Insomniac Games Chief: 10 Reasons Why PS3 Will Win This Console Generation

Insomniac Games Chief Creative Officer Brian Hastings discusses why the PS3 is the console to beat.

"First of all, let me make it clear that Insomniac is a 100% independent development studio. Sony has neither endorsed nor authorized what I’m writing here.

When I started this blog post I was planning to write about Home and Little Big Planet from a developer’s perspective. But as I read some of the media and message board responses to Sony’s GDC presentation, I wanted to address an ongoing industry phenomenon. Specifically, the sheer volume of negative spin toward Sony from both the mainstream press and the internet community. Mere minutes after Sony announced a beautiful, ground breaking, free, community-enhancing online PS3 service, 100 internet posters were trying to argue that this was somehow a bad thing. Whether you love or hate Sony, if you’re trying to spin Home as a bad thing I can only conclude that you’re part of Microsoft’s $3.2 billion viral marketing campaign.

For the last nine months it has been fashionable to bash the PS3. At first it was controversial, even titillating, to make sensational and dire predictions about the PS3’s future. You could watch it happen again and again – a rumor starts on a message board (“The PS3s all caught on fire at TGS!”, “Blu-Ray won’t have any Porn!”), then it gets picked up by a games industry website, and a few days later USA Today runs the story with the headline “Experts Say PS3 Doom3d!1!!” But the tide has changed so much now that it’s downright controversial to suggest that the PS3 may yet be a success. So, in the spirit of sensationalism and controversy, let me present to you 10

1. Home & Little Big Planet
One of my jobs at Insomniac is to try to come up with “the next big thing.” This is something everyone at Insomniac does, but as Chief Creative Officer it’s also part of my job description. For the last two years there have been two concepts that I have felt had the strongest potential to be the next big thing. At GDC, Sony came out of the blue and delivered fully-realized versions of both concepts.

The first concept is a realization of the ‘Metaverse’ from Neal Stephenson’s groundbreaking novel Snow Crash. For those who haven’t read it, it’s what inspired Second Life. Over the last couple years, many of us at Insomniac have come up with lots of different ideas on how to make such a system for consoles. So when Home came out, already nearly complete and looking beautiful, it was both amazing and humbling at the same time. In short, Home is exactly what the online console community needs. I’m not saying that because it’s on the PS3. I’m saying that because Home is a fully realized version of something I’ve been trying to figure out how to do for two years.

The other “next big thing” I had been thinking about is how to make a game that is primarily driven by player-generated content. So when Little Big Planet was announced I felt like Orville Wright tinkering on a bicycle-powered balsa wood plane as a learjet suddenly flew overhead. Not only does Little Big Planet have stunningly beautiful graphics, gorgeous animation, brilliant physics and intuitive controls, it’s also a cooperative four player online game! This alone makes it accessible to a much greater audience than player vs player games. And most important of all, it has an absolutely ingenuous system for creating and sharing your own levels. This is HUGE. This is something that’s never been done on consoles and now it’s being introduced not as a half-baked add-on to another game, but as an absolutely brilliant, fully realized, breathtaking experience. You can bet that dozens of developers will create their own Little Big Planet levels as soon as it comes out. Many future game designers will get their start by designing Little Big Planet levels. Gamers who previously had no way to get their foot in the door as a game designer will have developers calling them in the middle of the night if they make a top-rated LBP level. I say again, Little Big Planet is HUGE.

It’s humbling to know that other developers had not only thought of these two concepts, but brought them to fruition in such stunning fashion. Mostly, though, it’s very encouraging to see Sony taking more of a lead in online innovation. While some people were accusing them of merely copying the competition, Sony has been quietly working on two of the most innovative ideas of this generation. “Mii too?” Give me a break.

2. Free Online
Among all the talk about the price of Sony’s console, I almost never see anyone mention the significance of Sony’s free online service. Xbox Live Gold costs $70 to sign up for 1 year, or $20 for three months. You can renew your membership for $50 a year. So if the Xbox 360 stays around for five years, you’ll be paying 70 + 50 + 50 + 50 + 50 = $270 to access features that Sony gives you for free.

