Capcom dev: Next-gen needs ten times more work

Creating games for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 requires ten times the amount of work compared to developing for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

That's according to senior Capcom developer Masaru Ijuin, who has been talking about having to build a whole new engine to get the best out of the new consoles.

"At Capcom we have been using our original development engine, which is called MT Framework, to make games and improve the efficiency and quality of development," he wrote in a Q&A on the Capcom website.

"However, we have run into some problems and limitations while using this framework.

"Looking ahead to the development of games for next-gen consoles, we felt we needed to completely overhaul the development environment to better cope with the increasingly complex hardware. That's pretty much why we started developing this new engine [called Panta Rhei].

"Don't get me wrong. We believe MT Framework is a powerful rendering engine. But it's clear that heightened game quality leads to a rise in the number of man hours.

"The amount of work involved in making games for next-gen consoles is eight to ten times greater than what is required for the current generation of consoles."

Ijuin claimed that tasks that would have taken 30 minutes to complete using an improved MT Framework engine now only take ten minutes using Panta Rhei.

The first game to use the Panta Rhei engine is PS4 exclusive Deep Down, set to launch later this year.