Need For Speed dev: PS4 and Xbox One are ‘going to be pretty much the same’

Need For Speed: Rivals’ creative director Craig Sullivan believes that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will deliver “pretty much the same” visual experience, telling VideoGamer.com that it’s difficult to determine whether one is more powerful than the other until “you’re seeing the same game running on both systems”.

“To be honest, I think they’re going to be pretty much the same,” said Sullivan, when asked whether the differences between Xbox One and PS4’s specs will lead to one offering more advanced visuals than the other. “Nobody’s played the same game on finished hardware yet, so you can’t make a comparison.

“We will see,” he continued. “I think it’s all down to how the development teams use those systems. It’s not necessarily about horsepower, it’s about the game experience you want to create and how you best those systems. We will push them as far as we possibly can, but until you’re seeing the same game running on both systems, who’s to say?”

Sullivan is currently leading development at Ghost Games on Need For Speed: Rivals, the first next-gen Need For Speed and the first game in the series to be built using Frostbite 3.

“We’re going into a new generation of hardware… We’d be crazy not to harness the power of that stuff,” he continues. “The game looks amazing. I think it’s by far the best looking Need For Speed game ever. The cars look amazing.”

Frostbite 3 allows Ghost’s creative team to “get to really high quality stuff… way, way quicker,” Sullivan adds. “Plus, Ghost is in Sweden. There’s a lot of people working there from DICE, we’re in the same country as DICE where Frostbite is made, so it’s the natural thing to do, to use Frostbite 3.”

Need For Speed: Rivals launches on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on November 19, and is expected to be available at the launch of Xbox One and PS4. I went hands-on with the game at E3, and came away stupidly excited.