I agree, Xbox Live is overall offering a better online service right now. But $270 better? And Sony is steadily narrowing the gap in online features. With improvements to the messaging system and support for background downloading, Sony is rapidly catching up with many of the key advantages that Live has enjoyed. Add to that the fact that Sony is offering virtually lag-free dedicated servers at no cost, while on Xbox Live you are paying for a more laggy peer-to-peer service. Furthermore, one of the biggest advertised features of Xbox Live is matchmaking, yet the implementation of this feature has been inconsistent since it is left up to the developer. The matchmaking service on Resistance: FOM, meanwhile, has been one of its biggest successes, proving that even at this early stage the PS3’s online capabilities are very competitive. And free. As the PS3 community continues to grow with new features and player-generated content from Home and Little Big Planet, Sony’s online service is looking better and better. And, again, they’re not charging you $270 for it.

3. 50 GB games
If you ever hear someone say “Blu-Ray isn’t needed for this generation,” rest assured they don’t make games for a living. At Insomniac, we were filling up DVDs on the PS2, as were most of the developers in the industry. We compressed the level data, we compressed the mpeg movies, we compressed the audio, and it was still a struggle to get it to fit in 6 gigs. Now we’ve got 16 times as much system RAM, so the level data is 16 times bigger. And the average disc space of games only gets bigger over a console’s lifespan. As games get bigger, more advanced and more complex, they necessarily take up more space. If developers were filling up DVDs last generation, there are clearly going to be some sacrifices made to fit current generation games in the same amount of space.

Granted, some really great Xbox 360 games have squeezed onto a DVD9. Gears of War is a beautiful game and shows off the highest resolution textures of anything yet released, partly because of the Unreal Engine’s ability to stream textures. This means that you can have much higher resolution textures than you could normally fit in your 512 MB of RAM. It also means that you’re going to chew up more disc space for each level. With streamed textures, streamed geometry and streamed audio, even with compression, you can quickly approach 1 GB of data per level. That inherently limits you to a maximum of about 7 levels, and that’s without multiplayer levels or mpeg cutscenes.

Sometimes people ask us, “If Resistance takes 14 gigabytes, why doesn’t it look better than Gears?” Well, for one, Resistance didn’t support texture streaming, so we had to make choices about where we spent our high-res textures. Resistance also had 30 single-player chapters, six multiplayer maps, uncompressed audio streaming, and high-definition mpegs. That all added up to a lot of space on the disc. Starting with Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction we are supporting texture streaming, which will make the worlds look even better, and will also consume even more space on disc.

There’s no question that you can always cut more levels, compress the audio more, compress the textures more, down-res the mpeg movies, and eventually get any game to fit on a DVD. But you paid for a high-def experience, right? You want the highest resolution, best audio, most cinematic experience a developer can offer, right? That’s why Blu-Ray is important for games, and why it will become more important each year of this hardware cycle.

4. Casino Royale
Casino Royale is the first high definition title to crack the top 10 on Amazon’s DVD charts, rising up to number seven shortly after being released. This is significant because it dispels the myth that high definition discs are merely a niche and will never take off with the mainstream.

A lot of people have been waiting on the fence to see whether Blu-Ray or HD-DVD would emerge as the winner of the format war. Well, at this point the war is as good as over. Blu-Ray has won a TKO. It always had superior technical specs and much wider studio support, but there was the question of whether HD-DVD’s earlier release and initially lower price would capture enough of the market to make it the winner. But Blu-Ray has already surpassed HD-DVD in overall discs sold, and is currently outselling HD-DVD discs at about a 3:1 rate. Many neutral observers in the A/V community have called the war in favor of Blu-Ray. If you want minute-to-minute updates, you can follow what’s left of the format war at various locations on the internet:
http://www.eproductwars.com...
http://www.hdgamedb.com/ama...
These sites mainly compare Amazon sales data, but the Nielsen sales data shows the same thing: Blu-Ray discs are outselling HD-DVD by a steadily increasing margin.

