I finally got it straight (Gaming)

by squidnh3, Monday, August 10, 2020, 12:59 (1642 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I'll state right now that I have no idea if Halo Infinite is an outlier, or if all new games have to be similar.

I'm also operating on little-to-no research here, I remember seeing some article that basically all the games they announced in their event recently weren't coming out any time soon, and there was some language about in the original announcement about supporting Xbox One for some amorphous time period.

Particularly of note is the fast SSDs on the new consoles, and hardware decompression of assets. This in particular opens up huge opportunities for games. But you can see how that becomes useless if you need to also develop your game for a system with a spinning disc that decompresses assets in software. If the next tech is your baseline, you can maximize that to push your engine and your game design in new ways. I'm sure there are lots of creative things people can do with it that we haven't even thought of yet.

My wild speculation here is that it's more of an ad-hoc "get it to work" approach for supporting Xbox One. Then, with their GamePass service, it's not a major issue for Xbox One owners to try new games that may be better on the new hardware. And, if the gamer likes the game even in its limited state, they may be more likely to take the leap to the new hardware to play their new favorite game in its full glory. It's sort of the reverse strategy to the normal console selling methods, and it has the advantage of getting good press because it doesn't feel pushy.