Its far worse than that. Even PC games are often optimized by hardware vendors rather than the actual developers. See http://www.gamedev.net/topic/666419-what-

Its far worse than that. Even PC games are often optimized by hardware vendors rather than the actual developers. See http://www.gamedev.net/topic/666419-what-are-your-opinions-on-dx12vulkanmantle/#entry5215019 http://www.gamedev.net/topic/666419-what-are-your-opinions-o... On consoles we get access to the hardware specs and profilers for everything - even if behind huge paywalls and confidentiality contracts. Yet with all that information available its still insanely hard to optimize the codebase. There's absolutely no incentive to push these tools/specs to hobbyists because even professionals have a hard time getting them. Its also worth mentioning that having access to the tools and specs doesn't mean you'll understand how to properly use them.