

Thursday, 24th October 2013 08:39 GMT By Dave Owen


“Why do I have to make two versions of a game?” he continued. “And when Xbox One was first announced, it had lower specs than PS4, but noe they’re almost identical. So either will do.”

Mikami’s next game is The Evil Within for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, as well as next generation consoles. It’ll make use of id Software’s brand new graphics engine, id Tech 5, and is designed as a return to classic survival horror, a genre in which Mikami has been instrumental. Some gruesome new screenshots were released yesterday.

Thanks, GameSpot.



  1. Beta

    He almost makes this sound like a bad thing.. Platform parity should hopefully mean the end of inferior ports, better for everyone.

    #1 1 year ago
  2. BrahManDude


    #2 1 year ago
  3. Erthazus

    That’s not true at all. Not even in close comparison.

    If we are going to believe this:
    Then in fact, PS4 is more powerfull than Xbox One for about 30%-40%
    Videocard is way more stronger and memory is more efficient and faster for about 50%

    #3 1 year ago
  4. Fin


    I’d never thought I’d say this, but…

    you’re right.

    #4 1 year ago
  5. Joe Musashi



    #5 1 year ago
  6. Hirmetrium

    It’s hard – as he says, they are almost identical, but at the same time? One has more power under the hood. They are the same car model, but one has a 2.0L engine and one has a 1.2L engine. You don’t see the difference, but you can feel it sometimes.

    #6 1 year ago
  7. Fin


    That’s actually one of the best analogies I’ve seen for NG consoles.

    #7 1 year ago
  8. zoopdeloop

    …guess with who Bethesda has very strong relations with.It’s a given

    #8 1 year ago
  9. monkeygourmet

    It honestly wouldn’t suprise me if MS still had better multi plats again for a good while.

    #9 1 year ago
  10. Tech-N9ne

    I have heard the same thing from Carmack, Kojima and Mikami. But some of you guys rather believe “anonymous sources”. Weird!

    #10 1 year ago
  11. AmiralPatate

    Software plays a huge part in performance. All those “it’s x% better” are meaningless if the software can’t make use of it.

    #11 1 year ago
  12. zoopdeloop

    @9 for what reason this time?
    i believe even if Ps4 is easy to develop for and has more juice into it multis will be exactly the same,God forbid, developers make high all mighty Microsoft upset and lose those big sums for timed exclusives

    @10 saying things anonymously avoids all the RAGE from fans and Microsoft.While doing things the other way around gains respect.I wouldn’t be surprised if these devs are also part of these “anonymous sources”

    #12 1 year ago
  13. monkeygourmet


    Pretty much for the reason you have said. I would like to know who is losing more per unit though. I wonder if MS are taking a bigger hit because of Kinect 2?

    #13 1 year ago
  14. monkeygourmet


    lol, exactly.

    I was very suprised Edge ran alot of those ‘articles’.

    #14 1 year ago
  15. Fin


    You’re not going to get an honest answer from a third party dev, unless they want to alienate one side.

    PS4 is better.

    #15 1 year ago
  16. Erthazus

    @monkey, it won’t be the case with multiplatform this time.

    The reason why multiplatform was better on the Xbox 360 is because it was a traditional PC machine where you could do any shit you want with x86 platform.

    Now PS4 and XBO is the same x86 thing. Who has more power will have the difference unless some dev wants to alienate one side or another.

    #16 1 year ago
  17. Tech-N9ne


    Been hearing that BS for the PS2, PS3 and now PS4, yet I don’t see it.

    I’m never gonna get this fanboying, its not like you guys own Sony or Microsoft shares. We’are all here arguing on something we make zero money on, all we do is spend money on it. Well I guess its because gaming can be a competitive thing and some people have taken that competition outside of the actual games.

    This PS4 is better argument is never gonna make me get a PS4, I’ll get one when I see enough game to make me want one, all I see now is The Order, sticking with XB1 for the next few years.

    Why would Carmack, Kojima and Mikami rather not keep their mouth shut, when they see such huge performance difference as much as 50%? Its gonna make them look really silly later if true.

    #17 1 year ago
  18. Fin


    It’s different this time as the architecture is the same, but the PS4 simply is more powerful (+easier to develop for, but that’s a whole other story).

    I’m not a fanboy – I was all 360 this gen, but I know the PS4 is the better console NG.

    #18 1 year ago
  19. Bomba Luigi

    I’m a bit tired of all the Hardware talk. Because that dosn’t really matter in the End, its the Games.

    And which Consoles has the better Games is something I will decide for myself in six Years or so. Why People need to find now a Winner in the First Days of the Console or even before they are on the Market is out of my Understanding.
    Its like someone whants to decide who Wins the Footbal World Cup 2014 now, makes no sense. And there at least you can have a clear, objectiv Winner, you can’t have that with a Console because its all about personal Preference.

    Just having Fun with playing Games, thats all I want from a Console.

    #19 1 year ago
  20. The_Red

    Guess we have to wait and see until the games actually come out. Right now and on paper, PS4′s hardware IS stronger but maybe Mikami is right. Then again, even if they turn out to be identical, Xbox One is still 100 dollars more expensive due to the black paper weight.

