Earlier this week, an employee of the developer Crytek (of Crysis and Hunt: Showdown fame) weighed in on the console war between the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X from a unique point of view. Ali Salehi is a rendering engineer for Crytek, and hailed the PS5 as the easiest console that Crytek has ever coded on.
The interview ended with a sharp comment in which Salehi claimed that no programmer could find one thing the Xbox Series X does better than the PS5 in terms of programming. This comment made fans of the PlayStation consoles quite happy, but concerned some Xbox fans.
Just today, however, Crytek has pulled the interview from their website without giving any reason for doing so. The running theory is that Crytek wanted to stay neutral and didn't want to take sides in the heated debate between consoles. It also probably doesn't want to ordain the public badmouthing of one of its most important business partners' products.
Still, Salehi's comments are incredibly interesting because the console wars are usually approached from the point of view of the consumers rather than developers. Rarely in an argument between the two consoles does someone bring up the point of which is easier to code for or which the actual developers that are making the games prefer. While this may not seem like it matters because it likely won't affect the players in any way, there are some ways that it could come into play.
For one, if a developer like Crytek feels so strongly about the PS5, whether it wants to admit it publicly or not, then other developers are likely feeling similar sentiments. If the PS5 is truly so much easier to code on, then many developers may feel swayed in one direction when looking at exclusivity offers for new games. Of course, this is a stark contrast when compared to the notoriously difficult system that was the PS4, which had restrictions that even stopped games like Skyrim and Fallout from fully implementing a modding system.
Crytek's reason for redacting the interview is no doubt related to public relations, but in what way exactly remains unknown. Salehi's statements have already been immortalized online so pulling the interview from Crytek's website is more of a statement from Crytek than an attempt to cover up what was said. Whether other employees at Crytek agree with Salehi remains to be seen, but it seems clear that Crytek as a company has made its position obvious.
Source: SegmentNext/Hunter Miche