The game can run well on a modern i5 and a 1070, modern game consoles are basically PCs and the nextgen ones will be able to fit 8 zen cores at 7nm which will rival i7s now accordingto digital foundry. I dont know what would really be troublesome in porting SC to next gen consoles.
Keep in mind this should be done when its in a good state on PC.
Its different to crysis 2, witcher 2.
What Im saying is more similar to if crysis 2 and witcher 2 were made for PC then ported to X1/PS4.
If you think that a widespread keyboard requirement will fly on consoles, you are more optimistic than I am. They are also anything but "basically PCs". They do share a lot more than before but they are a far cry from being easy to port to. I don't know what else to say, you only need to look at all the custom hardware and tricks developers use to make the things Guerilla or ND do possible. By definition, fixed hardware implies being very close to a very specific metal.
I don't have anything else to add that's really constructive. If you can't see how limited hardware ties designers and engineers down in what they can do, it's really hard to discuss further. Take raytracing. There's a certain level of performance below which it makes no sense to attempt it. There is a point at which you can no longer scale it down. We are barely starting to get above that point, we don't even attempt it because of hardware constraints. That's the essence of what I am saying. That the fixed hardware ticks over every 8 years is moot because it is still a fixed snapshot that is average relative to its time.
I see what you are saying, that future consoles will be more powerful than today's PCs on which you are currently seeing the alpha kind-of run. However tomorrow's PCs are the targets for which SC is being continuously developed for. In addition to that, even taking a static version like S42 would pose problem down the line where a designer might be forced to think for the sequels "shit, there no way this will run on PS5". I do not want that, especially since it might even have bleeding effect on SC's design since they share everything.
I don't follow.