Dev: XB1 Is Very Powerful, SMITE Runs@Solid 30FPS

The wild growth of the MOBA genre has been so far largely confined to PC, but now developers are starting to look with great interest at consoles as an additional market. Hi-Rez Studios is going to lead the charge thanks to the upcoming Xbox One release of SMITE, the atypical MOBA featuring a third person, action game-like view coupled with a mythological theme.

We’ve caught up with COO Todd Harris, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions regarding the console version.

• As a developer, how did you find Xbox One so far? Was it complicated to get SMITE running on the platform?
• The Xbox One development platform is very powerful and the core gameplay runs very well.  For SMITE the most challenging work has gone into redesigning the User Interface so features like the Item Store are more easily visible on the TV.

• Do you expect the final version to run at 1080P@60FPS and if so, how did you overcome the limitation imposed by the eSRAM?
• Our goals are fun core gameplay, amazing graphics, and smooth framerate, with the visual standard being the same as running the PC game with graphical settings maxxed out. For multiplayer experience it is most important to have a consistent framerate.  So for now we are setting FPS at a consistent 30, which provides a smooth gameplay experience and avoids issues with a fluctuating framerate.

 

Obviously, we also inquired about a potential PlayStation 4 version, but Hi-Rez Studios said to be focused on PC & Xbox One for now.

• You’ve announced that SMITE will be coming to Xbox One, but what about PlayStation 4, which remains the most successful next generation platform at this point? Is there a chance to see the game there in the future?
• For now we are focused upon the Xbox One version and the existing PC version.

 

You can look forward to the full interview tomorrow; to signup for SMITE’s Xbox One beta, just go here.