Microsoft May Unlock Xbox One's "Hidden" Power Over Time

Making money disappear is the other power

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Developer CD Projekt is sitting on the most anticipated game of 2014 with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Lead engine programmer Balazs Torok explains the ways that the developer is getting ready for what it sees as the inevitable: Microsoft will tweak the Xbox One and release more of its graphical hidden potential. "It will happen, eventually, but right now we are preparing for it."

It will happen, eventually, but right now we are preparing for it.

In the months leading up to the launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 many anonymous developer sources were being sought out to whine or wax poetic about either the PS4 or Xbox One’s development kit as the media tried to ferret out the actual power of the next-gen consoles. Now that we’ve got the boxes in our hands the similarities are very close but Microsoft has taken some heat for last minute changes that mean its launch titles are not in as high of resolution as the PS4.

The Xbox 360, during its long lifespan, was tweaked with updates to juice more power out of the box. Developers like CD Projekt say that this will also happen with the Xbox One whereas the PS4 is nearly “maxed out” at launch.

"I saw how Microsoft opened up certain parts that they hid before from developers," he said. "They opened them up, like, 'OK now you can have this back door, and it's risky but you can do this and that...' This is how developers learned a little bit more and more every step. From Microsoft it was a good way to do it - to always let the developers do a little bit more."

Torok warns that the changes, if they’re like the ones seen in the Xbox 360, will be small but significant.

"It's not like they would open up new hardware or anything - there's nothing new in there," Török cautioned. "It's new ways to do something. Both companies are already using all the knowledge they have from previous products to make the API tailored to games ... so I expect that they will do something like, 'OK now you can do this; it's extremely risky - only do this if you know what you're doing! But you can do this.”

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[Via Eurogamer]

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