Microsoft's Reaction To PS3 Development

[Dolla Dolla]

An article was posted about the perceptions of developing for the PS3 being harder than the 360.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14326

Here are a few choice quotes:

"If the game starts life on PS3, then man-hours per feature or costs related to asset production are comparable with industry norms", going on to suggest: "Since PS3’s Cell processor allows MORE features - better physics, more complex graphical processing, lighting or sound, etc. — there is inevitably going to be more cost in supporting those extra features. It’s not that PS3 is harder to write for, it’s just that you can do more with it."

The Sony developers note: "If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3. This means additional effort. Some developers have been complaining about this but I don’t believe we can solve that. Xbox 360 is a different machine with good, but lower powered hardware in a different architecture. Developers have to view them as two different machines not as a common platform."

Finally, Sony does concede that online infrastructure is currently done best on the Xbox 360, commenting: "XBL provides more and better standard libraries for online gaming to developers. For the same features on PS3, developers have to do some extra work. We’re catching up, but there is a difference."

 

At the end of the article, Gamasutra contacted Microsoft for a reaction. This is what they said:

[UPDATE: Gamasutra contacted Xbox's Director of Games Platform Strategy, Andre 'Ozymandias' Vrignaud for reaction, and, while declining detailed comment, he noted:

"Sony is facing the fact the Xbox 360 (thanks to being available a year earlier) is the default development platform for almost every game studio and publisher in the industry. It’s been built into the tool chain and processes, and primary development is happening on the Xbox 360 for almost every game you can find.

There’s a reason why the Xbox 360 version is almost always the version shown to press and analysts for new titles – often, the PS3 version isn’t even started yet, or is well behind in development."]

 

It's an interesting article to read, and it references the new PS3 blog that started just recently. What are your thoughts about development efforts between the two systems, as well as their online offerings?