Public perception might be that the PlayStation 3 is more powerful than the Xbox 360, but to developers they look even, says Silicon Knights boss Dennis Dyack.
He's told Mercury News that the power of both consoles are "equal in my eyes."
"Maybe the PS3 has more processing power. The 360 has more available memory. It's pretty much a net, net," said Dyack. "The public perception of the PS3 was that it was much more powerful. To developers, they look even."
Silicon Knights is currently developing Xbox 360-exclusive action-RPG Too Human, and is famously suing Epic Games for "misleading" it over the state of Unreal Engine 3.
Back tracking completely, Dyack then says that extra power could potentially come from the PS3 through the continued tapping of Cell.
"You have to get the timing right," he said, since processing with the Cell requires a sub-processor juggling act.
As for who'll come out the winner in this generation of consoles, the Silicon Knights boss doesn't seem sure.
"It's a tough one. Microsoft is looking really good. Everyone is looking pretty good. At the beginning, everyone thought Sony would walk away with it. We won't know for sure for two years."
With Nintendo, Dyack says, the question is if the "controller stands the tests of time."
I've said from the start I thought the 2 big guns were pretty even.
Cell might be the most uber processor in the world, but if it means developers have to spend countless man hours tweaking and manipulating data to get the most out of it, chances are most won't bother. This is probably why some of the games released on both systems at the same time have issues on the PS3.
The 360 is the attractive option because it's familiar tech. It's a PowerPC, so the architecture can pretty much get moved direct from the programming machines to the console with only minimal changes to fit the spec.
Swings and roundabouts really. People have this argument every generation and it's pointless. It's all about which developers spend time making sure their games work on whatever console they choose - if the source code and graphics are the same, it's not going to suddenly look better because it's on one over the other.
Seriously, who cares about the power of CONSOLES? If power is important to you, you have a PC. Consoles are for playing games in the living room on a telly. Power-shmower
Remember when all the developers were saying the Xbox was more powerfull than the PS2? Didn't make a lot of difference then, did it?
Very true. I always am interested in hearing what developers have to say about developing games (purely from a professional and industry interest) but it's important to remember that it's games that sell consoles, not which one is easier to code for or which one had more calculations per second.
Well, considering CVG was taking a subtle dig at Xbox Live for charging for its service (which is 100x better than the Wii/DS 'Friend Code' crap and the abysmal patchwork system the PS3/PS2 utilizes...), I'd say no.
And this line of thought about the PS3 and XBox 360 being more or less equals isn't exactly new. Folks have come out and said that Sony's forced allocation of the memory the PS3 has (256MB for Graphics, 256MB for Gameplay/logic/music/etc...unless you want to spend oodles of time coding around it), along with the lack of memory for the processor itself, hinders what would have indeed been a powerful system.
All of the talk about Ken and the Hardware development arm not talking w/Sony's software arm may have some truthful resonance to it after all, I suppose...
Very true. I always am interested in hearing what developers have to say about developing games (purely from a professional and industry interest) but it's important to remember that it's games that sell consoles, not which one is easier to code for or which one had more calculations per second.
Mario 64 and Zelda : OoT sold millions, but Playstation was cheaper and easier to develop for and that's what won that generation. The same applies here.
And remember when they were saying that Betamax was more powerfull than VHS? The Mega drive more powerfull than SNES? The Atari ST /Amiga? C64/Spectrum? N64/PS1? They were right about all of those, and who won?
lets face it the PS3 could be 100 times more powerful but nothing has used it. Such a stupid debate and childish really. To me they look about equal in terms of graphics abilities.PS3 looks able to do a bit more but nothing really significant and why would it? Lets face it High end PCs are only now looking a genuine improvement but only gradually. PS3 and 360 are only going to be as powerful as a pretty good PC from that period... why and how could either machine be 18 months ahead... they aren't. My problem is that sony (this gen) talk a good story and the hype doesn't justify the final outcome. I find it a let down to be honest (at least so far.) Should only be judged on games and at the moment the 360 does it.That is why I have a 360. If the situation changes I might get one but I don't see it. Sorry PS3 fans. Enjoy your machine and the fact your machine is more powerful but without good games it's a waste of time... oh sorry it is a Blu ray player... whoopee!
