The latest news about Gotham Knights subtly clarified its omission from PS4 and Xbox One. This surprised fans who were eagerly anticipating its release, but have not already secured themselves with a PS5 or Xbox Series console, as they will now be unable to play it if they cannot get one for themselves before the game releases in October. It is uncertain if more highly anticipated titles will follow this example of next-gen exclusivity, but there are pros and cons for why a game such as Hogwarts Legacy is still slated to release on both older and newer consoles.
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The Pros of Hogwarts Legacy Releasing on Older Consoles
Hogwarts Legacy releasing on older consoles has its benefits. Like many modern games being released, Hogwarts Legacy will be available on a number of platforms. This platform diversity is a pro because it allows for many fans across different generations and consoles to be able to play, and is therefore indiscriminate of any singular exclusivity clause. This makes Hogwarts Legacy wholly accessible to fans who have not been able to purchase a PS5 or Xbox Series console.
Hogwarts Legacy’s accessibility extends further to the Nintendo Switch, making it available for almost any fan regardless of the console generation or platform. Even if Hogwarts Legacy turned out to be a popular enough IP from WB Games Avalanche as a next-gen exclusive, releasing on older consoles gives it a greater breadth with which fans can experience it. This is still not lost on fans, particularly while console shortages are still an issue.
It is inevitable that future games will begin to lean more into next-gen exclusivity, but it shows that developers and publishers are considerate of fans when they continue to provide accessibility to last-gen consoles during such a shortage. Gotham Knights seems to have made the transition to next-gen exclusivity in an effort to produce an optimal quality for fans, despite the fact that its current visuals have beckoned comparisons to Batman: Arkham Knight, a seven-year-old game.
This exclusivity has not yet clearly benefited Gotham Knights, and since Hogwarts Legacy is also nearing its release, it would be difficult to imagine that next-gen exclusivity would benefit it greatly in the next five months either. If this is the case, and it will not look or play much better as a result, then platform diversity is a benefit that Gotham Knights will lack.
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The Cons of Hogwarts Legacy Releasing on Older Consoles
However, Hogwarts Legacy releasing on older consoles also has its drawbacks. It is true that sacrificing next-gen exclusivity for older consoles could compromise its optimal technical performance, such as features relating to graphical fidelity or the implementation of haptic feedback on a DualSense gamepad. These optimizations for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are concerns that only impact next-gen titles, and Gotham Knights is now a title that will likely be taking advantage of such perks.
Games such as Returnal have been able to benefit from exclusivity, especially exclusivity to a single console platform. However, because Hogwarts Legacy has chosen to be available on older consoles with fewer technological advancements in its optimization, the fear is that it may not reach the same quality that a next-gen exclusive title might. Hogwarts Legacy players will still have the option to play at higher resolutions and frame rates on next-gen consoles, but that will obviously not be the case for players who are only able to play it on older consoles.
It is a con that Hogwarts Legacy may not be able to focus on these performance issues more closely, and that it must spread itself across different platforms in a way that may be a detriment to its potential quality as a next-gen exclusive. Then, when it is considered how quality across platforms such as Nintendo Switch must maintain the same quality as those on PS4 and PS5, this may result in a far lower quality than it would if Hogwarts Legacy was developed solely for next-gen consoles.
The game may also contain more bugs on release due to the wider amount of testing that will be necessary for each of Hogwarts Legacy’s available platform ports. Moreover, if Gotham Knights does end up benefiting greatly from its next-gen exclusivity, fans will always wonder how much better Hogwarts Legacy could have been if it was also exclusive to next-gen consoles.
Hogwarts Legacy and Gotham Knights Make for a Fun 2022 Regardless
If console shortages were not an issue, fans of both Warner Bros. IPs would have much to celebrate between both Hogwarts Legacy and Gotham Knights. Nonetheless, there is still a wide variety of fans who have been able to access a next-gen console and will have their choice of which game they wish to pursue first. Some fans may have no interest in Gotham Knights anyhow, and thus its next-gen exclusivity may not bother those individuals.
Considering all the pros and cons for Hogwarts Legacy being indiscriminate of console generations, it may be interesting to see if Gotham Knights truly benefits from its exclusivity. Both games will surely excite fans of their own franchises and console preferences. Of course, there is still time for Hogwarts Legacy to make its own surprise exclusivity announcement, so fans may not want to hold their breath if they are relying on it releasing on older consoles.
In the meantime, fans will hopefully be able to get their hands on their preferred console platforms in time for their desired games to release later in 2022. The fact that Gotham Knights releases in October while Hogwarts Legacy releases this holiday means that they will launch relatively back-to-back, and fans who are fortunate enough to either play one or both of them certainly have a lot to be excited for.
Hogwarts Legacy is scheduled to release in 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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