votemarvel said:
I give it six months to a year before we see the first Xbox Scorpio exclusive, one that won't play on a base Xbox One.
There is little point to boosting the power of the system if the only thing it is going to get is higher resolutions.
However the point remains. Even if all the Scorpio does get are the same games with higher resolution and textures, that is still one step down for the One and then likely another for the Switch.
Skyrim is hardly the most taxing game, it can run decently on Intel HD graphics after all. If the version the Switch gets (which isn't yet confirmed) is the Special Edition, well that's still a 6 year old game with a HD polish and I'd be surprised if the Switch couldn't run it.
You mean the First Xbox One S exclusive - There is no console called the Scorpio. And this makes it quite confusing and difficult to make exclusives. This also assumes that MS allows publishing of a One S exclusive, and doesn't enforce a game running on both systems - where AFAIK they've said they'd do the opposite. Its actually far more likely the One S and PS+ simply won't get a lot of developer traction, as they are unlikely to sell that well [The One and PS4 are only 3 years old after all, the idea of consoles is not to keep buying one every 2 years to stay up to date, and the last gen lasted 8ish or more, which is what people are used to now], so they won't have the userbase to drive sales, and they'll have a bunch of silly rules attached to them that'll make them undesirable to develop for - like the necessity to have the game work on the previous gen still.
Make no mistake, even with the One S and PS+, the benchmark for console performance will still be the vanilla One and PS4. There simply aren't enough benefits for people from the new console offerings from MS/Sony to really push sales, and they're not going to get any system-selling games while MS and Sony insist on the games also running on the basic versions of the consoles.
Additionally, if people really did want better performance, higher resolutions, and better graphics - they'd go PC. Especially these days with consoles taking all the downfalls of PC gaming, with few of the benefits. People aren't always rational, but they're not completely stupid either.
We're not looking at one step down for the One, then another for the Switch. That assumes the devs would be looking at the One S as the primary development platform and working from there. What PC gaming has taught us is this will not be the case. The devs will look at the basic One as the primary platform, MAYBE take the step up to the One S if it gets a large enough user base, and if the Switch is even somewhat comparable to the One, maybe making some small modifications to get the game to run on that - like they do with the Xbone to PS4, or the 360 to PS3. Of course, how willing they'll be depends on the console's specs, but the One S and PS+ won't be the new benchmark. They'd need mainstream staying power and widespread appeal for that. The resounding reaction I've seen to them, however, has been "Meh, I don't even own a 4K TV". They'll be a niche product, and will be treated as such by developers. As much as you say there isn't much point to upgrading a console just for higher resolutions - and I, and most people, agree - that is what MS and Sony seem to have been going for, possibly crossed with VR performance increases. Its what they've been advertising them as, and what they've talked about the big difference between them and the previous gen being. They seem to think that is enough to sell a console, while most of us are sitting here going "I see no benefit to this".
As for Skyrim... Maybe not the most taxing game, but it is optimised like a dog, and GPU measures aren't the only ones that matter. CPU speed and usable RAM are likely to be as important, if not more so, for running games. Especially if it is running the updated edition - which, lets be honest, it likely is as I don't see Bethesda remaking the base Skyrim again just for the Switch; they probably just took their updated Skyrim they were making, and made it compatible with the Switch. This shows that devs designing for the One and PS4, are able to reasonably easily port their games to the Switch - at least in this example. This is a big important part of getting games onto the Switch. We don't know its capabilities yet. I don't think it'll quite match the One or 4, but it'll likely be close enough to not be completely outcast - especially so early in the cycle of the Consoles where you're not optimising to hell and back trying to squeeze every ounce of juice out of a dying machine. It remains to be seen just what the Switch will do, and how easy to develop for it is, but at present I wouldn't just write it out of the running. It seems to be the next gen console that has garnered the most interest out of gamers in general, and not for bad reasons - and that's a good sign. We'll just have to see if Nintendo has pulled off the execution as well as the theory.
