Somewhat Informed Xbox360 & PS3 discussion

For no particular reason I thought I'd copy my posting from another forum to here, since this one seems to be more active. I'll send any other observations shared with me by people with their hands on the current hardware available when it comes up in conversation.

 

I have a feeling that a single game released on both systems would be kept the same on both systems. So, more powerful or not i reckon both systems will see the same versions of the same games.

 

Not really, take a look at the Current gen (or is it previous now?).

Multiformat games usually look slightly better on the Xbox, sometimes alot better, however I doubt there will be a huge difference between the 360 and the PS3 when it comes to multiformat games as the Hardware is so evenly matched.

 

The reason why some games look better on the xbox then the ps2 and some look better on the ps2 then the xbox doesn't really come down to "which system is better" but it comes down to which system the game is designed for and then ported to the others. A good majority of games were coded for the xbox and ported to the PS2 shortly after...even when the game came out for both systems on the same day.

It makes no sense as to have two teams coding the same game at the same time for two or more different platforms as that would be a waste of money and games are far more easily ported over.

As to this thread.... you can't really have a 360 vs. PS3 discussion when the PS3 isn't even out yet. I don't care who you say your friends are...there is no solid information about the PS3 and there won't be for a few months still to come. Any "discussion" is pointless as it will always boil down to the fanboys arguing.

 

I think you are pretty much spot on with this statement. I can't see the PS3 being significantly more powerful than the 360. The developers will definately not be able to make huge cross-platform changes to the games, even for the big money titles. There won't be a big enough difference in hardware to warrant the extra expense of completely changing any particular game.

It will all come down to licencing, as always.

 

Right on the ball. These threads are pretty much pointless.

 

Half true. I'm working on a PSP & DS title and there is a lot of dedicated code for each platform. Although that is a slightly skewed example as the two have some fundamentally different capabilities. Xbox 360 and PS3 are going to pose more issues of fundamental differences as well.

In the past development of games across platforms ran the gambit from straight ports to decent adaptations to a platforms capabilities. The market and consumer expectations are changing and future development might be different.

I am also not interested in a fanboy discussion. Nor am I a fanboy of either platform (I haven't owned a console since the Atari 2600, too busy. How ironic eh?)

I'm just killing dead time while I wait for assets and thought I'd relay some wiki data. Ya don't have to read it.

 

In regards to the comments about the Sony Cell setup being a pain to program for. Besides set Playstation franchies I'd think that this bump would be a good reason for indie developers and new franchies to go 360 over PS3. Granted the contact did say that the PS line has always been a PITA to program for (I'm suprised that has worked) but it sounds like this, needing two types of code, would take the cake. It seems far more like an experiment than a practical solution.

 

http://www.bonafidereviews.com/article.php?id=148

Best. Article. Ever.

Hell will freeze over in Japan before that happens though. No way the religion following Sony Japan will accept an MS takeover.

 

I couldn't give a monkeys what the specs are, it's all about whether the games are any good. My old flatmate had an xbox, but I preferred to play my SNES because the games were, IMO, much more fun!

Sam

 

I don't buy it, Sony's got more liquid asset than many would like to give them credit for. A result of shaking an 11 year console money tree and a subtle monopoly in gaming and entertainment. With the almost definite win in HD wars Sony has earned themselves another 10 year money tree in the means of Royalty and Licensing, this on top of the soon to be 5 years PS3 run makes them a giant thats hard to topple.
With MS taking law suits left and right, and Sony's gradual move to Media super monopoly it's really hard to say who's gonna be doing the buying out in the next decade.
Personally if I had a million dollars I'd place my money on Sony stocks not MS. I think the real question is will our kids OS bare a Sony label? LOL

 

Pff MS lawsuits. So what, never stopped business.

If MS launches a HDDVD add on at a fraction of the cost of the "blu-ray machine" the PS3 is, MS is on for a winner. Sure, it looks better and has a decent backing but it will be +/- DVDR all over again, with cheaper HDDVD versus probably more widely known Bluray. Eventually you'll get cheap boxes that do both and will render it pointless.

I never said it was gonna happen, I said it was an interesting perspective. It doesnt matter how much history you have, look at Sega and the Dreamcast. You cannot make a viable business model that hemorages money like that. Investers will pull out and things will go from bad to worse.

If I had a million dollars I'd put them in Google. There's no way in hell Id put them in Sony considering how they continually fail on products (MD, UMD, Sony HDD walkman etc), insist on propriatory media (memory stick, compared to SD which is a fraction of the price) and royalties and piss off their customer base (rooooootkits and arrogence).

Both companies have a lot of diversity, which will be Sony's saving grace, but I think the sucess of the PS3 as a console, and as a media centre will show a lot of the future.

 

I wasn't disagreeing with you I was disagreeing with the article I thought it lacked depth. It was somewhat one dimensional in that it tried to bank Sony's future on one console, when Sony owns just about everything media, from music, to movie studios, to games, to optical mediums, to electronics. Really there isn't one facet of media that Sony doesn't own, if Microsoft is the King of PC then Sony has undoubtly become the Emperor of media, neither company can be dethroned in there own monopoly anytime soon.

What makes both MS and Sony so stable is they both hold powerful licensing products that require little overhead yet maintain a constant influx of money, MS has their OS, Sony has their Consoles and soon to be BluRay.
I wouldn't bank on Google a little too volatile, I tend to think Sony and MS as being more Blue Chip.

 

exactly, that's what i was trying to get at.

 

Oh yes, I totally agree it lacks depth. But the incinuation is enough to get the mind ticking about alternative possibilities. Unless they are single format, exclusives (FFS how I hate them), I recon most games will be coded (like you say) to work on them all regardless of which is more powerful.

 

Heh, and the Apple faithful probably never thought Mac hardware would be used to run Windows native.

Here is an article on the Merrill Lynch report that started the PS3 production cost speculations:

A person I don't know (indirect contact, so only marginally credible) involved with hardware production thought the Merrill Lynch report was BS. He said they used costs more in line with consumer level stand-alone components than stripped down OEM hardware (like the difference between buying an internal or external HDD). My gut feeling also says those prices are too high.

As to how game console finances are computed... I haven't found a decent breakdown posted anywhere. Everyone knows the hardware is sold at a loss, but no one cites the numbers for the games and peripherals sold. And of course "loss" for a company that makes a profit means less taxes to pay.

 

Well, Fry's (California electronics, versus the food store chain in Arizona) has a bunch of 360's for sale in Fountain Valley and seem to be keeping them in stock. Either MS is kicking the supply problem or the US market has saturated at a little over a million units at the current price point. We shall see....

 

Indie developer Garage Games seems very pleased with using Xbox Live to distribute their Marble Blast franchise. Not that they would air any actual dirty laundry about the relationship during such an interview.

 

John Carmack on PS3

Jonn Carmack mentions some of the complaints developers have about PS3 that was mentioned at the beginning of this thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFUw29U4J8

(P.S. If I was Carmack, I would have slapped that interviewer, shut up! I want to hear what he was going to say!)