Comments on: Is it worth developing for PS3?

By: Wildreamz

Wildreamz — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:59:44 +0000

@Gordon
I like RPGs too, the PS3 is too slow on their release on RPGs this I definitely agree. But so far, there haven’t been an epic enough RPGs on any platform that really blow me away like the old Final Fantasy series. This is really a pity.

I’m really hoping that Final Fantasy 13 and versus will do that, but they are really spending too much time developing them. I’m also putting my hopes on White Knight chronicles.

Btw, I do not think the Xbox 360 Square Enix RPGs are really good. Are they?

@David
PC gaming will have to find a way to counter piracy to replace consoles. MMO is a solution, but it faces a lot of competition from large titles like WoW. Also, consoles are evolving too, 10 years down the road, I’m not surprise that the console market would still be very much alive.

By: S.E. Gordon

S.E. Gordon — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:21:08 +0000

When Bernie Stolar got kicked to the curb just after the release of the original Playstation, the RPGs came flooded in, among them an exclusive Final Fantasy VII. It’s too bad that Sony doesn’t have a enigmatic figurehead like Stolar, who widely discouraged the marketing of RPGs in the US, because it encouraged them to take some risks with the Western market. RPGs have always been my soft spot and I’d be the first in line to buy a PS3 if I could get my hands on a sequel to Legend of Dragoon or Wild Arms. Seriously, what is Sony waiting for? Or have they forgotten what helped put them on top?

@Wildreamz: Valkyria Chronicles is an excellent recommendation, though.

By: DavidJWBailey

DavidJWBailey — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:05:10 +0000

what amuses me in all of this is that they are both (XBox and PS3) being killed stone dead by online games on PC in terms of growth, profits, user acceptance and longevity. Consoles will quickly fade from our lives and, in 10 years, we will look back and say “why did we allow hardware people to dictate how we enjoyed software, when they knew nothing about enjoyment or entertainment or friends?”

Given the costs of a PS3 / XBox360 co-development, I’d put my money and time into social media or MMO style entertainment (or even, horrors!, a full blown TV or movie production) as they are all easier, quicker, cheaper and more profitable over a 5 year horizon.

seriously, if you are not trapped into console development because of sunk costs and the bloated overheads of a major, why bother with it?

By: BC

BC — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:07:35 +0000

@Wildreamz

Thanks. I just couldn’t see that information anywhere. Trust it to be under my nose at wikipedia.

By: Wildreamz

Wildreamz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:04:56 +0000

@Gordon, now you say it, I realize they indeed quite a number of JRPGs exclusive from Square Enix like Lost Odyessy, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean and Project Sylpheed. I never realized, thanks for sharing:)

I was wondering where did all the JRPG went.

PS3 does have a few JRPG titles but not from Square though, like Valkyria Chronicle, Demon Souls and Disgaea 3(probably a few more).

But don’t fret, the upcoming titles does look promising, like White Knight Chronicles and Final Fantasy 13 versus.

By: S.E. Gordon

S.E. Gordon — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:19:04 +0000

It’s good to see that Sony finely came around regarding software, but most of their upcoming titles don’t interest me. I guess I’m spoiled with the RPG goodness from the PS1 and PS2 eras. It’s a strange feeling to turned to the Xbox to play the latest RPGs, but give Microsoft some credit–they’ve got the most Square Enix exclusives thus far.

By: Wildreamz

Wildreamz — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:13:03 +0000

@BC
“At 3.2 GHz, each SPE gives a theoretical 25.6 GFLOPS of single precision performance.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor)#Self-multitasking_of_SPEs

By: BC

BC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:50:07 +0000

I guess no one is going to show me a reference then ?

By: BC

BC — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:54:01 +0000

Has anyone got a link that has the speeds of the SPEs? I couldn’t find anything that actually quoted it.

cheers

By: Wildreamz

Wildreamz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:20:28 +0000

@Robin
Very fair comparison. It is no secret that the 360 has additional 10MB for EDRAM therefore, in multiplatform games it is easier to incorporate FSAA on the 360. But I’m not sure if it is noticeable in game though, or the only factor that determine graphic quality(there are other factors to consider as well as ways to overcome this). But I’ll leave it at that.

As I said, the multiplatform games are not the games that sell a console.

In PS3 exclusive games, this problem can be overcome by sharing the load with the SPEs and using technique such as MSAA (such as in Killzone 2, InFamous). I don’t see it as a “bottleneck”(a single component that brings down the performance of the entire system) but rather a “limitation”(that can be worked around). But I do agree that it is something cross-platform developers need to pour in additional resources to overcome.

And I also agree that “by now they’re not having to reinvent the wheel every time.”

@ Bruce
Cross-platform comparison is essentially pointless because:

Firstly, it is subjective and many fans will choose the platform they buy their game for, for other reasons, such as the size of the controller, the online support etc.

Secondly, fans will not notice the difference.

Thirdly, it all depends on the efforts developers put in to optimize the game of each system.

For exclusive games, there is no question that the best PS3 games are currently ahead of the best Xbox 360 games and the PS3 hardware has theorectically more potential than the Xbox 360.

I don’t think it is relevant to make technical claims unless it is very obvious. Have you seen overwhelmingly good graphics on many 360 exclusives that was deemed impossible to do on the PS3? Then we have a real issue.

If not, you should focus more on the marketing strategies and trends of the 3 leading companies.

I think the biggest potential game changer now are new exclusive games and the motion control wars.