Ark: Survival Evolved Dev Says PS4, Xbox One Easier To Develop For Than Last-Gen

Jesse Rapczak, founder of Studio Wildcard, the developer behind the dinosaurs action-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved, stated that the PS4 and Xbox One are easier to develop for than last gen’s consoles.

[Mostafeto]

Now that the last gen is over, several developers have stated the difficulty of developing for them and how Xbox 360 was a bit easier but now it's nice to see how Sony and Microsoft have upgraded their consoles to make them more developer-friendly.

[FallenAngel1984]

Last gen isn't completely over. We're still receiving a considerable amount of PS3 and 360 games to satisfy the very active last gen audience.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I actually agree with Fallen. Last gen isn't really over really until no one is supporting it and its not being made lol.

To be honest, its hard to say what "over" means.

PS1 began blurring those lines.

Hell PS2 got a game in 2013

http://kotaku.com/5946852/t...

Mind you, PS2 stop being made in 2012.

PS3 is still getting lots of JRPGs currently.

So...less games coming out? Sure, completely over? Nope.

I think it will get support legit likely even until PS5 comes out, most need to understand that to make a game....you don't really need PS4 or XONE level power, we see smaller titles all the time that don't need PS4's or XONE's to be made, merely that the money is their and the ease of development.

Smaller titles on PSN and XBL may keep coming to PS3 and XONE so long as Sony and MS keep the networks up.

Money is money and PS4 and XONE may get even more support longer then PS3 and 360 are getting.

Games are games, so long as the system is still be played, games can keep being made for it.

[spacedelete]

yet games are taking forever to release and both consoles have a very "sparse" library.

[Angeljuice]

Not at all, how exactly is it sparse?

[Mostafeto]

@spacedelete How is their library "sparse" ? Almost 25 AAA games were released this year on both consoles' including some of the best games' in decades like The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, Bloodborne, DA: Inquisition, Batman Arkham Knight, Far Cry 4, Middle Earth Shadow Of Mordor, Watch_Dogs, Killzone Shadowfall, Project CARS, Forza Horizon 2, Titanfall, Destiny, Dying Light and do you like me to go on ? Also before you say anything, I didn't include any of the remakes or remasters or even indies which some of them are great. One or two of these games can get you hooked and offers tons of gameplay hours. I think you just don't know what games to play.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@Mostafeto-

Wow, now that is a pack of LIES DAMN IT! You know that we got at least 3x that launch day last gen bud /s

Whats sad, is that most gamers keep complaining yet have no clue that we got more games sooner then last gen at a HUGE speed, yet still complain.

[joab777]

We've known this since like 2007 though. That cell processor was a bitch. When mastered, ot was amazing...but most 3rd party devs didn't have the time or resources to dig that deep. Good choice this gen.

The interesting part of this article is how Arc is rebdered. Xbone may actually be the better version simply b/c this game uses the CPU heavily. Very strange, but a bright spot for xbone.

This is a huge game and could be big on consoles too.

[Mostafeto]

This game will be great on consoles, I agree but they should roll out a beta phase or something similar to the current Steam's Early Access so console owners can get a taste of it instead of just watching gameplay videos.

[b1nary_B0SS]

@ joab777:

Your statement, "That cell processor was a bitch.", is also true for PS4's Liverpool GPU, so most 3rd party devs won't be digging deep this gen either.

11/14/2013 - Shuhei Yoshida: http://www.gamesindustry.bi...
There are a lot of hidden powers in our system. You may be familiar with GPGPU and PS4 has a lot more GPGPU processing in it, which is difficult to learn and master, similar to a Cell processor.

3/30/2013 - Part 2 - Mark Cerny: http://www.neogaf.com/forum...
The GPGPU for us is a feature that is of utmost importance… We’re trying to replicate the SPU Runtime System (SPURS) of the PS3 by heavily customizing the cache and bus.

[Revolver_X_]

@binaryBOSS

Yet PS4, for the most part, has the better version of multiplats. It's not a dig at Xbox. Just pointing out how incorrect you are.

[IrishSt0ner]

Uh oh b1naryB0SS thinks GPGPU is some magic hidden power Sony's console holds... in case you didn't know any language that allows code running on the CPU to poll a GPU shader for return values, can create a GPGPU framework. (i.e. Xbox, PC or any CPU/GPU setup can use it)

[FallenAngel1984]

It should be since current gen tech is closer to PC architecture than last gen was

[spacedelete]

wasn't 360 close to PC ? it was only the PS3 with the weird tech.

[Aenea]

The 360 had PowerPC cores, not x86...

[b1nary_B0SS]

@ spacedelete:

PS4 also has that "weird tech".

4/15/2013 - Dominic Mallinson: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
@~8:36 - … CELL was the precursor to today’s APUs, very much a heterogeneous architecture.

