Only next-gen is able to handle The Medium according to dev

The Medium's lead game designer, Wojciech Piejko, explained why the game won't be available on current-generation formats.

Among the games shown during the last Inside Xbox stream, which undoubtedly captured the attention of many gamers, there's The Medium, the new fascinating psychological horror game developed by Bloober Team (Layers of Fear, Blair Witch, Observer). The Medium is among those few games presented at the event to be announced exclusively for the Xbox Series X (and PC), as, as revealed in a recent interview, it would not be playable on current consoles.

As explained by the lead game designer, Wojciech Piejko, the idea of leaning exclusively on the next-gen consoles would have already started at early stages of development. As Piejko explains:

"The idea was like in 2012, I think, the first iteration of it. Of course, the game changed and our approach changed, but only next-gen is able to handle our vision. So yeah, we've been waiting for this".

It seems that one of the reasons why they chose to work exclusively on the next-gen is also for a very particular gameplay mechanic, not yet announced:

"I can't tell you right now about our most important feature, because we will have to save it for later. But the gameplay mechanic built around those two worlds couldn't be fully realized on current-gen hardware. This is something that I think will distinguish The Medium from any other game. It's also even patented. So yeah, the game simply cannot work the same way on current-gen platforms. And that's why we are developing the game for Xbox Series X, plus PC".

Another reason why The Medium would not have been conceivable for current generation consoles is that they lack the SSDs that instead distinguish next-gen consoles like Xbox Series X: "For the immersion that is crucial in our games, it was the best feature and it was delivered by Microsoft. And of course, the raw horsepower is great. So we are now able to deliver our vision of The Medium for the first time just how we imagined it."

Undoubtedly, The Medium is one of the games that has most captured the attention of the players during Inside Xbox, an event for which Microsoft itself said it has created different expectations than those expected by the audience.

What do you think about The Medium?