We are now 18 months in the Lifespan of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The PS4 and Xbox One are officially last-gen, a fact that’s becoming increasingly clear to anyone who’s tried to play elden ring on an old console whose fan sounds like a wind tunnel. Developers are taking notice, too, and the recent cancellations of last-gen releases give the impression that the industry is finally reaching a tipping point where it feels comfortable moving beyond the PS4 and Xbox One.
One of the few remaining big blockbusters of fall is Gotham Knightsbut as Warner Bros. Montreal revealed last week, the Batman marauder is now officially a current gene exclusive. “In order to provide players with the best possible gaming experience, the game will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC and will not be available for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One consoles,” the studio announced.
Last November, The Outsiders made a similar decision with its upcoming rhythm shooter. Metal: Hellsinger. The game has been pushed back to 2022 and last gen versions were quietly put down
There are many factors that Walk into decisions like this as studios try to balance resources and hardware skills by getting their games in front of as many people as possible. There is a estimated 150 million PS4s and Xbox Ones compared to much fewer PS5s and Xbox Series X/Ss (some estimates put the combined number of new/current gen consoles at around 30 million). And in cases like Gotham Knightsthat has already missed a release date, trimming the last-gen version is one way to avoid further delays.
In a way, a definitive break with past consoles is overdue, at least by recent industry standards. Batman: Arkham Knight was originally unveiled and expected to be released less than a year into the lifespan of PS4 and Xbox One with no last-gen versions. Until autumn 2015, Rainbow Six Siege, Cause 3 only, Assassin’s Creed Syndicateand failure 4 had all left the PS3 and Xbox 360 behind. Compare that to 2022, in which Leave, Marvel’s Midnight Sunand Hogwarts legacy All are expected to continue to be cross-gen.
The pandemic has clearly been a major driver in delaying the transition to the next console cycle longer than usual. In addition to console bottlenecks that are shrinking the new install base, games that were originally scheduled to release shortly after the launch of the powerful new consoles are now hitting the market years later. In fact, one look at how Sony and Microsoft have handled the next-gen handover shows just how out of hand the transition has gotten.
You may remember a now-infamous quote from PlayStation boss Jim Ryan just before the PS5 was released. “We’ve always said we believe in generations,” he said GamesIndustry.biz in May 2020 when asked about making first-party games cross-gen. “We believe that if you make the effort to create a next-gen console, it should include features and benefits that the previous generation doesn’t offer. And that we think people should make games that can make the most of those features.”
These views were in stark contrast to those of Microsoft, which had been loosely committed to cross-generational compatibility for at least a few years. “When our content comes out in the next year, two years, all of our games will be played back and forth on this family of devices, much like PC,” said Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios MCVUK
But then the pandemic struck, and by June Microsoft had started send mixed signals about what would be intergenerational and what would not. With good reason, it turns out: games on the Xbox Series X/S like to present themselves this summer confesses, Always wild, Forza Motorsportt, fableand state of decay 3 were gone every year. It’s now unclear if any upcoming Microsoft games will come to Xbox One. Sony, on the other hand, delivered a last-gen version of Horizon forbidden west earlier this year and God of War Ragnarok will continue to release for both PS4 and PS5 if it still reaches its 2022 release window. That’s a big if, but one that still completely inverts the earlier philosophies of Microsoft and Sony.
It’s also not clear if that’s for the best. There are limits to scaling projects down, and releasing to additional platforms means more work. The PS4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077 got busted at launch in 2020 and still not great. In retrospect, these versions were a mistake. There are even rumors that the lower-spec Xbox Series S was a “painful” thorn on some developer sites. It’s a luxury to be able to buy new consoles, but with few exceptions worth discussingit also doesn’t feel like any current-gen exclusives have made it necessary. Gotham Knights probably won’t change, but the A flood of exclusive games follows could.