@Kowenicki

Isn't that because X360 was easier to develop for? If 720 is harder to develop for it wouldn't get the better performing multiplats. I don't think the specs alone determine better multiplats

Well the last gen, the Cell proved to be a challenge for most multiplat devs. By looking at most of those PS3 ports, I'd say they did a good job. The exclusives proved the Cell's worth.

Ya. Cell was tough to program for but produced the best looking console games. But since they're replacing it I guess they don't think it was worth it 

I would say it matters more. With multiplatform games, there are direct graphical comparisons. It's hard to argue which game looks better, Uncharted or Gears of War, because they are different games. With games like Red Dead Redemption and Final Fantasy XIII though you can directly compare both platforms, and the differences are very noticeable.

Also, that was down to the PS3 being difficult to develop for, if there is a significant gap in performance, one version of a multiplat can be fine tuned to take advantage of that performance. I'm pretty sure that the 360's tendency to get better versions of multiplatform games had an impact on hardware / software sales.

Cell's worth deeply considered when it comes to current gen's exclusives and how PS3 is infact currently performing with those multiplat ports and upcoming exclusives. Regarding replacing Cell, I can't think of how much more should one cater to devs' needs by sacrificing it for 8th gen. Moreover there's the pricing strategy Sony needs to take care of.

You think MS doesn't know of possible OS-overhead? ;) Also there is no "working through Windows" - they will provide very-close-to-metal apis as they did before, allowing for intrinsics, just as Sony will do. Your coulds are still legit, of course, but they apply the same way to MS as to Sony.

That's good that they're equal, cause I'm getting tired of people here claiming PS4 will win just for being a little bit more powerful.

However, its bad in one way cause the Nextbox will be quite expensive if it has similar specs to the PS4. 

There's nothing special about the Cell, it should never have even been used in a game console - Good riddance. In a time when x86 based CPUs were more than proven for the job they went silly buggers and proprietory as Sony always does - Or did, I'm really impressed they've done what they have with the PS4, there's no sacrifice there, just common sense, and for that Sony has my utmost respect and can't wait for it to drop, just because it's interesting stuff - done right.

The Cell was a dog, it's the same as the 2 CPU setup in the Sega Saturn, sure there were one or two games that astounded visually but the majority looked like crap and ran at a lower res than the PS1, when they shouldn't have.

Why would you applaud such silly decisions that works against consumers at the end of the day, now with both consoles being based on x86 instruction sets and using off the shelf GPUs (basically), we can finally do away with fanboy arguments on "which console is more powerful" for years on end, like with the Wii-U, it's basically established how powerful it is thanks to analysis that's been done and using a PC based GPU tech.

All this in terms of the PS4/NextBox means lower development costs, better games per dollar investment and better value for gamers...

I'd certainly chose that over 1 first party exclusive every 9 months or so that looks slightly better than other games. I'm more interested in the fanboy side of things though, the way things are set out now, we will know exactly which one's more powerful and be spared the fanboy wars because the specs will speak for themselves...

Cell = 99% smoke and mirrors and it's destroyed gaming forums thanks to the smoke and mirrors being combined with cretinous internet fanboys and children.

Viva Common Sense!

EDIT - Don't take my post the wrong way, it was directed in response to your comment but not having a go mate :)  The reason I posted was the bit about how developers will feel about the Cell being "sacrficed"...

I'll tell you, they will be over the bloody moon! You think developers enjoy coding for that thing! It's the reason multiplats often suck on the PS3 so I think it's logical enough to say it's hardly a pleasure - the total and complete opposite in fact!

I can hear 1st party developers still celebrating at the reduced workload thanks to the brilliant choice Sony has made this time around!

they werent suprise by the specs per say but the audacity of sony to anounce the 8 gigs.  now sony egineers have 9 months to make it happen.  lol sony got 8gb lol... there are 32gb ddr3 mbs for under $200

Could you reword that please, I'm finding it difficult to find a discussion point in there.

DDR3 is cheap as chips and won't be used for the graphics memory pool on the NextBox, the fact it's cheap as chips is therefore not relevant. It may be used for system memory but it's very unlikely to be used for graphics RAM, ok not out the question but still very unlikely. If it were the case, then the PS4 would be more than slightly faster - it would be much faster.

The PS4 spec will have been finalized ages ago, "Sony engineers", nope - It will be engineers at a foundry that will "make it happen". Think IBM engineers and the TMSC foundry.

We can obviously take this comment from Ryan Payton to be alluring to the PS4 being more powerful, bit of a shame really because the power of the PS4 is basically an established fact of being a massive leap forward, if he was talking about the NextBox being more powerful, it means consumers would have something even faster to play with :)

...I'm just being greedy though.