Many of Disney, Fox and Sony’s biggest box office movies will release exclusively on Blu-Ray in the next three months, likely pushing the sales separation between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to a margin where many retailers will begin phasing out HD-DVD. Retailers hate a format war even more than consumers, and I suspect they’ll take the initiative to end it as quickly as possible.

5. HDMI
A lot has been said about Sony’s choice to ship with composite cables. I won’t say I agree with that decision, but I think too little has been said of the fact that even the cheaper PS3 SKU supports HDMI 1.3. The PS3 was the first consumer device to support it, and this is a very important future-proofing step. When you go to buy higher-end TVs, the PS3 will support the highest possible audio and video input the TV and receiver can accept. If and when high-def movies start requiring an Image Constraint Token, the PS3 will still be able play them in high definition.

Right now, HDMI seems primarily to be a selling point to the hardcore audio and videophiles of the world. But HDTVs are getting cheaper and more popular all the time, and consumer sophistication and knowledge of high definition audio and video is growing. In a couple years, HDMI devices will be the standard. Graphics and audio in games will also continue to improve, and more and more consumers will want HDMI in order to get the best results on their home theater setups. As this happens, Microsoft has a difficult choice – do they stick with “last gen” video output, or do they release a premium version of the Xbox 360 that includes HDMI but effectively forces early adopters to re-buy the system to get the best results? Sony ultimately made their console more expensive by including HDMI, but over the next couple years it’s likely to play out as the right choice.

6. Standard HDD
When we were developing for PS2, I was jealous of Xbox’s standard hard drive. There are so many things this allowed you to consider as a developer – virtually unlimited save data, improved load times, custom music, downloadable content and user-created content just to name a few. But since hard drives, no matter what the size, never get cheaper than about $50, Microsoft lost money trying to compete with the PS2’s price. That may be the reason they left it out of the cheaper Xbox 360 SKU, thinking that Sony would again leave out the hard drive on the PS3. Instead, Sony made the hard drive standard for both SKUs. This added to the cost of the PS3, but it also let developers use the HDD in games.

The problem with including a hard drive in one version of the 360 and not in the other is that developers can’t use it for the games. Or, at least, they can’t use it for any required features. When you are guaranteed to have at least a 20 GB hard drive in the console, you can write your load caching routines around it, or use it for your application’s storage needs. To a developer, an optional hard drive is roughly equivalent to no hard drive at all.

Another advantage of the PS3 is that it will let you put in any third party hard drive you want. From a developer’s standpoint, this is good news because the market will gradually be able to support larger downloadable games over the course of the PS3’s life. As downloadable content gets larger and more sophisticated, PS3 owners can choose to buy larger hard drives at the best market price. The more this happens, the more developers will be encouraged to create better and better downloadable games.

7. The Wii Fad Will Fade
OK, this one’s going to be controversial, but I have to say it. I like Nintendo a lot. I think Nintendo has innovated far more than any other company in the industry. And I think the Wii is really, really fun. But… let me relate to you a story that may sound familiar:

Your friend Reggie invites you over for a Wii Party. It’s awesome. You and your friends partake in whatever beverages are legally appropriate for your age group. The next day everyone who went to the party rushes out and buys a Wii.

A week later Reggie hosts another Wii Party. This time only half the group comes. It’s still fun, but there isn’t quite as much shoving to get at the Wiimote.

The next week Reggie hosts another Wii Party. You tell him you have bird flu.

Obviously I’m exaggerating, but the Wii does have many characteristics of popular mainstream fads. It’s instantaneously accessible, it’s unlike anything you’ve tried before, and it’s great fun to share with friends. In short, it’s everything Nintendo said it would be and it has captured the world’s imagination. The only downside is that the world is easily distracted. Tickle Me Elmo captured the world’s attention at one point, as did Furbies. They were both instantly accessible, were unlike anything people had seen before, and were fun to share with friends. But a year later, after everyone had seen them and tried them out, their popularity waned.

