Apparently hardware isn’t the main reason why the upcoming Quake Champions is a PC-only game. Id software’s creative director, Tim Willits, said this in a recent interview with Finder.au.com when asked whether the PS4 Neo and Xbox Scorpio would increase id Software’s options to release the title on consoles as well.
For Quake Champions, id Software seems to focusing on 120hz gameplay. The developer wants to make sure that fans experience the speed and gameplay that the Quake franchise is known for.
While some might expect that limitations on current console hardware is preventing the game from a console release, this doesn’t seem to be case. According to Willits, the reason for Quake Champions being a PC-only game is due to being having to play with a controller on consoles.
PS4 Neo & Xbox Scorpio would increase options for id Software but it's not about hardware - it's about that controller
It did seem odd that Doom could work on consoles, but Quake Champions could not, when I wrongly assumed it was using the same engine…
Well we can run Quake Champions on consoles now because, you know, it’s just code. But we want to run it really fast, we want to have the full twitch aiming, and we want rocket jumping, which is really hard on consoles - really hard. So we feel that for a competitive game to play at events like QuakeCon, the PC platform is the best. Although, and I mentioned this at E3 where it all got blown out of proportion, I am not completely shutting the door on consoles. It’s just not what we are going to do now, because we would have to change the game. Consoles cannot do the same things [as a PC].
Well given it looks like a 2018 game, the PlayStation Neo and Microsoft’s Project Scorpio consoles should be out by the time Quake Champions arrives, which may increase your options?
True, but [this decision] is not about the hardware. It’s about how hard it is to play this type of game with a controller.
An interesting statement since Sony’s PS4 already supports mouse and keyboard. Microsoft has long promised mouse and keyboard support for the Xbox One, so it would be up to the developer to allow mouse and keyboard support on consoles.
