Multiple game developers are confirming that Playstation 4 games available for demo at E3 were running on PS4 development kits. Responding to comments on Twitter, indie game designer Jonathan Blow said: “We worked very hard to get our game running on the actual PS4 hardware and operating system in time for the show. As did many other devs.” Additionally, several attendees reported seeing a game demo crash to the PS4 operating system.
Meanwhile, Xbox One demo kiosks were seen crashing to the Windows 7 desktop, meaning Microsoft was using PCs to demo their games instead of Xbox One hardware. The PCs ran on Nvidia 700 series GTX graphics cards, which alone cost $650-$800.
This practice isn’t new at all. Many companies show off their games on high-end PCs instead of the hardware the consumers will actually be using. It makes the games look better and appear to run smoother. You could say it’s deceptive and borderline lying for companies to do this, but that’s advertising, baby.
What you should take away from this is that the Xbox One games shown off at E3 probably won’t look as good in your living room as they did on the main stage, and that the PS4 demos were likely accurate representations of what you’ll eventually be playing.