| MikeB said: @ HappySquirrel how unsuited the Cell processor is to game development. The Cell is very suitable for gaming development as has been proven already. It's not only great for scientists and militaries, first and foremost it's actually most suitable for games and multi-media. The Cell is however a radically new approach, a direction the market is currently taking in general with the PS3 at the forefront. It was expected years before the PS3 released there would be issues porting legacy game engines to the PS3 or XBox 360 lead games (I know devs who ported old DirectX-bound games to technically capable, but different alternative platforms, the end results were superior yet it took an unreasonable amount of effort, being multi-platform friendly isn't Microsoft's priority). Like many developers say, the Cell is not really that hard to develop for, but can be hard to port to if you have to port legacy game engines (and want good performance). Within 2 years the next generation will begin Unlikely for the PS3 I believe. I hope we get to see a WiiHD by that time, but it could well be such a device would be weaker than a PS3/wand combination. So such a device could be viewed as current gen and the Wii like the PS2 last gen, from a technical perspective of course. So PS2 vs Wii and PS3 vs Wii2HD. As for a new XBox, I hope Microsoft this time takes the time to properly design their hardware. They sacrificed a lot of the good console reputation the industry had and of course PC gaming is getting neglected nowadays to help XBox marketing success. |
Its not about legacy game engines ...
Even very strong developers working from the ground up to produce games for the PS3 are unable to produce games which are dramatically better than what has been produced for the XBox 360; and the Cell processor falls far short of what is possible on Intel/AMD PC processors which it is supposedly more powerful than.
Now, regardless of what you believe, it is highly likely that Sony will release a new console in the face of Nintendo and Microsoft releasing new consoles. It doesn't matter how "Powerful" a system is, after 5 or 6 years it will be easily outshined by what is possible in a low cost system; and it is likely that Nintendo/Microsoft will be doing things outside of pure processing power increases to build excitement for their systems. Beyond this, the PS3 and XBox 360 are so dependant on eachother to justify game development that if one is replaced the majority of development for the other will dry up.
Realistically speaking, by the end of 2011 we will likely see the first of the next generation systems and by the middle of 2013 we will have seen all three companies release their systems.
