While we’re now a couple of years into the current generation of consoles, the number of truly “next-gen” titles remains somewhat slim. Most games are still crossgen, and in the cases where a title is only on the new platforms, it often feels like the choice was driven by business decisions rather than the design and tech of the game itself. Forspoken is a current-gen exclusive, launching on only PC and PS5, but does it really require the new hardware? According to a VG247 interview with Forspoken director Takeshi Aramaki, the answer is “yes,” as the game was designed to take advantage of the PS5 and its controllers from the ground up.
“From the very early stages of game design, we always thought about doing something that could only be done on PS5. Bringing that full power out was something we’ve been aiming for since day one. So I don’t think it would be possible to have Forspoken on PS4 at all, in terms of the engine, or graphics, or anything that we’re doing with gameplay.
For the PS5, the haptic feedback is something we really wanted to explore – we think it’s a really interesting feature ourselves, and we wanted to see what it could do. And that goes for the visual effects, too. […] We wanted to put the spells in people’s hands, too, so that they can feel them properly, as well as seeing them, as they’re casting them. […] In the game, Frey has Cuff on her right arm. She has magic coming from her fingertips. And you, the player, have the color matching the magic you’re using through the controller, and you’ve also got Cuff talking to you via the DualSense, too.”
So, Forspoken was made with the PS5 in mind, but what about PC? We’ve seen precious little of the game running on the PC, with nearly all footage and previews running on PS5. The game’s demo is also exclusive to PS5. If that’s causing you some concern, well… that might be justified. According to Aramaki, Forspoken has been specifically optimized for Sony’s platform.
“In terms of platform, the game is coming out both for PS5 and for PC. But it was created from the beginning with the capabilities of the PS5 in mind, and as such it has really been optimized for that platform.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean the PC version of Forspoken will be bad. We just don’t know that much about it yet. Whether Forspoken’s tech measures up in general remains to be seen, as analysis has highlighted a fairly major visual downgrade compared to the game’s earliest trailers. You can check out Wccftech’s latest hands-on preview of Forspoken here.
Forspoken launches on PC and PS5 on January 24, 2023.
