kars on 24 March 2007
kber81 said:
There is always place for hope and faith. No matter what. 
Ok. In my oppinion the only advantage that the Xbox 360 and PS-3 currently have: It is not so hard to write multiplattform games as for the Wii. As far as I see it: The PS-3 is in no postion right now to successfully sell games. All game developers are in a cracy fight to achieve even the brak even point. On the Xbox 360 the situation is a bit better, add to it the possibility for multiplattform games with the PC (a big wish by Microsoft and they can easily deliver the necessary environment) and you have a successful combination for game developpers, but bad news for Sony. When I look at the current numbers I have severe doubts that Final Fantasy will be exclusive for the PS-3. Sony does not have the kind of money that Square Enix would demand for the risk of a single plattform game!
The Wii is simply putting too much pressure on the market . While the situation is not really great for the Xbox 360 it is no catastrophe. They are in the general direction of their break even point for the hard ware and can lower the prices if necessary. Their hardware complexity can be controlled rather easily by libraries and they simply have more hardware installed at the moment. And a factor that wilöl come into play later: It's hardware was developped for the price, nothing else. Microsoft has all the IPs that they need to make any changes that they like and that can lower the production costs.
The PS-3 on the other hand can't really pass its cometitors under this circumstances. A very effective use of the SPEs is impossible in a multi plattform environment but it has t6o justify its higher costs. At the moment its biggest advantage is its BluRay capability. But if the prices for BluRay and HD DVD Players drop as predicted, this advantage will be no longer there by the end of this year.Furthermore the break even point for the hardware isn't even in sight yet It needs special games especially for its hardware but even at 6 million it would be a very considerable risk for the game developers compared to the rather cheap multiplattform development that is not as risky (more installed harware = more potential customers). The most interesting hardware for single plattfrorm development is probably the Wii (easier to program, no need for very sophisticated artwork for HD).
This is probably the best description for the next few years!
The biggest problemfor the PS-3: Even an absolute fantastic game wont raise the hardware sells of the PS-3 dramatically, due to the need of a HDTV! In this situation even the Xbox 360 has a better position: you could connect it to a Monitor if necessary. It would not be great but much cheaper than a smaller HDTV and in a totally different region than the bigger HDTVs, where a PS-3 would make sense. The Xbox has its advantage as a low cost gaming PC, even if HD would not get a tight grip of the general public but the PS-3 more or less bets on the success of big HD Displays. Without them a PS-3 doesn't make sense. And this speaks against high risk development by game developers and few possibilities for games to make up the higher price tag!
