PS3 vs PC

[MikeB]

The PC and PS3 aren't easily comparable, one runs Vista and the other a far more optimised embedded OS, one will be optimised for to the bone the other will not.

You are correct that the full potential of the Cell processor hasn't been shown yet (by game engines). IMO that's not a surprise when dealing with radically new innovative hardware. For example early Atari ST (which was good compared to mono color soundless Macs and PCs of the time) to Amiga 500 ports ran better on the Atari ST, small enhancements started to pop up in the coming years though, after 2 years the first few eye opener games started to appear:

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ic3Fy-tVY

However it took until around 6 years to see the Amiga 500's gaming potential fully realized. Personally I expect a similar timespan with regard to the PS3 / Cell processor, like I stated a year before the PS3's launch. If we talk about other advantages (vs the 360) like Blu-Ray disc and default harddrive they should show much quicker (and already have, like Uncharted and MGS4).

I think the PS3 will be viewed as a cutting edge gaming system for a long time due to this growth. It also potentially paves the way for a Cell based PS4, which should thus be much easier to adapt to for PS3 developers.

Since the days of the Amiga, NeoGeo and later the BeBox we have said heavy multi-processing will be the future. Due to the success of the x86 IBM PC, this delayed progress for a decade but now it's being realized.