Microsoft is a hardware maker, has been for about the past 9 years. Their hardware division doesn't nearly rival that of their software division, however the division is sizable nonetheless. I don't think anyone agrees with Microsofts decision to push the 360 out earlier, but in all fairness, they had no idea the units would fail. All they knew was that they cut the testing cycle of the 360 by about 85%. It wasn't for about 6 months after launch that Microsoft discovered problems and people started finding the same.
Electronic Arts says "we already maxed out the power on 360." PS3......
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Microsoft is a hardware maker, has been for about the past 9 years. Their hardware division doesn't nearly rival that of their software division, however the division is sizable nonetheless. I don't think anyone agrees with Microsofts decision to push the 360 out earlier, but in all fairness, they had no idea the units would fail. All they knew was that they cut the testing cycle of the 360 by about 85%. It wasn't for about 6 months after launch that Microsoft discovered problems and people started finding the same.
Fair comment, as a developer myself, with ever tighter deadlines constantly looming there is often a tendency to cut corners. This might come at a loss to perhaps optimality, so game code may not be quite as efficient as perhaps it could be. As developers get better at using the tools they have at their disposal in the form of Game SDKs etc, the games will perhaps become better optimised/faster. Pushing on towards the end of the consoles life I think you will see games that are incredibly efficiently written to try to eek every last ounce of power out of the machines processors.
Every gen seems to be following that trend the last 15 years or so. Ps1-everyone was amazed by Metal gear solid, ps2-everyone said "how did they do god of war 1 n 2 on that machine" xbox1- splinter cell:chaos theory and Chronicles of Riddick. All these games turned heads on their respective platforms in the tail end of their life cycle.
Yeah, I agree with you there. In the case of the PS3, the Cell could be extremely useful to developers, but Sony did such a shitty job of documenting the architecture that we may never see it's true ability.
I'm always reading interviews with game companies saying that the development tools Sony supplys to the dev teams are extremely good.............???????
The development tools are by in large good, absolutely. But the biggest piece of the puzzle has been the processor, which has had pretty terrible documentation. The console has been out for a number of years now, and it took a good year and a half for the documentation to come out, and another year for developers to fully grasp how to develop for the Cell architecture. We're just now starting to see games developed specifically for the Cell.
Yes thats absolutely true the Sony SDK was extremely powerful but all that power is somewhat locked away for the moment since Sony didn't bother to document it properly. Microsoft on the other hand have perhaps a less powerful set of tools (in the DirectX) than Sony, but they are well documented and well understood by developers, so we are perhaps seeing more utilisation out of these tools. I think that's the key, you may have all that potential power on tap, but unless you know how to successfully harness it, it lies idle.
Exactly. And the thing is, that it's awfully late in the life cycle of the current generation of consoles to be worrying about something that simple. I have a feeling that the PS3 may never see the full potential of its processor, and that the next iteration in the PS line may have to start from scratch.
I dig your opinion Shayd, Sony is late to the party with devs as far as giving OPTIMAL tools to tap that serious horse-power now that I think about it,but I have to disagree about it being awfully late into the life cycle. Its only 3 yrs old this holiday and thats 6 months off. Everyone is waiting for that game from Sony thats gonna REALLY trump Killzones visuals,which might end up being GOW III and then something that trumps GOW, and on and on.
Sony is always the last company that wants to go to the next gen. Their theme with this gets more solid with the fact that the 9yr old Ps2 is still selling like its still pretty new and not only that, but its getting supported by new software even. Ps3 has alot of years ahead of it and when the serious dev tools do arrive,and they're on their way, we'll see some crazy games in terms of size,physics and visuals that will blindside the gamer and dev community.
I think you're misinterpreting what I'm saying. I'm not saying the PS3 is going to die out by any means, what I'm saying is, the life span of the PS3 as the current generation of Playstation console is getting late. PS1 was Sony's primary console from about 1994-2000, the PS2 went into development in 1998, and was the primary console from 2000-2006, and the PS3 went into development in 2005 and has been the primary console for Sony since 2006. The sales of the PS2 since the launch of the PS3 have little to no relation to the system capabilities of the PS2, and everything to do with its vast array of games, and relatively cheap price. The same thing will eventually happen to the PS3, although probably not to the same degree, again due to the poor effort by Sony to provide the right tools to devs.
Of course, the PS3 will still be sold, but from a developer standpoint, once a new system is actively worked on, focus often shifts to the new system. The precedent set by Sony is about 4 years of solid lifespan, then a new system gets developed and comes out. If that precedent holds up, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense for developers outside of Sony to try to figure out the Cell, when they could be focusing on the big money that is the new system.
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