I finally got it straight (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, August 10, 2020, 12:44 (1354 days ago) @ Claude Errera
edited by Cody Miller, Monday, August 10, 2020, 12:47

I don't understand this logic. People don't upgrade their PC with every new game release; you buy a new PC when your old one is too slow to do what you want.

As a PC game developer, you are not targeting individual people, but people collectively. Nor do PC gamers only play game from one developer.

Sure, you could target this year's top-end machine... but you wouldn't sell any units. So you pick a target that's some reasonable length in the past.

Yes, and as time marches on that 'time in the past' becomes later and later. If you're targeting hardware say, 5-6 years old as a PC dev, then in 5-6 years, you're now targeting faster hardware!

Targeting the last console gives you a 1-3 year window, by your math. Which is probably pretty close to the calculation done by PC game makers.

But using 343 as an example, they are not targeting 3 years back. They are targeting 7. And this hardware doesn't change. Targeting Xbox One leaves you stuck. Targeting PC hardware x years back means you're always progressing.