* PS3 - 1/2009 - Page 40 - Dr. Andrew Komornicki: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com...
… Each SPE contains a RISC core…

* PS4 - 1/20/2015 - Kotaku: http://www.kotaku.com.au/20...
Known as ‘Graphics Core Next’ (GCN), the HD 7000 range featured a RISC SIMD architecture …

* PS3 - 8/17/2005 - IBM: https://www.research.ibm.co...
The SPU is an in-order dual-issue statically scheduled architecture.

* PS4 - 12/21/2011 - Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/sh...
… As we mentioned previously GCN is an in-order architecture…

* PS3 - 1/1/2006 - Page 3 - H. Peter Hofstee: http://www.ece.sunysb.edu/~...
Although the SPE is not a VLIW processor…
Sept/Oct 2005 - Page 10 – Osamu Takahashi: http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/...
... The SPE implements a brand new architecture. This article describes the low-power design of the dual-issue, 32-bit, 4-way SIMD SPE.

* PS4 - 6/2011- Michael Mantor: http://developer.amd.com/wo...
Slide 7 - AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture - Compute Unit Architecture
Slide 19 - 4 SIMD non-VLIW

4/24/2013 - Mark Cerny: http://www.gamasutra.com/vi...
Next, to support the case where you want to use the GPU L2 cache simultaneously for both graphics processing and asynchronous compute, we have added a bit in the tags of the cache lines, we call it the 'volatile' bit… For PS4, we’ve worked with AMD to increase the limit to 64 sources of compute commands -- the idea is if you have some asynchronous compute you want to perform… alongside the graphics that's in the system… This concept grew out of the software Sony created, called SPURS, to help programmers juggle tasks on the CELL's SPUs -- but on the PS4, it's being accomplished in hardware.

3/30/2013 - Part 2 - Mark Cerny: http://www.neogaf.com/forum...
The GPGPU for us is a feature that is of utmost importance… We’re trying to replicate the SPU Runtime System (SPURS) of the PS3 by heavily customizing the cache and bus.

11/14/2013 - Shuhei Yoshida: http://www.gamesindustry.bi...
There are a lot of hidden powers in our system. You may be familiar with GPGPU and PS4 has a lot more GPGPU processing in it, which is difficult to learn and master, similar to a Cell processor.

http://abload.de/img/0351_4...

[chrisx]

obviously...

[parkesy78]

No shit shirlock

[Black0ut]

Lol cracked me up. Article and quotes are just a tad obvious to say the least. Heh.

[Maxor]

Why is he talking about console systems when he's too busy shoving the millions of dollars in profit from the Steam early access program into the bank?

[slate91]

I hope thats not a negative statement lol. Ark is a great example of terrific developers truly honoring the early access system. And I think the game is on track to release on consoles next year. There is already full controller support

[Mostafeto]

Yeah but I agree with Maxor above. I don't think and of course this is happening, not all of the money that they got from Early Access is being entered in the development process. Some of that money, if not the majority,is being directed to their bank accounts.

[Pandamobile]

@Mostafeto

It's almost like they're some sort of... business.

[Revolver_X_]

@Maxor @Mostafeto

What a big uneducated insult to those devs. Ark has to single-handedly be the most polished/AAAish game to hit early access.

[Maxor]

Uneducated insult? LOL. Ok then. Lets get educated.

Pop quiz! How many successful early access survivor games have actually gone to retail?

NONE! Not a single game, in a genre that is dominated by early access games. And why is that? It's simple economics and the nature of the genre itself.

1. There's zero economic motivation for a self published indie dev group to take a hit early access game to retail. If they made 10 million selling an alpha product, are they going make 20 million selling a retail product if they invest 5 million back into the project? Nope. It makes more sense to feature creep an early access game and make your millions for a bare bone development cost. This is development cycle for the vast majority of early access games on Steam.

2. The survivor genre is all about the early and mid game. This is where the hype and addiction take root and where the sales are generated. It's all about taming your first dino, looting your first assualt rifle, or crafting your first bow. To take a survivor game to retail you need a competent end game. This requires development money. Money that will never get spent because by the time the project get to this point the fanbase have already moved on to the next early access darling out of boredom.

So excuse me if my pass experiences with Starbound, Day Z and countless other early

[camel_toad]

I love the game especially considering how it hasnt even been in early access that long. Great dev with very frequent updates and community support.

OT: The game is coming to consoles so why wouldnt they discuss console development?

[joab777]

Don't be hating! They have done an amazing job using the survival genre and mixing it up, creating a very unique and enjoyable experience. Can't wait for it to come to consoles. Tired of watching on Twitch. My PC will most likely run it well, but not well enough...so I'll wait.

Also, this game is perfect for early access. Ppl are loving it...similar to DayZ. And hell, it's July.

[syotos77]

In other news, sliced bread can be bought at grocery stores.

Why is this news?