DEEP SILVER AND 4A GAMES ANNOUNCE METRO EXODUS PC ENHANCED EDITION AND REVEAL MORE DETAILS FOR PLAYSTATION 5 AND XBOX SERIES X|S UPGRADE
Back in November last year we revealed our roadmap for the Metro series and confirmed that Metro Exodus would be coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2021 as a free upgrade that would take full advantage of the power of these new consoles.
Today we’re ready to share more details on the work we’re doing, as well as confirm another exciting project set to release this year – the Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition!
A FULLY RAY TRACED EXPERIENCE FOR NEXT GEN CONSOLES AND PC
When Metro Exodus released almost two years ago, it was one of the first games to feature Ray Tracing (on high-end PC only) thanks to NVIDIA’s new RTX series of graphics cards, although we still utilized many more traditional rendering techniques for console and older PC graphics cards.
But with Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles offering Ray Tracing support, we took the decision to radically overhaul our proprietary 4A Engine and realise our ambitions for a fully Ray Traced experience on next gen consoles and high-end PC.
We have built an all-new Fully Ray Traced Lighting Pipeline that brings a number of optimizations, upgrades, and new features to the Ray Traced Global Illumination and Emissive Lighting that we pioneered with the original release of Metro Exodus, as well as an upgraded implementation of our powerful Temporal Reconstruction technology to further boost resolution, visual detail, and performance.
And we’ve pushed these enhancements to the limit to take advantage of the latest Ray Tracing capable GPU hardware from NVIDIA and AMD, to create the ultimate version for our PC enthusiast fans.
FIRST, LET’S TALK ABOUT THE CONSOLE VERSIONS
Metro Exodus will run at 4K / 60FPS with full Ray Traced lighting throughout on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The base game and DLC expansions will feature both our ground-breaking Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) and the Ray Traced Emissive Lighting techniques pioneered in The Two Colonels expansion across all content.
The next gen consoles will benefit from dramatically reduced loading times thanks to our use of their SSD storage optimizations, boast 4K texture packs, and a range of platform specific features including spatial audio and controller latency improvements on Xbox, and support for the haptic features of the PlayStation 5 Dual Sense controller – anyone who’s frantically tried to pump up the pressure on their Tikhar in the middle of a pitched battle will be able to imagine the kind of thing we’re aiming for!
We’re targeting 1080p on Xbox Series S, but the other benefits above will apply, including 60 FPS and full Ray Traced lighting throughout.
We’re also working on additional polish and quality of life enhancements, including the ability to change FOV for the first time in a Metro game.
These Gen 9 console versions will release later this year and will be available as a FREE upgrade to all current owners – and we’re delighted to confirm that we will support Smart Delivery on Xbox to deliver this upgrade.
INTRODUCING THE METRO EXODUS PC ENHANCED EDITION
For PC players, we’re taking advantage of our new Fully Ray Traced Lighting Pipeline and the latest GPU-capable hardware from NVIDIA and AMD to offer the ultimate Ray Traced experience – the Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition.
This upgrade is so extensive, it will require a Ray Tracing capable GPU as the minimum spec, and we will need to deliver this version as a separate product – it is not a simple ‘patch’ to the base game – instead it will be offered as an extra entitlement to all existing Metro Exodus PC players.
The PC Enhanced Edition will offer additional Ray Tracing features, including Advanced Ray Traced Reflections and support for DLSS 2.0 on NVIDIA hardware, which offers sharper image details and increased framerates and display resolutions.
Applying the same philosophy as our Xbox and PlayStation upgrades, this PC Enhanced Edition will be FREE to all existing Metro Exodus owners on the Epic Games Store, Steam, and GoG. You can expect the PC Enhanced Edition to release later this spring.
For a full breakdown of the new Ray Tracing features across Gen 9 consoles and PC, see the chart below.
METRO EXODUS FOR MAC AND LINUX!
Last but not least – back in November, we also confirmed our commitment to Mac and Linux versions of Metro Exodus.
We’re happy to confirm that the Mac version is expected to release on the Mac App Store, Steam, and Epic Games Store in March, with the Linux version set to follow a little later in the year on Steam!
WE HOPE YOU’RE AS EXCITED AS WE ARE FOR THESE METRO EXODUS PROJECTS – STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS IN THE NEAR FUTURE!
- The 4A Games Team