Retrasado said:
Statements like these crack me up. The Wii is harder to make than the PS3 or 360?????!!!!!! for starters, the 360 has a customized IBM PowerPC based triple-core processor and a modified top-of-the-line ATI graphics card; also thrown in is 512MB of premium quality GDDR3 video RAM and a few other toys that make the console one of the most formidable media centers on the planet. In other words: way harder to make than the Wii's glorified PS2 processor and GPU. And don't even mention the PS3's IBM Cell Broadband Engine with an ultra-cutting-edge PPU and 8 (count 'em) SPEs and it's built-from-the-ground-up-for-the-PS3 NVIDIA RSX "Reality Synthesisor" GPU; also included is 256MB of GDDR3 RAM and 256MB of experimental XDR main RAM that runs at an insane 3.2GHz. I could also mention the PS3's formidable media center capabilities that put it in the top two (with the 360) most comprehensive and versatile media center computing equipment EVER. (also, don't forget about the PS3's BD profile 1.1 Blu-ray Disc player and it's 1080p DVD upscaler and its full-function Internet browser). And to top this all off, the Sixaxis and DS3 have the same motion sensor as the Wii except for the pointer capability. So yeah, the reason Nintendo is not producing more Wiis is DEFINATELY (as in NO QUESTION about it) not because of the difficulty of building it. Heck, the Xbox probably could have done all the things the Wii can (if M$ had included a motion sensor) and it was launched almost 7 years ago. |
It's actually really difficult to assess the difficult of constructing a product. The complexity of the parts of the product does not necessarily effect the complexity of the final assembly, which is what generally is considered when people say Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo manufacture products. However, highwaystar101's claim is quite far from truth as motion sensing is in now way new technology. The accelometers (and gyrochips) have been around for years already, and it's not like they make the product any more complex to build than bluetooth radio connection. Then again, he did say he doesn't know for sure, so there's no need to fall on him like a ton of bricks.
Although PS3 and XBOX360 have way more advanced processors and memory chips, it is not to say that those things make the products more complex to manufacture. Sure, the processors and other chips and memory are incredibly complex products and require insanely high level of technology to manufacture. But at the same time, that manufacturing process is almost 100% automated and I would be reluctant to say that for example the CELL manufacturing process should be counted as part of the PS3 manufacturing process. If you go that route, then you have to go down all the way, and you'll end up with everything in the world being nearly impossibly complex to manufacture. I would argue that the complexity of the manufacturing of a product is determined by the number of parts assembled, and the size of the product and parts, smaller being more complex.