The Wii is currently riding on a massive wave of mainstream attention and has been purchased by lots of people who don’t normally play games. But how many of those people who are hooked on Wii Sports will also buy Wii Need For Speed? Mainstream fads usually run their course within a year. As the honeymoon period fades, the Wii will be going up against more and more graphically impressive games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. More people will be buying HD televisions and looking for the most immersive and stunning experiences available. For these reasons, I think the Wii will be more successful than the GameCube or N64 but in the long run will still be outsold by the PS3.

8. PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage
The GPUs on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are roughly equivalent, with the Xbox 360 arguably having a slight edge. The difference in CPU power, however, is far greater with the PS3 enjoying the advantage. The PS3’s eight parallel CPUs (one primary “PPU” and seven Cell processors) give it potentially far more computing power than the three parallel CPUs in the Xbox 360. Just about any tech programmer will tell you that the PS3’s CPUs are significantly more powerful. The problem is that it has been challenging thus far to take advantage of the Cell’s parallel architecture.

With the PS2, Sony got away with making a fairly developer-unfriendly system, and its success allowed their hardware designers to ignore developer’s complaints as they made the PS3. People high up at Sony have realized that approach simply won’t work anymore and are trying to fix the problem. Sony is actively improving their libraries, tools and developer support in order to make PS3 development easier. They are giving first party developed techniques and code to third-party developers so that multi-platform games should start looking better on PS3.

Games developed from the ground up on PS3 are the ones that will really show off the PS3’s CPU advantage. The complexity of the distributed processing architecture means that PS3 engines won’t fully blossom until a little later in the lifecycle than the PS2. This has put the PS3 at a disadvantage early in its lifecycle, but within two years you will see games that surpass what is possible on the Xbox 360.

9. PS2 still outselling 360
I know, it’s outselling the PS3 by an even larger margin. But the continued strong PS2 sales really are a good thing for Sony. Anyone buying a PS2 at this point is probably not going to buy a PS3 or Xbox 360 in the next year. And when they do choose to buy the current generation of hardware, the PS3 will be in a lot better position. The price will have come down, the game library will be broad, and the top PS3 titles will probably have the edge in both graphics and sound. Just as important, the people buying into the PS2 now will be getting into many of Sony’s exclusive franchises that they will then later want to play on the PS3.

10. Something For Everyone
One of Sony’s biggest advantages is that it has strong franchises in every genre. Whereas Microsoft’s successful titles are mostly M-rated, and Nintendo’s are mostly E-rated, Sony has a big list of hit titles across the spectrum. When a 30-something gamer (like me) goes to buy a game console, it’s a lot easier to justify the purchase when there are games he can play with his kids as well as more mature stuff.

To Microsoft’s credit, they are doing a good job of catching up. The acquisition of Rare and the development of Viva Pinata have helped to broaden their spectrum. But it takes time to build a franchise, and Sony has been building their suite of titles for over a decade. Consider the breadth, success and critical acclaim of some of their exclusive properties: The Getaway, God of War, Gran Turismo, Hot Shots Golf, Jak and Daxter, Killzone, Ratchet & Clank, Shadow of the Colossus, Singstar, Sly Cooper, SOCOM, and Twisted Metal. These are all million-plus sellers worldwide that are either already announced or likely to appear on PS3. Add to this Sony’s new line up of first-party titles, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Uncharted and White Knight Story, and they have an even deeper and stronger line-up than what they had on PS2.

