id's Hollenshead: Developing multi-plat enables for richer game experiences

id boss Todd Hollenshead has said developing on multiple platforms has enabled the studio to give more richer experiences within its game than it would have been able to if developing on just PC.

"For us, there are some things that we do with id Tech 5 that if we were just making the game for the PC, we might make some different technical decisions. For what exactly those are, that's a question for Carmack because I'm not a programmer," said Hollenshead, speaking to Ripten.

He noted the first example of such a thing working to its advantage is the studio's upcoming shooter RAGE, but it's also without some of its challenges as well.

"We do obviously invest a significant amount of our engineering cycles working on 360 and PS3, so if those are all devoted to the PC, then obviously there's a tradeoff that takes place there," he said.

"But at the same time, there's a give back the other way too because everything we do in the game and the scope of the game has also been like, RAGE is the deepest game we've ever done. And part of that is that we want to make sure we're not just appealing to a hardcore PC audience, but also to the console audience as well.

"So as much as the consoles may take away, I think they give back actually more in terms of what we're able to do just to build out the game."

RAGE releases on October 4 in the US and October 7 in the UK for PS3, 360 and PC.