Gears of War 4 developer believes Project Scorpio is the technological leap Xbox One should've been

Update: Gears of War 4 will receive its Xbox One X patch in October with a map drop.

Gears of War 4 is a gorgeous game and it looks stunning on Xbox One. However, despite the fact that The Coalition were able to get it running at 1080p and even 60 FPS during multiplayer, they still encountered a lot of problems. Speaking with Gamasutra, the game’s technical director Mike Raynor said that he was “a little bit disappointed” with the Xbox One when he first started working with it. Despite the fact that the console has evolved over the years, Raynor added that initially “it kind of felt like we’d really taken a step back.”

Microsoft has always been on the bleeding edge of technology when it comes to consoles, just look at the original Xbox and the Xbox 360. The original Xbox was the most powerful device on the market at that time and the Xbox 360 used components in such a way that the PlayStation 3 never caught up. Remember the Bayonetta controversy and how it didn’t even run on PlayStation 3? Both of these devices allowed developers to pump out the best versions of their games. Why the company decided that an underpowered console would garner the same support from developers is a mystery which may never be solved. Power has been a selling point for the Xbox brand and they abandoned that tradition with the Xbox One.

Continuing with the interview Raynor said, “with what we’re doing with Project Scorpio, it’s very pleasurable to work with.” Raynor hopes that the upcoming console will bring back developers to the Xbox brand—a sentiment recently echoed by Mike Ybarra. Game creators want to show off their titles and no one wants their game to look blurry or exhibit severe performance issues. Developers are attracted to the platform that allows them to do that and right now it’s PlayStation 4 due to its 0.5 TFLOP advantage over Xbox One. When it comes to consoles every little counts!

The difference between PlayStation 4 Pro and Project Scorpio is around 2 TFLOPS, much more than the 0.5 TFLOPS, and this should help developers bring the best versions of their titles to Project Scorpio. If the console is the best place to create due to its tools and power, developers will readily adopt it. That’s just how console game development works. Here’s hoping Microsoft gets the device into the hands of as many creators as possible so that we can see games unlike anything in the past. 6 TFLOPS should give creators enough power to truly realize their technical visions for their projects.