Even though this is from a guy making a 360 exclusive game, I think he's hit the nail on the head and is basically saying what most informed people have known for ages and what developers are starting to realize now. PS3 has a more powerful processor but is limited by the low RAM (256mb). 360 has a decent processor but has an impressive amount of RAM (512mb). This basically means that as far as multi-format games go, each console version will be similar as there are limitations for each console so the need to reach an even point where each machine can handle the same thing. As for as exclusives go, we will see much more impressive things. Eventually I feel the PS3 may edge it on the graphical front when developers finally make use of the Cell and I feel 360 will be more impressive in terms of whats going on in the screen at once. As for Wii, another fair comment from the guy. I have yet to see a game that proves to me that the Wii-mote is better for games than the standard control scheme.
Even though this is from a guy making a 360 exclusive game, I think he's hit the nail on the head and is basically saying what most informed people have known for ages and what developers are starting to realize now. PS3 has a more powerful processor but is limited by the low RAM (256mb). 360 has a decent processor but has an impressive amount of RAM (512mb). This basically means that as far as multi-format games go, each console version will be similar as there are limitations for each console so the need to reach an even point where each machine can handle the same thing. As for as exclusives go, we will see much more impressive things. Eventually I feel the PS3 may edge it on the graphical front when developers finally make use of the Cell and I feel 360 will be more impressive in terms of whats going on in the screen at once. As for Wii, another fair comment from the guy. I have yet to see a game that proves to me that the Wii-mote is better for games than the standard control scheme.
VulcanRaven, the PS3 has 512 MB of memory--it's just that Sony hardwired it so that 256MB is always allocated to graphics, and 256 always toward everything else (music, game logic, etc.) Supposedly there's a programming workaround that will help out for future (2008 Q2) titles and beyond, but you're eating valuable processing CPUs to enact it, and considering there's no memory on the processor...
XBox 360, on the other hand, has 512 MB, and the developer can do with it as they see fit. And even though the XBox 360 doesn't have as powerful a CPU as the PS3, it does have memory on the CPU, which allows it to stick what it needs to in its memory and not use up valuable CPU cycles grabing and releasing information from the main RAM.
And remember when they were saying that Betamax was more powerfull than VHS? The Mega drive more powerfull than SNES? The Atari ST /Amiga? C64/Spectrum? N64/PS1? They were right about all of those, and who won?
hmm,megadrive more powerful than the snes!? i don't remember seeing too many mode 7 games on the 'mg',the sprite work was better on the snes too(see DKC,metroid 3,FFVI and chrono trigger). then we come to the sony developed (yup kids,it's true) sound chips that produced a sample rate beyond the megadrives. the megadrive was a sweet comp,granted,but let's not re-write history. that war is long over.
And remember when they were saying that Betamax was more powerfull than VHS? The Mega drive more powerfull than SNES? The Atari ST /Amiga? C64/Spectrum? N64/PS1? They were right about all of those, and who won?
hmm,megadrive more powerful than the snes!? i don't remember seeing too many mode 7 games on the 'mg',the sprite work was better on the snes too(see DKC,metroid 3,FFVI and chrono trigger). then we come to the sony developed (yup kids,it's true) sound chips that produced a sample rate beyond the megadrives. the megadrive was a sweet comp,granted,but let's not re-write history. that war is long over.
Beat me to it The SNES was noticably more powerful in all departments.
From a dev who is making a 360 exclusive game... What a suprise... What annoys me more is that cvg think that this is news. Get. A. Life.
His studio is also making a game for the PS3 Anyway he did'nt say one was better than the other he only pointed out the advantages/disadvantages of both!
