How PS4 and Xbox One Will Yield Better Creativity

With the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the scene, the next console generation has finally begun. While a new generation usually brings the promise of more graphical power, great graphics are only part of the gaming equation. What will these new consoles allow developers to do creatively?
GamesIndustry International reached out to a few developers to ask them how next-gen will help them on the creative side of equation. Is it a huge creative leap, or merely a slight evolution?
In its last two titles, Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, independent developer The Chinese Room focused on pushing the first-person game away from the shooting mechanics that usually dominate. The studio's next title, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, is coming to PlayStation 4 with some help from Sony Computer Entertainment. For The Chinese Room, next-gen helps their creative juices just by being easier to work with.
"The blunt reality is that easier production equals more creative freedom and opportunity"
The Chinese Room creative director Dan Pinchbeck

"I think the major thing, from the perspective of actually building games, is less for us about the power - that's brilliant of course, and having significantly higher budgets makes a big difference - but it's more about the ease of working with PS4," The Chinese Room creative director Dan Pinchbeck told GamesIndustry International. "So far, it's just been a dream bit of kit to work with. We've got the advantage of working with CryEngine, another great piece of tech of course, but even then it's been remarkably smooth to get things up and running quickly. That's worth its weight in gold from a production standpoint, and the blunt reality is that easier production equals more creative freedom and opportunity."
According to Braid creator Jonathan Blow, aiming for a single, next-generation set of specifications allowed the team behind The Witness to settle on a single visual style for the game. That title is also heading to PlayStation 4 in 2014.
"Creatively, we build and we assume that we have enough power in rendering," explained Blow. "When we were planning the look of the island, we had a couple of choices. Do we target the PlayStation/Xbox 360 class of machines or do we move to next-generation consoles? Because development was going long, we decided we were going to be in the next console cycle anyways."

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