So.. what happened here? The publishing director at Larian said that they "must launch with feature parity" and that they would be unable to remove the splitscreen for series S. Then Phil Spencer says "No, that's not a thing. You can totally do it." But only after a big delay has already caused some media buzz around one of, if not the, biggest game launches of the year. And now they can remove the splitscreen from series s.
So was it a misunderstanding on Larian's part? Or did they themselves not want to launch without feature parity? I don't see a world where they wanted to delay launching the product so late behind the other platforms.
Or is Phil Spencer being disingenuous by claiming a requirement to the devs, but then walking it back in public spaces?
It really sounds like the latter. If it were a misunderstanding, Xbox would have clarified the situation back when the story started getting traction.
I thought feature parity was always the expectation for the Series series. This is both interesting and once again making me regret getting the SS. I wish they had just made a digital SX like Playstation did the PS5.
I mean the only reason to get the SS is and was the much cheaper price, being digital only was part of it but not the only thing or main thing as at the end is less powerful.
A digital version like the PS5 would have been much more expensive, like removing the disc reader it's not like much saving. So at the end I doubt a lot of people that got the SS would have got it if this model was a thing tbh.
I think it's for the best of everyone to have this decision made.
Larian can get a boost of sales, series S owner that didn't need split screen can play, and MS set precedent that feature parity is negotiable.
Completely agreed, especially on the last point. There was a risk of the S holding future current-gen games back if they had to run on parity with the X, and now devs know there’s wiggle room. This is very good news.
So.. what happened here? The publishing director at Larian said that they "must launch with feature parity" and that they would be unable to remove the splitscreen for series S. Then Phil Spencer says "No, that's not a thing. You can totally do it." But only after a big delay has already caused some media buzz around one of, if not the, biggest game launches of the year. And now they can remove the splitscreen from series s.
So was it a misunderstanding on Larian's part? Or did they themselves not want to launch without feature parity? I don't see a world where they wanted to delay launching the product so late behind the other platforms.
Or is Phil Spencer being disingenuous by claiming a requirement to the devs, but then walking it back in public spaces?
It really sounds like the latter. If it were a misunderstanding, Xbox would have clarified the situation back when the story started getting traction.
I thought feature parity was always the expectation for the Series series. This is both interesting and once again making me regret getting the SS. I wish they had just made a digital SX like Playstation did the PS5.
I mean the only reason to get the SS is and was the much cheaper price, being digital only was part of it but not the only thing or main thing as at the end is less powerful.
A digital version like the PS5 would have been much more expensive, like removing the disc reader it's not like much saving. So at the end I doubt a lot of people that got the SS would have got it if this model was a thing tbh.
I think it's for the best of everyone to have this decision made. Larian can get a boost of sales, series S owner that didn't need split screen can play, and MS set precedent that feature parity is negotiable.
Completely agreed, especially on the last point. There was a risk of the S holding future current-gen games back if they had to run on parity with the X, and now devs know there’s wiggle room. This is very good news.
Phil Spencer, be disingenuous? Well, I never!