Great list.
Anyway, caught this part that I didn't like.
PS3 games also come on Blu-ray discs, which will begin to be a major factor in 2009 and 2010 as game developers learn to tap into that massive storage space. The result will be bigger, deeper, more content-rich games
100 percent incorrect, imo. Having Bluray will not lead to "deeper, and more content-rich" games.
In fact, doesn't the PS3 actually run its most content rich games almost entirely off the hard-drive...just like the Xbox 360?
Storage capacity is simple to figure out. It is no longer a significant bottleneck for game content. Increasing it at this point, doesn't cause developers to make "better" games, because we have hit other, more crippling bottlenecks. FFVII would not have had deeper gameplay, were the CD-Rom an unlimited storage solution. Development time, and money are bottlenecks. GPU, and CPU, are bottlenecks. Storage capacity rarely comes into it anymore. Even if it did, there are simple solutions to bottlenecks like bandwidth and storage space, like HDDs, multiple discs, and direct downloads.
Blu-Ray does, however, lend to the ability of expand existing games with upgrades that would ordinarily not be worth a second or even third disc. Mainly, this is limited to 7.1 surround sound so far, instead of 5.1. Most people can't take advantage of 7.1, unfortunately, and even fewer people can distinguish between the audio....hell, very few people can tell a mp3 from a CD track, much less 5.1 from 7.1 without a very expensive setup.
The fallacy, however, is the implication that storage space is a huge bottleneck, and removal of said bottleneck will cause games to have better content, and deeper gameplay, which of course is complete and utter ignorance. Bigger? Sure, but GTAIV was on 1 dvd, and with the xpaks it is much bigger on the 360 with much more content, afterall. Better graphics? Crysis didn't even need 2 DVDs, but whatever. Deeper gamplay and content that would otherwise not have been created? Bull.
I think the perfect example of this is Fallout 3. That game was designed with the PC as its main platform, and then ported down to the Xbox 360 and PS3. Now, it had unlimited space to work with, and the developers gave us an immense and epic masterpiece. It wasn't bottlenecked at all, when it came to storage capacity. 1 DVD.
Sony cutting deals for DLC is much more important than having blu-ray, when it comes to the quality of depth and content of your games. In 2010, this will become much more prevelant than how awesome Blu-Ray is for gaming. In reality, it is completely unimporatant.
Another game to look at is Forza 3. It has a lot of polygons. Oh yes. All of its content wouldn't fit on 1 DVD, which speaks towards the quality of the game. Instead of "reducing the content and depth of the game" the developers just made disc 2 a mandatory install. Something the PS3 has been doing for years. So, WTF use is Blu-Ray to gaming?
