Peter Hines on Oblivion-console matchmaking

Bethesda‘s VP of Public Relations and Marketing”>Pete Hines is back in our sights with more details for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. This time around, Bethesda’s VP of Public Relations and Marketing explains more on the developer’s insight for the tweaks found in Oblivion‘s PS3 version, as well as the company’s mindset for selecting consoles.

First up, Hines explained that the new features being introduced for the PS3 version (such as the special shader) were not so much a matter of the PS3’s computing power. Rather, Oblivion‘s development team has simply allocated more time to work on the Sony console port, which in turn prompted them to get more out of the machine’s capabilities so that it could play as well – if not better – than the Xbox 360 and PC versions.

Secondly, Hines also reiterated on Bethesda’s philosophy for choosing a launch platform. Explaining the game’s trend from the PC, to the 360, and then the PS3, Hines notes that Bethesda chose the console due to availability – and they only started fielding the game in consoles upon being convinced (via the dev kits) that the machines could easily carry Oblivion‘s specifications.

“Our philosophy is to [decide] what game we want to make, then determine which platforms can run that game,” he said on that note. He further added, unfortunately, that the prospects of a Wii release are not on the horizon, at least not until the Nintendo console buffed up its specs to meet the game’s demands.

Bethesda‘s VP of Public Relations and Marketing”>Pete Hines is back in our sights with more details for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. This time around, Bethesda’s VP of Public Relations and Marketing explains more on the developer’s insight for the tweaks found in Oblivion‘s PS3 version, as well as the company’s mindset for selecting consoles.

First up, Hines explained that the new features being introduced for the PS3 version (such as the special shader) were not so much a matter of the PS3’s computing power. Rather, Oblivion‘s development team has simply allocated more time to work on the Sony console port, which in turn prompted them to get more out of the machine’s capabilities so that it could play as well – if not better – than the Xbox 360 and PC versions.

Secondly, Hines also reiterated on Bethesda’s philosophy for choosing a launch platform. Explaining the game’s trend from the PC, to the 360, and then the PS3, Hines notes that Bethesda chose the console due to availability – and they only started fielding the game in consoles upon being convinced (via the dev kits) that the machines could easily carry Oblivion‘s specifications.

“Our philosophy is to [decide] what game we want to make, then determine which platforms can run that game,” he said on that note. He further added, unfortunately, that the prospects of a Wii release are not on the horizon, at least not until the Nintendo console buffed up its specs to meet the game’s demands.