A small section of a big interview about Fallout 3.

http://www.n4g.com/News-85074.aspx 

CVG: What are you working on at the moment with Fallout 3?

Hines: We're working towards getting everything into the game. The world hasn't finished being built yet so we're still in the process of putting all of the content in the game, fleshing everything out and playing quests. That sort of thing.

CVG: Are all three versions of the game at the same stage of development?

Hines: For the most part. 360 is our lead platform. Our devs are just big fans of the dev tools available on the 360 and so that's our lead. But PC, PS3, 360 - they're all chugging along.

The full interview is found at CVG: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=175852

To me, this is pretty big. Fallout has always been a major PC game. Oblivion was developed on the X360 alongside the PC version, with PS3's version lagging behind. Now the X360 is the lead platform. Will other PC-centric developers do this (such as the Might & Magic series, with Dark Messiah coming X360-side?)

I wouldn't be concerned at all about a PS3 version being worse off.

However, I just wonder what the benefits are of having the X360 as the lead platform. I assume the developer environment is best under the X360, thefore the cheapest to develop under (atleast in the PS3/360 spectrum).

So I wonder: does this mean the X360 version will have "more", "better", or just that the development is coming along faster, and therefore will just be cheaper for Bethsada to make.

For PC/PS3/XBox 360 multiplatform games it (probably) makes the most sense to target the XBox 360 as the lead platform. I expect that for a game being released late in 2008 or in 2009 the XBox 360 and PS3 are about as powerful as the minimum system requirements will be for a PC game, which means that if these systems are not a major consideration in the development process it could be very difficult to do a decent port of the game later on. The XBox 360 is the ideal choice because it shares a lot of tools with the PC, which being very similar in performance to the PS3.

There is a great disturbance in the Force. As though millions of PC gamers suddenly cried out in agony, and then, silence...

Seriously, I'm waiting for the fallout (no pun intended) of this announcement, wherein PC fanboys complain that the game will be "dumbed down" for consoles.

They do have a point though, those PC gamers.  512mb of ram vs what is now the standard 1gb for PCs. I wonder wich allows more features?

Bethesda did good on Oblivion for PS3... I expect the same from this game also.

I actually don't think oblivion turned out to be all that and a bag of chips on the ps3. It may have performed better sure, but it didn't use ANY of the systems SPE's, so they took an outdated game and just ran it off 1 of 3 cores of the 360 and the one core on the ps3, no spe's. Considering blu-ray's obvious space advantage, I really didn't see any new textures either. I'll hope for this one, but I won't let them get too high lol.

No need for the scare quotes. They really do dumb down games for console, both in terms of control complexity and adult content.

I'm expecting Oblivion-like controls, which while not optimal for PC, aren't really that bad, either. I can't help but wonder if this game will have far less rampant sex and drugs than Fallout 2, though.

Edit: I should add that dumbed-down controls aren't necessarily a bad thing. There are good things to be said for a simplified set of buttons. I just wish that developers would create an interface that was more custom tailored to the individual platform rather than make design compromises between multiple platforms.

 Also, Fallout just wouldn't be the same without a brothel in every town and an elaborate drug system. I just hope Bethesda doesn't give in to the temptation to soften the rough edges to get a lower ESRB rating.

Chris Taylor said exactly the same thing and... ooops!! Supreme Commander heads to the 360 (... mine, currently RROD but doesn.t matter!) The good thing is that we will see MANY PC centric titles in our white box, and that,s DAMN GOOD, God, I enjoyed C&C!!!