    #20 1 year ago
  21. Ekona

    So let’s assume that the PS4 is more powerful, and the games will look better. Let’s take that as 100% fact now.

    How is that any different to the current gen, where multiplats look almost universally better on the 360? Do any of the PS3 owners feel seriously hampered by any of this? Of course they don’t, because we’re talking marginal differences. Even on the 360, where some very big name games have been 900p, no-one has cared because they still looked great and, more importantly, gave a great experience.

    Honestly, this is all utter nonsense right now. Until we start seeing Xbone games that look massively inferior to the PS4 versions, any of this better-than-yours crap is just that: Crap.

    #21 1 year ago
  22. Keivz

    Agreed (except for the 900p(?) part).

    360 = better GPU, better RAM (unified+eDRAM)
    PS3 = slightly better processor

    Sound familiar? Yet here we are years later and the differences between the two boxes at the game level remains minimal. Now big name developers are coming out and saying the differences are even less significant this time around and yet we still this back and forth from people who really know nothing about true game development. I mean if you looked at the launch lineup not knowing the system specs, which HW would you say was more powerful? Let’s just let the games speak for themselves. We won’t have to wait terribly long.

    #22 1 year ago
  23. Unknown_Gamer

    I just lost faith in this idiot when says he is interested to develop a Kinect game , and he said many stupid things before about RE Remake sales and in the other hand bashing Sony for nothing , this derp clearly lost his mind and i think he is putting himself in the wrong side of gaming .

    #23 1 year ago
  24. Fin


    360 = easy architecture
    PS3 = hard architecture

    X1 = easy architecture
    PS3 = easy architecture

    When both systems are based off the same architecture (x86 in this case), differences between them are more apparent, and more easily measured.

    #24 1 year ago
  25. DrDamn

    At the moment, due to the ESRAM issue, I’d say X1 has the relatively harder architecture to get the most out of. This will improve with time and tool refinements though. The CoD rumour is certainly helping back this up.

    #25 1 year ago
  26. pcbros

    @24 – The only problem is that we have yet to see any “apparent” differences. Until I see a side by side comparison of a game that looks or runs noticeably better on the PS4, this will mean nothing to me.

    I think the difference in hardware power only serves to feed egos and will not show any real advantage in games.

    #26 1 year ago
  27. Fin


    Honestly, I’d be surprised if any launch games are significantly better on either console (hence the rumours of 720p Ghosts surprise me).

    This is about the long game.

    #27 1 year ago
  28. mistermogul

    @5 – Nice! lol

    I wonder if Shinji has been “slipped” a wad of cash from MS to publicly state this? Or is that just the cynic in me?

    #28 1 year ago
  29. Doppleganger

    They went with gamecube cause it wasn’t more powerful but had better tech. They will make the same decision and go for Xbox one.

    #29 1 year ago
  30. Cobra951

    @18, 19: Given parity in games available, I would prefer the more powerful hardware. If that also happens to be the less expensive hardware, so much the better. But will there be parity in software? That’s the big question.

    #30 1 year ago
  31. sebastien rivas

    The same no, we cannot say it is the same but do developers need to make two variations of games, no, they do not either, we are not talking a huge discrepancy of hardware between the 2 giants, not enough to get the developers interested in creating two variant of a game.

    YET, smart as developers can be what the guy does not tell us is that he will develop game on least powerhouse and leave it as is for the ever so slightly more powerful hardware, wrap it up, and call it good job.

    Whether remaining on 720 p, 960 p, or 1080 p. It does not matter, the best res goes and call for least polygonal scenes and more stuffed up maps or scenes calls for least hi def. Do you truly believe “optimization” is going to change something?

    There is only so much developers can do WITH current techs and workflow and I do not believe anyone will come with a magic wand to be honest.

    So.. humm…… 60 fps 720 and currently beautiful games or 1080p and empty area or boxed meshes?

    I truly felt the empty areas in BF4 Shangai, streets are empty etc…, it felt like a reversal from Bf3 with polycounts.

    It truly going to be rough and tough for developers

    #31 1 year ago
  32. fearmonkey

    @6 – That is a great analogy!

    Really, what he and Carmack have been saying is feature wise, the consoles are the same. Third parties are going to develop a game that looks the same across both consoles. The main difference is that the PS4 can do everything at higher res and a bit faster, and this will be noticeable eventually in first party games. As the systems age, the PS4 will look better than the Xbone, but unlike previous generations, there isnt a huge difference in architecture this time.

    Like Erth said, you just cannot get away from the fact that one has a much more power powerful GPU than the other. The Xbone has a $150 class GPU and the PS4 has a $300 class GPU. AllI can say is that right now I have a ATI 7870 in my PC and the PS4′s GPU is close to that in performance, and that excites me. I know what the chip is capable of.

    Esram is great an all, and im sure that it ill eventually translate into better performance butnot overtake the raw power of a different class of GPU. I wish Activision would just come out and tell us what resolution COD:GHOSTS is on each for sure single player and multiplayer wise. If its true that PS4 has 1080p and Xbone 720p, there is some conference room talks going on right now I’d bet money on it.

