| > Simple example - most legacy publishers don't even release games for multiple APIs (such as OpenGL), because of costs. I.e. they are hostages of lock-in. That exactly demonstrates the issue above, and the fact that it has a direct impact. It is not how it works in the industry. They focus on one platform, because game programming is more than the graphics API, the hardware architecture and OS are also part of the whole equation, and what means being able to extract every single byte and ms for a few extra FPS. The talks done by Naughty Dog are a good example of how much it matters to be an expert on a specific platform. Then they leave the ports to other game studios that specialize in porting to specific platforms, which is another way how money flows inside the industry. There is a whole industry specialized in game ports since the days of Atari ruled the world. A publisher that targets PC, XBOX, PS4 and Nintendo has already by definition supported 4 graphical APIs, not counting the additional OS and hardware differences. You can shout to the windmills how much bad lock-in and duplication of efforts are, like it happened to Don Quixote, no one will care until you change the speech to the language and mentality that reigns in the game industry. What matters is IP, licenses and getting the games into the hands of users. The technology used comes a few bullet points down in the priority list. |
Not according to experts who actually work on cross platform games.
> A publisher that targets PC, XBOX, PS4 and Nintendo has already by definition supported 4 graphical APIs
That's exactly the point. You can't claim they are happy about spending x4 times more on supporting their engine on each system and have a very limited ability to share code. It's always extra costs. They do it because vendors of those walled gardens limit developers' choice and artificially force incompatible APIs on them.
> you can shout to the windmills how much bad lock-in and duplication of efforts are
They are bad and everyone knows it.
> no one will care
Those who care more, work on breaking that lock-in. See what Oxide Games developers have to say about this lock-in idiocy, and don't claim they aren't professionals.