How Will Next Gen Ports Be Handled?

Before much was known of the Xbox 360, the Wii and the PS3, it was generally assumed that porting across the three platforms would be much easier than on previous consoles because they would most likely be pretty similar in terms of features and performance. How times have changed.

Last generation it was still relatively easy to handle multi platform ports with all three consoles having roughly the same basic capabilities at least in terms of features, with only the Xbox’s “Live” online networking system really separating it from the Gamecube and PS2. Developers generally aimed for the lowest common denominator (the PS2) and worked from there, this time things look to be a little different.

Find out just what will make porting the next generation a challenge, after the jump!

Before much was known of the Xbox 360, the Wii and the PS3, it was generally assumed that porting across the three platforms would be much easier than on previous consoles because they would most likely be pretty similar in terms of features and performance. How times have changed.

Last generation it was still relatively easy to handle multi platform ports with all three consoles having roughly the same basic capabilities at least in terms of features, with only the Xbox’s “Live” online networking system really separating it from the Gamecube and PS2. Developers generally aimed for the lowest common denominator (the PS2) and worked from there, this time things look to be a little different.

In some respects the death of cross platform ports would be a blessing (just ask PSP owners) as developers will no longer be setting their sights on the the lowest common denominator but rather aiming to get the best out of the target system and utilise its unique capabilities, always a good thing.

This time around Nintendo’s entry in the console wars is almost certainly going to be out powered by the competition, and from the looks of it significantly enough that sharing assets across platforms would be impractical. On the flip side, the system will also sport a unique controller designed to facilitate gameplay experiences neither of the other two consoles will be capable of replicating (not even the PS3’s motion sensitive controller offers the freedom of the Wiimote). It definitely makes the console stand out from the crowd, but also makes it that much more difficult to port to (again, is this necessarily a bad thing?) and we’re yet to hear concrete word on whether the  standard Wii controller shell will be included out of the box. Either way both of these facts will make the Wii the most difficult console of the bunch to port to, good because it means developers will have to tailor their games to the system, giving gamers the best experience the system can offer, but bad because it means Wii gamers will most likely miss out on some awesome games available on other platforms with no hope of a port.

The PS3 and the 360 are both unbelievably powerful machines and regardless of which console is more powerful it’s pretty apparent based on what we’ve seen that assets can be shared across both at least as easily as was the case in the 128 bit era. It’s likely that we’ll see more ports across these two than across the 360 and Wii, or the PS3 and Wii. There are however a couple of factors that will most likely affect how easily and effectively ports are handled.

First is the PS3’s motion sensitive controller, any functionality developers imbue the device with will most certainly be absent in the 360 version, that’s not to say this can’t be worked around with a little intelligent button configuration but it depending on how much the added functionality affects gameplay the exclusion of motion sensitive tech will most likely be missed.

A second point of interest is the utilisation of the hard drive, all PS3’s will come with a HDD for developers to use while only the Xbox 360 “Premium Packs” will have them. However, considering the converse was the situation for the previous generation of hardware (the PS2’s lack of a HDD as opposed to the Xbox’s built in HDD), this shouldn’t me much of an obstacle to overcome.

A third point to ponder is how closely Sony’s PlayStation Network Platform will be able to mimic the enhanced Xbox Live. If developers are able to get more stable, consistent performance from Xbox live, how will this affect what they do with heavily multiplayer oriented titles like Battlefield, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty? While we’ve heard again and again the Sony’s matchmaking service will be offered free of charge you really do have to question how effectively a young, free service can compete with the more mature pay based Microsoft solution.

At the end of the day we’ll still get ports, there’s no way around the fact that as development costs rise developers will be looking to make back as much as they can from their investment, and getting that product to as many gamers as possible is the best way to do that. Let’s just hope that they look to the example laid down by Madden 2007 for Wii and offer markedly different experiences across the platforms able to offer them.