    #32 1 year ago
  33. pcbros

    Does anyone know for a fact what class GPU is in each console? Last I read, it was just estimated conclusions.

    #33 1 year ago
  34. xxJPRACERxx

    @33 You’re right, everyone speculate that it’s the basic AMD SoC. Sony and MS had specific changes and features implemented so right now it’s impossible to really tell what these chips are capable of and it’s stupid to compared them to specific PC parts.

    #34 1 year ago
  35. Erthazus

    PS4 and Xbox One’s GPU chips are from 7000 Radeon series. That’s for sure.

    With 28 nm chips (for both GPU and CPU). PS4 version so far at least has more shaders than Xbox One by 20%-25%. Overall we know the performance.

    PS4 does 1.84 TFLOP and XBO – 1.31 TFLOP. Not that much by PC standards but you can clearly see who has more power.

    Sony spent more money on the hardware. That’s for sure.

    #35 1 year ago
  36. pcbros

    I feel like we are going to see the same comparisons from last generation. Side by side videos or images where one version has more lens flare and the other has darker blacks.

    Reality is coming and soon all these spec debates will mean nothing.

    In the mean time, I need to upgrade my PC for Star Citizen and Euro Truck Simulator 2 :)

    #36 1 year ago
  37. TheWulf

    What makes this more difficult for developers is that each closed system has its own proprietary ways of doing things. So creating something for the XBO is very different from creating things for the PS4, and vice versa.

    The hardware doesn’t really matter quite as much as that as the cooperation between PC and Android shows, it’s more down to how easily the developer can interact with each particular system. I remember everyone threw their lot in with the 360 at launch, and because of this they had a hard time almost recreating their games for the PS4, due to the PS4 working so differently.

    If Microsoft and Sony were less tribal and less prone to tribal warfare, they’d open their systems up — they’d go for completely open APIs and try to homogenise things across the systems for the sake of developers. Now, AMD has done their best to do this with this new generation (fair play to them), but the graphical component is only one element of a console.

    This is why timed exclusives occur, because it’s expensive to do multi-platform unless you already have systems in place for that. It’s easier for some developers as they make games which are less demanding, and they think ahead. TT Games is a great example. But when you’re pushing the limits of, say, the 360, it’s hard then to take that optimisation and bring it to the PS3. This is why we had things like dragons flying backwards in the PS3 version of Skyrim.

    This is why I’m hoping that the Steambox or something like it will clear up this mess by encouraging competitors to create open systems, thus incentivising developers into doing multi-platform releases because it would be so much easier. It’d be simpler for them to look at the systems, then, and to figure out what optimisations they could do. They could then split those optimisations off of the main codebase and compile with those for each platform.

    It’s a pipe dream, I know.

    But I really hope that this is a paradigm shift that the Steambox will bring around. No one really thinks about how shitty it is for the developers.

    #37 1 year ago
  38. Zult

    There once was a strong man but not so smart, everyone thought that he could not be beat. The thing was he was going to fight for the princess of the kingdom and there was an “average” man going to fight for her as well. The strong man thought, “Hey, this will be an easy fight, I am more powerful than this man”. But, in the end the strong man lost because he underestimated the “average” man because that man was smart and he knew tactics that would help him through the entire fight. That my friends is PS4- Strong Man, Xbox One- The Underestimated.

    #38 1 year ago
  39. Hyperx64

    #10 @Tech-N9ne Hey, biased commenters aren’t going to let reason get in the way of “MOAR GRAPHICS” nonsense. What’s that saying… “Ignorance is Bliss” ;)

    #16 @Erthazus No. Xbox360 was IBM PowerPC based. The original Xbox was x86.

    #39 1 year ago
  40. Hyperx64

    #18 @Fin Complete nonsense. All you post E3 2013 “hardware experts” are driving me nuts. Oh yeah, Carmack, Kojima and Mikami don’t know what they are talking about, but random commenters with no hardware engineering knowledge do?! Get off it, mate!

    #40 1 year ago
  41. Hyperx64

    O Yeah, and aliens are holding him captive at Area-51 to make sure people don’t realise the PS4 is 80% Moar Powerful! Nonsense of the highest order.

    #41 1 year ago
  42. Hyperx64

    #33 @pcbros No, not at all. Though, all the new hardware experts will explain (the lack of actual facts), in lengthy diatribe based on key-words that they heard someone say in an article somewhere else. :P

    #42 1 year ago
  43. Javinator

    woah, not good for PS4:

    #43 1 year ago
  44. Fin


    “All you post E3 2013″ – I knew about the tech lonnnng before E3 ;)

    No, multiple anonymous sources that confirm each others stories are more trustworthy to speak candidly about systems than figureheads.


    Anyway, I was reading the Edge article this morning, and the quote is out of context – the full quote is

    “There’s no real difference between them. Why do I have to make two versions of my game? Either one will do. The user doesn’t care about spec; the want the design to be cool. If Apple released a game console, it would make a lot of gamers happy”

    He was talking about from the end/casual user perspective, there’s not much difference between them. He just wants to design games and not care about platform.

    #44 1 year ago

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