PS3’s graphics will streak ahead of 360’s in ‘09? But does it really matter?

[freedquaker]

Graphics do matter of course, otherwise we wouldnt need an ongoing improvement in graphics over time. But people are not aware of two aspects:

a) Superior Graphics are born out of "desire" not "necessity". Gameplay on the other hand is a necessity. So a game with super graphics but bad gameplay will definitely fail. However, What we see as desire today becomes necessity after some time. You wouldnt mind wii graphics now, because they are giving you the necessary level of graphics but ps1 graphics would be a big turn-off, as they are below whatever is perceived as necessary. In a few years, we'll get used to ps3/360 level of graphics and wii kinda graphics will be a big turn off. So gameplay perception changes little or slowly while graphics are changing more rapidly and incrementally (easier to perceive and less arguable), so its shifting over time. You can think liken this to the technological progress, computers/cell phones were fancy devices when they were invented, now all are a necessity in daily life (so how much you cared about having them has changed dramatically).


b) People are usually impartial in their judgements and quite succesfull at fooling themselves. PS3 has superior hardware than 360 as conceptually accepted, though with many problems, which does not necessarily lead to superior graphics. Based on two claims, Cell is superior than 360 processor, and 360 dvd isn't sufficient like bluray, people forget that Xbox was clearly superior than PS2 and didnt have many of the problems that PS3 has now (like programming difficulty and cost of development), and PS1 had many Multi-disc games like FF7 (one of the earliest titles!). Somehow PS1 or PS2's weaknesses were never the issue!