(08-28-2014, 01:40 PM)Mímir Wrote: But haven't they changed to a full x86 architecture and standardized "PC" hardware this generation of consoles?
Yeah, they did, both consoles are actually amd x86-64 chips with integrated gpus. There are minor changes between the implementations but nothing exotic any more. A pc box without pc benefits, the ultimate irony.
(08-28-2014, 01:40 PM)Mímir Wrote: Obviously, that doesn't have an effect on backwards compatibility to the previous generation, but looking ahead, would it be so difficult to just port things (granted, publishers would much rather that you buy the game anew at full price)?
For game developers this sure makes things much much easier to the point it goes even some funny moments. The hardware is more or less slightly customized but otherwise standard pc stuff. But the software side of things is different and of course got lavish amounts of drm on top of that. Actually I think with hardware platforms between consoles being much more closer to each other and to pc than ever before means there isn't exactly a whole lot of incentive to keep games exclusive to one platform or just to consoles in general. Exception to that are studios which are owned by microsoft or sony, they don't have any choice there, but the publishers do. But then the scummy ones will want to milk ms/sony to so that the two will have their exclusive titles.