MikeB on 10 June 2008
@ alpha_dk
Which is the entire point of me saying that Sony decided to use it too early
I agree with your ahead of its time perspective, but IMO releasing a product like this years later would have mainly pushed the problems forward into the future. I think it was best to have this technology in mass production as soon as possible, so developers are pushed towards adaptation (game engines and middleware development) and the chip can be cost reduced quicker.
Having a Cell based popular games console will IMO do wonders for this technology. It was expected scientists and smaller university projects would be first to tap into the potential, because they can focuss at specific uses and game engines are far more diverse.
Legacy game engine will have to be adapted step by step and new games engines designed from scratch will take a few years of development. People will have to realize that many legacy game engines have been under development for many years as well. Rome just isn't built in a day. So time and effort is required.
Nevertheless some of the most impressive console games are already on the PS3. Having the Cell in a Playstation console ensures a long term gaming and multi-media future for Cell technology, a stable platform to optimise code for the long run. The potential gains are just so large, I think it will push developers towards technology competition, no developing company will want to be left behind and viewed as incompetent.