And remember when they were saying that Betamax was more powerfull than VHS? The Mega drive more powerfull than SNES? The Atari ST /Amiga? C64/Spectrum? N64/PS1? They were right about all of those, and who won?
hmm,megadrive more powerful than the snes!? i don't remember seeing too many mode 7 games on the 'mg',the sprite work was better on the snes too(see DKC,metroid 3,FFVI and chrono trigger). then we come to the sony developed (yup kids,it's true) sound chips that produced a sample rate beyond the megadrives. the megadrive was a sweet comp,granted,but let's not re-write history. that war is long over.
Beat me to it The SNES was noticably more powerful in all departments.
ACTUALLY, the Megadrive had the better CPU (like the PS3 does now ), however the SNES had better custom chips (mode 7 graphics chip, superior sound processor, etc), a lot of things done on the SNES in hardware had to be done on the MD in software.
As for the current gen the Wii controls will stand up for a while, having used it in MOH Vanguard and MP3 I can say that it's a match made in heaven. Although there will still be some that prefer the controller for FPS games and of course it's not a patch on the KB and mouse.
The PS3 and 360 are neck and neck at the moment like it or not the developers are more familiar with the 360s internals and know how to push it and get more out of it. As they learn the nature of the PS3 we'll see better looking games arrive.
I dont care anymore about this crap another day, another debate, at the end of the day some people like the 360, some the PS3 just like some people like marmite and others hate it! It's all about personal choice you know!
All the qoutes are taken from an interview in 0ctober 2006?????? WTF?? Sorry but shouldnt CVG check its news is at least vaguely timely? I mean a year out of date??? - come on CVG I expected more from you......
And remember when they were saying that Betamax was more powerfull than VHS? The Mega drive more powerfull than SNES? The Atari ST /Amiga? C64/Spectrum? N64/PS1? They were right about all of those, and who won?
as it says here. this will always be the case. and who gives a flying toss as long as the games are good. i have a ps3 and a 360 so i just don't care.
Drawing on his comments regarding public perception, it's true that Sony's marketing bods have always managed to portray the image that Playstation is the most powerful system of that generation. The fact that the Saturn could out-perform the PS1 on 2D fighters and the PS2 was the least powerful of all the previous generation of consoles was largely irrelevant to it's success.
From this perspective, it's easy to see the PS3 dominating this generation as well. By releasing slightly later, Sony give the impression that their console is the most poweful and newest system. They could've almost certainly released it earlier but by holding back they'll do to 360 what PS2 did to Dreamcast.
Only us lot on forums such as this care enough to identify these sorts of tactics. Little Johnny's mum won't care less which is more powerful in reality, and will just get the console an uniformed kid asks for. It's that market which propelled the Playstation brand to dominance, not the tech geeks.
Drawing on his comments regarding public perception, it's true that Sony's marketing bods have always managed to portray the image that Playstation is the most powerful system of that generation. The fact that the Saturn could out-perform the PS1 on 2D fighters and the PS2 was the least powerful of all the previous generation of consoles was largely irrelevant to it's success.
From this perspective, it's easy to see the PS3 dominating this generation as well. By releasing slightly later, Sony give the impression that their console is the most poweful and newest system. They could've almost certainly released it earlier but by holding back they'll do to 360 what PS2 did to Dreamcast.
Only us lot on forums such as this care enough to identify these sorts of tactics. Little Johnny's mum won't care less which is more powerful in reality, and will just get the console an uniformed kid asks for. It's that market which propelled the Playstation brand to dominance, not the tech geeks.
Most of the little johnny's are screaming for Wiis this Christmas. All the kids in my family want a Wii this Christmas, dunno how I'm gonna get that many though
I like this. I think it is very realistic, away from the Fan Boy opinions and speaking realistically about everything.
Although i do not know about all the specs of consoles, so can not comment on this, i think it is extremely well written, unbiased and just generally realistic in terms of the 360 doing well, whether the Wii will stand the test of time, and that the war is by far not over, it is pretty much open for all 3.
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Dude,did he just say somthing negative about yor precious PS3,now you need to:Get.A.Life ,all the same. 
), however the SNES had better custom chips (mode 7 graphics chip, superior sound processor, etc), a lot of things done on the SNES in hardware had to be done on the MD in software. 
