Thoughts On Ue 5 And Optimization From The Thames Valley Creator Interview

With the next gen X-box, IF they keep to what they are saying it will be the same build as PC as its supposed to be a console PC hybrid.

One of the things they mention is that it will be seamless to port PC games and no need for separate builds for developers.

But of course its only at the development stage at this point.

 

A "hybrid" at this point is just a gaming PC with neat aesthetics.

 

Lol bye!

 

So what you’re saying is that you’ve used Claude to write a spec for a UE5-based TSW-alike? And now you’re looking for a couple of devs to implement what Claude (guided by you) has specced?

 

But that game's got a far more appealing presentation than what Metro Rival's was going for, the latter looked almost like a asset flip, former actually has fairly unique stylized visuals. Plus it's a score attack game at its core, instead of a multiplayer title, the latter aspect would've greatly limited its appeal considering I don't think anyone would've been playing it consistently after the first few weeks. The levels are also a lot more varied than "New York Subway", that wouldn't have caught the imagination of the public in the same way.

You're looking at it very surface level if you think the two are all that comparable.

Frankly I'd debate if it makes it to market with all the layoffs going on at Xbox, notably I heard one of the huge layoffs was at their hardware department. Which raises interesting questions about how much of a long term future they have in that field.
Also it really needs to be said, that new Xbox likely isn't gonna sell all that well, analyst projections are that it will only sell around two million launch year, and just over 7 million by 2030. So they're basically saying it's gonna only sell around two million units a year, which would firmly put it in Wii U/Vita territory as far as sales go, if not lower.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/analy...expected-to-decline-195-to-339m-units-in-2026
(Source on sales for the curious)

Now that doesn't mean it can't make money, but it would be a very niche customer base. As shown by other layoffs like ID Software, you can do well, but still get gutted because it's "Not good enough" to the current management.

 

As mentioned before, it would be a different title. They wouldn't be releasing the same routes at the same time. In fact, it makes sense that the best routes in TSW would be re-made from scratch for the new title as it happened with popular TSC routes when TSW was released. Many of us bought them.

The fact that DTG was willing to make a new title, Metro Rivals, as a way to learn the new techniques and processes available in UE5 should be an indication that there is more to it than just "it's the same engine".

Remember, new title means everything is potentially possible including multiplayer and extendable routes.

 

Assuming that the reason was "to test UE 5" and not to test new game design elements. I wonder if part of it was simply because it was a clean "off the shelf" engine that would be more of a "clean slate" than the current heavily modded UE 4 that TSW uses.

Which (as we saw in SODOR) carries its own quirks to the new game.

Since it was a whole new game design totally unlike TSW, perhaps it was thought that it was a cheap, off the shelf test at the same time to see what UE 5 could (and couldn't) do without modification. Although I'm not going to speak for DTG and say that it was such. Just speculation.

 

To be fair, using MR as a smaller project to learn UE5 was mentioned but, of course, it was not the only goal. Other things were mentioned like making a title that would appeal to younger audiences. Learning UE5 was one of the goals, not the only one.

It all goes in the mix. It would be learning, seeing what could and could not be done without modification, etc ...
But learning UE5 was also an important part of it. Getting to know what can / can not be done is part of learning.