The Xbox One’s graphics performance is expected to significantly improve once Microsoft releases new DirectX 12 drivers. But according to one popular game developer, that won’t put the console on par with Sony’s PlayStation 4. In fact, it’s apparently “physically impossible” for the Xbox One to match the PS4 when it comes to computing power.
Oddworld Inhabitants co-founder Lorne Lanning suggested in late March during an interview with Xbox Achievements that the performance gap between the two consoles will disappear in the future. However, it appears that he wasn’t actually referring to the computing differences between the two devices. A few days later, in an interview with Worlds Factory, Just Add Water CEO Stewart Gilray said that Lanning’s words were misunderstood.
“Actually that is NOT what he said,” Gilray said. “I spoke to Lorne afterwards and what he meant when speaking to that guy was that budgets, schedules and perceivable differences would narrow, NOT that the Xbox One performance is improving to align with PS4, that is just physically impossible. The PS4 has MORE COMPUTE units, and faster memory and a whole bunch of things, that would make that physically impossible to happen.”
Lanning is working on a new “from-the-ground-up” remake of Oddworld for PlayStation 4, and the game could also arrive on the Xbox One, as the game developer is already in talks to bring the new title to Microsoft’s console under the ID@Xbox program. If the game does arrive on both platforms, Lanning expects it to perform well no matter what console buyers choose.
“For us, we aren’t taxing it that heavy, like I say it’s not Battlefield,” Lanning said. “For us, we don’t really see that we’ll have performance problems on either and we’ll be able to get what we want, with very dynamic looking lighting, particle effects, etc.”
Just Add Water has also worked on various Oddworld titles so far, and is involved in the upcoming Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty game for PS4 (and other platforms).
