The PlayStation 4 F2P launch title, Warframe, is, as we know, a console exclusive port of the popular PC game already available. Digital Extremes Studio General Manager, Sheldon Carter, already talked to us about Warframe on the PlayStation 4 when interviewed by us at E3, but Steve Sinclair, Creative Director, recently talked to GamingBolt about how more games going online next-gen influences their upcoming title:
Fundamental shift for us – we’re bringing Warframe to PS4 for launch. Without Sony’s openness to a game that is taking advantage of that connectivity (multiplayer with constant updates, free and supported by player’s buying items) we’d have no future on console platforms.
When asked about any differences between the PS4 and PC versions, Steven said that there would be none because “our goal is updating the PS4 version in sync with the PC version with all the same content, features and events. For those things to happen – for the ecosystem to be shared – we cannot diverge.” This means that any new content they add to celebrate the launch of the PS4 version will also come out on the PC at the same time, and (Miami) vice versa.
Sinclair did talk about a few features the PS4 itself has, including how the “DualShock 4 is the best controller I’ve ever touched,” “the Share features are perfect for our audience,” and “the GPU is a beast and the game looks stellar running on the PS4!” But getting back to that PS4/PC synchronicity, they just want “there to be one Warframe version that all players participate in.”
We are using a lot of the memory, but because of texture streaming, we have plenty to spare! That’s a good thing, it gives us options that we never thought we’d have before, and it opens up possibilities for extra detail and video streaming.
The unified memory is part of what makes the console so great to develop on. You can use threads to generate textures and graphics assets. You can use the GPU to process physics and effects data.
It’s key in shipping a console that is great early in the cycle while leaving the ceiling quite high for hybrid computing techniques in the future.
On the subject of bringing Warframe to the PS4, and not PS3, Sony’s current generation console may be “a great machine” with SPUs that “were insanely fast if you customized code for them,” but “with Warframe being a ‘new’ franchise, I guess it just made more sense from an intuitive level to look to future platforms.”
Will you be jumping into Warframe when you pick up your PS4? Let us know in the comments below.
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