Opinion | Godfall's PlayStation 5 exclusiveness may not be such a good idea after all

A preview of the upcoming PlayStation 5 game, Godfall, was recently unveiled in the Official PlayStation Magazine in which the makers said the game has been inspired from fantasy novels such as The Stormlight Archive. The gameplay is said to resemble Monster Hunter: World and Dark Souls. What is also being heard is that Godfall will be exclusive to the PlayStation 5 (apart from PC, of course) and will not work cross-gen on the PlayStation 4.

A ResetEra post surfaced recently, which revealed some details about Godfall. The information is not official, so do take it with a pinch of salt. According to the OP who goes by the name bob100, Godfall, made by a team of 75 people, has been tailored to run on the PS5, which allows the game to "feel and play like no other". The gameplay will be divided into Earth, Air, Fire, and Spirit elements and players will be one of the last remaining Knight's Order tasked with "stopping an apocalyptic event". 

While Godfall can surely be expected to tap into the PS5's hardware prowess, it does force players to upgrade from their existing consoles to be able to experience the game. Microsoft, on the other hand, had hinted earlier that the idea of having next-gen exclusives is more or less moot.

Sure, the Series X will let gamers experience the best eye-candy, but those on the Xbox One will also be able to play all Series X games with a decent subset of features. For instance, Halo: Infinite, Flight Simulator 2020, or the upcoming version of Forza may not show off the full pizzazz on the Xbox One as they are likely to do on the Series X but they do run with the maximum fidelity possible for the hardware.

Counterplay Games, the developers of Godfall, may have reasons to stick to just the PS5. However, it is no denying the fact that they stand to lose a significant number of players, who are on the PS4. It will take some time before the PS5 attains a significant market share and given the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, many would want to be prudent with their spending even though the console itself launches only during the Holidays. 

While each console generation would benefit from titles that showcase the full power of the hardware, it is important that those games are also available for those still hanging on to the previous generation at least during the initial launch period. Godfall will also be available for the PC, but it remains to be seen how well it can implement cross-platform play.