http://www.psu.com/PSU-Interview--Half-Life-2-and-Team-Fortress-2--a1108-p2.php "For the 360 version of the game, we can probably say we are using around 93-94% of the console's power given our current optimization. With the PS3, we can't exactly say what power cap we reached, since no developer really knows where the boundary is for the PS3. We can tell you that in terms of the whole game together on the PS3, we are not even using the SPU's and it is purely built on the graphics card and Cell." The power the power it will be all mine all mine not yours muhahhahahahaha! The megalomaniac with in me is pleased, very much so!!!

Yet its hard to tap;

So the average guy cant do much with it, me no cares. Top developers will tap the sob like they did the PS2!

And they do say PS2 was harder to dev on.

 Valve is easily one of the best, if not the best, developer out there when it comes to making the most out of hardware.  The source engine is an amazing testiment to that.

Coming from this developer this says a LOT.   

Yahh but arent they or weren't they mainly a PC dev ?  so they never really experienced that pain of PS2 development which was harder then PS3.  And the whole industy managed pretty damn good results on the PS2, should be no different on Ps3 with it being easier to dev on.

True that Sqrl. Even with all its flaws and all, the Source is one of the best, most flexible and most scalable engines out there.

Valve are on my list of "Top" developers, along with Nintendo, Id and Factor 5.

This doesn't really seem like good news, I don't get why you're excited.

Yes, that means future games certainly have potential. But if VALVE can't get the PS3 to CURRENTLY work much better than the 360, I don't see how that's good.

 I appreciate the angle you are coming from here, I truly do.  But you have to understand that at the core all computer hardware has basic intrinsic similarities.  In order to draw every ounce of power out of the hardware you need to understand these fundamentals and then you need to understand how the fundamentals build up the machine.  

Since I started following HL2, Valve has alwayas been a reserved developer and they have always been careful about what they say.  So when this kind of comment is made, it makes me sit up and say "Whoa....".  They simply would not have made this kind of comment unless they had already rolled up their sleaves and dug in for a deep forray with the box.  

Notice that he didn't say it was impossible only that it was difficult.  The reason this is important isn't as shallow as valve is a good development studio and when they say its hard its hard (although thats part of it).  The real important factor here is that the PS2 support was a necessity so its strange hardware got the support because developers had to.  The same is not true with the PS3, so there is a very real possibility that the PS3 could lose 3rd party support if the issue is as prevalent as we are being told.

Other developers like Ubisoft, EA, Activision, I can understand blowing their complaints off as they are all about the bottom line and they aren't willing to put huge sums of effort into their products.  Valve is just not like those other developers they have always been willing to go the extra mile to produce something special, and their games do a lot of that talking for them imo. I think it would be a mistake to ignore these comments out of hand and I think other developers will take notice...

As I understand, EA is handling the PS3 version of The Orange Box, which explains the lack of SPU usage