Sony's Jim Ryan believes developers will hold back Xbox One X versions due to PlayStation 4 Pro

Update: Even Bungie has come out and said that they won’t hold back the Xbox One X version because of the PlayStation 4 Pro’s weaker hardware.

It’s amazing how fickle our memories are and how conveniently we forget history. In a recent interview, Sony’s Jim Ryan said that developers usually aim for the “lowest common denominator” when designing games so he wasn’t worried that Xbox One X games would look vastly superior to their PlayStation 4 Pro counterparts. Ryan gave the example of the PlayStation 3 and how its power wasn’t utilized by developers. Its power wasn’t utilized by developers because it was notoriously difficult to program for, not because they didn’t want to. Remember that infamous Bayonetta scandal where it couldn’t even run on PlayStation 3 properly?

Even if you look at many multiplatform Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games, they either feature a more stable frame rate or a higher resolution on PlayStation 4. Developers didn’t hold back the PlayStation 4 versions due to the Xbox One’s weak hardware. The “resolutiongate” controversy is proof of that. In 2013 Sony believed that developers would target the superior console because it would make their games shine. Now that the tables have turned, they believe that developers target the “lowest common denominator”. All of you know what this is an example of.

Many developers have already come out and said that they won’t hold back the Xbox One X version due to the PlayStation 4 Pro. For example, BioWare is developing Anthem in mind for Xbox One X primarily. Project CARS 2 will feature much better visuals than on PlayStation 4 Pro. Lastly, Ark: Survival Evolved has the option to run at 1080p 60 FPS on Xbox One X and only 30 FPS on PlayStation 4 Pro. These are just some of the examples.

At E3 2017, many developers we spoke to said that they would make sure the Xbox One X version was the best. Many of the same developers Jim Ryan believes will target the “lowest common denominator” have promised to not used checkboarding and get their games up to native 4K unlike their PlayStation 4 Pro games. It seems as though Jim Ryan is mistaken again because developers—and the whole “resolutiongate” debate—say otherwise.