This September, the critically-acclaimed XCOM 2 will make its way to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game released on PCs in February, and the launch was… not the best. The core game was fine, but there were several performance issues and bugs that marred the initial launch. Since then, Firaxis has pushed many bug fixes and updates, all of which will be available on Day 1 of the XCOM 2 console launch. All DLC released thus far will also be available on Day 1. However, ports between PCs and consoles are notorious for excluding certain features or downgrading others. We haven’t seen any live gameplay of the XCOM 2 console versions, so none of this is confirmed yet. Let’s take a look at the likely victims of a console port of XCOM 2.
Graphical Fidelity
One of the most common comparisons between PC and consoles is the latter’s use of lower-end GPUs than the ones you’ll find in high-end gaming PCs. Things like resolution and framerate are more difficult for consoles to handle. In response, some developers decrease the maximum resolution or framerate. For XCOM 2, we could probably expect a 1080p resolution cap and a 30fps framerate cap. If it releases with 1080p and 60fps on both consoles, that would be most ideal, but this is usually where we see sacrifices.
XCOM 2‘s launch is close to the required date for PS4 games to start including support for PS4 Neo. This may result in XCOM 2 including a Neo mode with higher framerates or resolutions. Like most Neo information, though, nothing is confirmed.
Mod Support
There are very few console games that come with mod support, and most PC-to-console ports eliminate the feature. In light of that, we can expect XCOM 2 to not feature modding capabilities at all. Of course, we hope this isn’t going to be the case, since there are already almost 2,000 mods on Steam Workshop. They range from useful utilities like “Evac All” to more humorous additions. Fallout 4 and the upcoming Skyrim Special Edition feature console mods, so hopefully we’ll see a similar system set up for XCOM 2.
Stability
While many of XCOM 2‘s issues on PC are resolved, the console version will launch on two brand-new platforms. This presents an opportunity for more bugs and glitches to arise as soon as the game launches. In addition, the original developers, Firaxis Games, will not be developing the console port. Instead, The Workshop—a development studio founded by former members of Treyarch—will be making the console ports. They’ve assisted XCOM 2 in many post-launch patches and have worked on other games. A high-profile port like this, though, is bound to launch with some bugs.
In a perfect world, we would have complete parity between the console and PC versions of every game. Hopefully, PS4 and Xbox One players won’t lose out on too much of the XCOM 2 experience.
