PC ports just need a bit more RAM? According to the chief architect of the PS5, that's half the battle. (Image: Adobe Stock – Charnsitr | Sony)
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PC ports have been implemented more or less well in recent years. Fans of games such as The Last of Us or the Dead Space remake definitely had a hard time with the ports.
The problem with PC ports: What is currently happening with PC games has to stop!
So it might be all the more surprising for some of you that Mark Cerny, the chief architect of the PS5, thinks that PC ports are not a big problem.
PlayStation Trends: PC Ports, 60 FPS and Ray Tracing
In detail: During a Interview with GamesIndustry Mark Cerny spoke about various trends in the current console generation. For example, he dismissed PC ports as something that apparently isn't a problem for Sony:
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“There is a new trend where console-exclusive games developed for specific PlayStation systems are finding their way to the PC. This implementation has been easier than many thought. The main consequence is that the minimum requirements for the PC version of the game will be a little higher, perhaps more CPUs or more RAM to replace the missing systems.”
This may upset some fans of The Last of Us, but Sony has also released good PC ports. For example, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, God of War or Horizon: Zero Dawn. The latter had some initial problems, but was quickly patched into a clean port.
60 FPS and ray tracing more popular than expected? Mark Cerny expressed surprise that 60 FPS has become so important and that ray tracing has been so popular with the masses. He thought that a higher level of detail at 30 FPS would probably bring a little more.
“The other thing that surprised me is the push to 60 frames per second. Based on previous console lifecycles, I would have expected there to be a lot more games running at just 30 frames per second, simply because the graphics can be so much more detailed when you have more time to render. Instead, this time it's almost the norm that games run at 60 FPS”
He was similarly surprised by ray tracing, which he thought would only come to PS5 games much later:
»I was very surprised at the extent to which the developers use ray tracing. […] It was a big decision to introduce this, and a fairly late one at that. I thought it wouldn't be used much at first […]. But instead we had launch titles that [Ray Tracing] took advantage of it.«
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We sorely missed games like Ratchet & Clank
Mark Cerny should have been mainly busy with the PS5 Pro or the PS6 in recent years. You can find out what information we already have about the two consoles here:
Danger: There are currently no officially confirmed dates for either console, so please take this information with a grain of salt.