No one is an afterthought, trust me. The amount of time and money invested really doesn't reflect that, and never has. No one sits around and says "man, to heck with <platform>, let's only focus on <other platforms>. We used to hear the same comments from Mobile vs Console... but in reverse. The reality is that we are always trying to find the best path to the best outcome as quickly as possible. In the Fast-Good-Cheap pyramid, we ignore the Cheap and focus on the other two - even replacing teams when we feel it is the best path. I get why it might not seem that way with the timeframes involved.
Let's break down Console 1.4 real fast... (as a reminder for context, 1.3 took 18 months from start to finish on consoles)
- Mid-May 2020: 1.4 is finished
- June 2020: DR is already hard at work on 1.4 Mobile, since that was their sole focus at the time
- June-July 2020: Look at both PW and DR for how they might approach 1.4 on Console
- August 2020: DR path for console looks to be the best way to get a quality version out at the fastest time, based on planned approach and how fast/well they have done Mobile 1.4 already (progress-to-date), this is shared with the community with the caveat that they need to finish up Mobile first
- October 2020: Mobile 1.4 releases, hotfixes done
- November 2020: first full-focus month for Console dev at DR
- December 2020: Content Alpha done
- January - March 2020: working on a litany of console-specific features and aspects: Save Transfers, User Interface, Achievements, Controls, etc. - each of which has some peculiarities specific to one console vs another. My understanding is that most of that is looking good - but you will see more in the SOTG.
If there is one thing I have learned in my time working with DR, it is that letting them have time to focus on quality pays off. They always find the way to deliver just a bit more. Example: Mobile community asks for "Legacy" controls... so DR adds the ability to make those... and then just also adds the ability to customize things to whatever you want, along with 4 hotswappable profiles. Then they do the same for gamepad and take that to the next level. In my opinion, these are things I wish every platform had - and I find the mobile gamepad to be the best one out there, personally, having logged 100's of hours on each platform.
Trust me, you will not find any team more passionate about doing right by Console Terrarians - outside of perhaps Re-Logic itself - than DR.
The whole notion of an "in house console team" ship sailed long ago way back when console began - not to mention the ramp up time would be intense. Terraria is not an easily-ported game for a variety of reasons.
I get it, and we love the passion and desire for things to get done - and they are getting done in spades... but this takes the time it does.