Star Citizen can't be done on current consoles

Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts has said the space sim will always be a PC exclusive, because even next-generation hardware can't live up to elite rigs.

Roberts told ArsTechnica that current consoles couldn't even handle his proof-of-concept mock ups as seen in Star Citizen's pitch video.

"You can do most of it on a next generation console, but I can promise you a top-end PC now is already more powerful than what a next generation console is going to be," he added.

Roberts said console memory limits are the most limiting issue, but even if next-generation hardare packs in an amount of RAM comparable to curent PCs, Roberts is targeting gaming systems beyond that promise.

"I’m looking at the high-end [hardware] today being the 'Normal Gamer' level in two years time," he said.

"It'll be kind of like Wing Commander used to be. If you had the extra memory, if you had the 386, it was a better experience, but you could still play it on a 286."

The Freelancer designer is also a bit leery of ports, which are an almost inevitable result of multi-platform releases.

"I have a high-end gaming rig, but I’ve also got all the consoles, and if someone is making a game for a console first, and it’s being ported to the PC, I’m always buying it for the console," he noted.

"I don’t want a buggy port of a console game on my PC that doesn’t really show my PC off."

Finally, Roberts said that he thinks there is a PC gaming audience that wants to use the power of their systems - like the way he wants to watch The Dark Knight Rises at an IMAX cinema as opposed to an his iPhone.

Star Citizen is being crowdfunded through Kickstarter and a self-hosted campaign; with two weeks remaining, it has raised over $3.8 million. With traditional investment, development will be backed to the tune of $10 million.

Thanks, games.on.net.