It's been revealed that Far Cry 6 won't include ray-tracing on either PS5 or Xbox Series X and that the feature will be exclusive to the PC version of the game. This news comes from Lead Programmer Stephanie Brenham in an interview with Wccftech in which Brenham explains why ray tracing won't be coming to next-gen consoles when the game launches next month.
According to Brenham, the lack of ray-tracing on consoles is so the team could properly take advantage of the new hardware capabilities of each console and to make sure the game runs smoothly in 4K at 60fps:
"Ray tracing is a PC only feature," explains Brenham. "On console, our objective has been to take advantage of new hardware capabilities, optimizing performance targeting 4K and achieving 60 FPS, for instance, all while ensuring new game features, like our dynamic weather system, are supported on all platforms."
While its unfortunate that ray-tracing won't feature on PS5 or Xbox Series X, it's certainly not the end of the world if it's been removed to ensure the game runs smoothly on consoles. Later in the interview, Brenham also praises both consoles for their SSDs, explaining that having a game load "in moments rather than minutes" is a big positive.
With this news, and the recent news that Far Cry 6 has actually gone gold a month ahead of launch, it's looking pretty likely that the game will be launching in a pretty solid state. A game going gold basically means that development has finished and all that is left to do is stamp out bugs and get ready to issue any day one patches that may be necessary. Going gold a month before release is usually a sign that development is going well.
As for when you can get your hands on the game, Far Cry 6 launches next month on October 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. You can read our preview of the game here if you'd like to know more about the game before release.
Source: PSU