| endimion said: true, I would just add that a lot of exclu XB are on PC too which allows the dev to make bit of extra money with not a lot of extra cost... and with the game for windows MS is making money on PC and XB... |
Yes, you are right. In fact due to this fact I don't really see Microsoft in such a difficult situation as the PS-3. The Wii will probably play the major role in this and perhaps the next year, but even if the console drops to third place its deve3lopment would not cease, because improvements in theXBox 360 version will in many cases benefit the PC-Versions.
Its main difficulty is its GPU, but in the long run, effective procedures will be known in the programming of this unit and stored in libraries. Then they will only decide which library function to choose.
Improvements for the PS-3 will instead be necessary for the Ram (difficult to control due to the different operations in this unit) and the use of SPUs (which face severe contradictions between modern programming practices, and optimisation advisaries) which have many things in common with GPU shader units (in the way of memory access and so on) but simply sit in the wrong place for this kind of work. So it is doubtfull that its powers can be released in a general and efficient way, to decrease its development costs. Especially if you consider that such problems are nothing new, but there was never a suitable solution found. Without a miracle I don't see how the PS-3 would survive a long running fight against the Xbox. If I am not way off the PS-3 might need a user base of 2 or 3 times the of the Xbox 360 user base to be in a comparable situation. It would need other advantages against the Xbox 360, but in the long run it will be beaten by cheaper HD players, while its memory problems decrease the value of alternative OS systems like Linux.
So I would say that the pressure on the PS-3 is much bigger to make the necessary turn around in this and the next year, otherwise it might find itself in a very severe situation.
While it is difficult to predict consumer behaviour, it is rather easy to predict developers: They always look for the cheapest solutions with high possible gains and rather small risks. And if a plattform has more developers it has better chances to have must buy titles.
