to be sold on the PC they'd be a must buy, if it is a good game it will sell in whatever platform its in and I congatullate Steam, origin etc for the work they've been doing for PCgaming

PS: I know there are PC exclusives too like RTS's because consoles just cant handle all of those little shortcut buttons for the micromanagement, which in turn is just another point won for the pc because you can easily plug in whatever controller you want, also I cat seem to understand the point of first person shooters in consoles when a baal mouse can do a better job at it (other then again the price point for running such gaphic intensive games)
 
Been saying exactly this for the past 6 months as the new consoles have been getting press, no crap the gap has been reduced. Anyone with a brain knows the last gen consoles both had exclusive architectures requiring a lot of man power to cross develop and then there was the PC, which again, was very different. And they stuck around far too long to even compare to PC hardware advances. Now that everything uses x86-x64 CPUs and RAM is no longer a limitation games will be, eh sorry, SHOULD be released on PS4/Xbox1/PC simultaneously with no bull crap excuses. However, this is the gaming industry and its run by a lot of people who just don't care about final products and love to make up excuses about why they can't do their job. Finally, this will only be temporary, as the NEW consoles are barely capable of keeping up with my 3 year old gaming PC, let alone what's new and exciting from AMD/nVidia. But that's not such a big deal, because if, this is a big IF, developers make games that can scale visually for PCs we won't be having nightmares like RAGE any more. But, I live in a fantasy world filled with unicorns and gum drop fairies right?


Come on man if you believe that then your a fool. All the consoles will ever do is mess up everything for everyone. Why do we need consoles anymore with mantle, steamOS, and VR? Its just causing the game Devs to split up which causes crappier rehashed games across the spectrum. Also when games are being built for the consoles theory are leaving out tons of features to be able to play the games on consoles. Were ushering into the VR era and 4k gaming, yet instead of major dev companies focusing on these new advancements they are stuck figuring out how to get there games running in 900p @ 35fps. Your comment was soooo full of ****. December 16th the new huwai phone will have an octacore apu that will probably evenly match the power of these new consoles. Screw that **** let the consoles die everyone switch to PC and let's see just where gaming can really head to.

While I prefer the graphical superiority of pc's anyday, many people prefer gameplay, ease of use and price point more than graphical superiority. Take away consoles and many people wouldn't game at all or they would move to mobile devices. I think there is a place and time for consoles depending on what a consumer is looking for and they don't do near as much harm to PC gaming as we claim.
 
Come on man if you believe that then your a fool. All the consoles will ever do is mess up everything for everyone. December 16th the new huwai phone will have an octacore apu that will probably evenly match the power of these new consoles. Screw that **** let the consoles die everyone switch to PC and let's see just where gaming can really head to.

And you called me a fool, did you not read my entire post? Did you not get my sarcasm at the end? Your the fool if you think consoles are going anywhere any time soon. Microsoft and Sony have too much market share to just let them vanish.

And what in the hell are you talking about some octa-core phone garbage being anywhere near the performance of a console. Just to elaborate, said APU your referring to uses the Mali-450 MP which has roughly 15GFlops per core maximum of 8 cores = 120GFlops, impressive, for a phone. PS4's GPU cranks out 1.84TFlops, that's over 10 times faster. CPU wise the MT6592 has 8 core running at 1.7GHz vs the PS4's dual 4 core Jaguar APU running between 1.6 and 1.8GHz along with GDDR5 memory, it just doesn't compare.
 
Can I have your source please? or is it a randomly generated number?
its a randomly generated number. I was basically trying to say "A **** ton of gamers still don't play in 1080p." And that is true. 1080p may not be impressive to us as hardcore PC builders/1080p+ gamers, but to people who have been playing on consoles or laptops (the vast, vast majority) 1080p is still relatively new to gaming.
 
Can I have your source please? or is it a randomly generated number?
its a randomly generated number. I was basically trying to say "A **** ton of gamers still don't play in 1080p." And that is true. 1080p may not be impressive to us as hardcore PC builders/1080p+ gamers, but to people who have been playing on consoles or laptops (the vast, vast majority) 1080p is still relatively new to gaming.

Check Steam, they keep track of all that info. Bet they have accurate numbers.
 
According to steam, 55.42% of its gamers use 1080p or higher resolution. So I wasent too far off.
 
I think everyone is missing the point of the article. Jean-Normand Bucci is saying that from a development perspective there is very little difference in the code from each console and its PC equivalent. He is saying that this will cut down on development time and cost and will, hopefully, lead to PC gamers getting more games ported to PC in a way that means we aren't getting screwed for various reasons, be they time delays, shoddy code or ongoing support. In reality, it doesn't mean anything because we will continue to see games devs not develop for other platforms when it suits them, or they are coerced in to it by the publisher (or whoever writes the biggest cheque).

What he is saying, as far as I'm concerned has NOTHING to do with graphics, merely coding.
PC's will, of course, over the console generation outstrip the performance of the consoles with regard to graphics, but the underlying code will function very similarly.

They've made this console generation much more PC-like than ever before, and when the line blurs between a console and a PC, I'm less inclined to purchase a console.
 
I think everyone is missing the point of the article.

A post like this is bound for conflict. For whatever reason PC gaming fans just have to jump in and state the obvious and then Console fans seems to be more reasonable in their responses. Everyone knows that PC's CAN always be more powerful than a Console. The amount of "more powerful" = $$$. We all know that THAT gap will always grow wider as PC technology becomes faster, smaller and more efficient. But none of that matter. What matters is that finally and hopefully, PC's and Consoles can HOPE to share more games. This is a win for both parties. Because really, doesn't it suck when you have a PC and there are tons of games only on consoles and and the same times doesn't it suck when graphics and sound are better for a PC rather than a console? All about bridging the gap people.

As for Mr IKROWNI, call me wrong here but popularly speaking, consoles were around for a much longer time and before PC's. It wasn't until the 90's until PC gaming start getting more and more popular especially in the late 90's early 2000's with 3DFX, Nvidia and ATI. As for comparing a low level Octa Core A7 Processor from Mediatek to a PS4 or Xbox One? For shame.
 
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