MikeB on 15 December 2007
@ 360Rocks
The 360 is a better game developers machine for techinical reasons
Which are?
The main benefit is that the development tools are similar to those on Windows and the Cell requires more game engine rewriting to achieve optimal results. Building a game from scratch, being equally ambitious (on the PS3 you can be more ambitious) is as good as equal in terms of difficulty (time and effort required).
and the fact there are more of them out there make the financials work as well
For multiplatform devs leading on the PS3 makes sense, it would result in better PS3 as well as better XBox 360 games due to more cache friendly code. On the PS3 it's easier to track down inefficiencies.
Being able to develop a game with XNA (same programming interface for both Xbox and PCs) makes it faster and more capable for game developers to turn their designs into reality and get them to market faster.
XNA is good for hobby developers as it's easier to write a game for, but you won't be able to tap into the XBox 360's full potential (I also think XNA currently still just only supports one Xenon core).
XNA is a bit similar as compared to Amos and Blitz Basic for the Amiga 500 in terms of easier to develop for. Games can still be excellent, the worldwide smash hit Worms published by Team 17 was written in Blitz Basic for the Amiga 500 originally. Apart from not being able to achieve optimal performance it's not an option due to its platform specific nature if you want to port your game over to other platforms such as the Macintosh or Playstation 3.
Peter Molyneux (his company Lionhead Studios is now part of Microsoft):
"Is XNA just another hobbyist game programming tool, likes others including AMOS and STOS (for the Amiga and Atari ST), or more recently DarkBASIC? There is a range of opinions here. Peter Molyneux enthused to me about XNA, saying it is “a fast, efficient, better language” than earlier more compromised tools, and “built with ambition in mind,” so that XNA programmers can create the next Populous (the game which made Molyneux his fortune).
On the other hand, Molyneux undermined his evangelism by also stating that C++ remains the language of choice for professional development. If this is the case, then XNA will always be a hobbyist niche, which implies that serious students of game programming should not waste too much time on it."