A lot of industry watchers and even a handful of publishers have been quick to write Sony off this generation, and I think that’s near-sighted. Sony has made a lot of decisions with the PS3 that may have slowed them down in the short run, but should give them a big advantage in the long run. The high price, hardware complexity, and the uncertainty of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war have contributed to the PS3’s slow start out of the gate. But as the price drops, developers master the hardware, and Blu-Ray becomes the new DVD standard, Sony’s early disadvantages turn to advantages. As downloadable games become more common, the 60 GB hard-drive will be a big advantage to developers and consumers. As games get bigger and more sophisticated, Blu-Ray storage will increasingly become a major advantage. And as more and more of Sony’s exclusive first-party titles get released, the PS3 will begin to outsell the competition on a monthly basis. Those publishers who have shifted resources away from PS3 development will find themselves behind the curve and losing money as the market center gradually shifts toward the PS3 over the next two years.

I’m sure many of you may have comments about my point of view. If you do, please email blog(at)insomniacgames.com and I’ll do my best to respond. Also, I’ll be visiting the various forums to see what people think, including our own at www.insomniacgames.com (click on the community tab). Hope to see you there. "

[DC RID3R]

you have to be a member to access the article, here's Insomniacs 10 reasons in full.

1. Home & Little Big Planet
One of my jobs at Insomniac is to try to come up with “the next big thing.” This is something everyone at Insomniac does, but as Chief Creative Officer it’s also part of my job description. For the last two years there have been two concepts that I have felt had the strongest potential to be the next big thing. At GDC, Sony came out of the blue and delivered fully-realized versions of both concepts.

The first concept is a realization of the ‘Metaverse’ from Neal Stephenson’s groundbreaking novel Snow Crash. For those who haven’t read it, it’s what inspired Second Life. Over the last couple years, many of us at Insomniac have come up with lots of different ideas on how to make such a system for consoles. So when Home came out, already nearly complete and looking beautiful, it was both amazing and humbling at the same time. In short, Home is exactly what the online console community needs. I’m not saying that because it’s on the PS3. I’m saying that because Home is a fully realized version of something I’ve been trying to figure out how to do for two years.

The other “next big thing” I had been thinking about is how to make a game that is primarily driven by player-generated content. So when Little Big Planet was announced I felt like Orville Wright tinkering on a bicycle-powered balsa wood plane as a learjet suddenly flew overhead. Not only does Little Big Planet have stunningly beautiful graphics, gorgeous animation, brilliant physics and intuitive controls, it’s also a cooperative four player online game! This alone makes it accessible to a much greater audience than player vs player games. And most important of all, it has an absolutely ingenuous system for creating and sharing your own levels. This is HUGE. This is something that’s never been done on consoles and now it’s being introduced not as a half-baked add-on to another game, but as an absolutely brilliant, fully realized, breathtaking experience. You can bet that dozens of developers will create their own Little Big Planet levels as soon as it comes out. Many future game designers will get their start by designing Little Big Planet levels. Gamers who previously had no way to get their foot in the door as a game designer will have developers calling them in the middle of the night if they make a top-rated LBP level. I say again, Little Big Planet is HUGE.

It’s humbling to know that other developers had not only thought of these two concepts, but brought them to fruition in such stunning fashion. Mostly, though, it’s very encouraging to see Sony taking more of a lead in online innovation. While some people were accusing them of merely copying the competition, Sony has been quietly working on two of the most innovative ideas of this generation. “Mii too?” Give me a break.

2. Free Online
Among all the talk about the price of Sony’s console, I almost never see anyone mention the significance of Sony’s free online service. Xbox Live Gold costs $70 to sign up for 1 year, or $20 for three months. You can renew your membership for $50 a year. So if the Xbox 360 stays around for five years, you’ll be paying 70 + 50 + 50 + 50 + 50 = $270 to access features that Sony gives you for free.

I agree, Xbox Live is overall offering a better online service right now. But $270 better? And Sony is steadily narrowing the gap in online features. With improvements to the messaging system and support for background downloading, Sony is rapidly catching up with many of the key advantages that Live has enjoyed. Add to that the fact that Sony is offering virtually lag-free dedicated servers at no cost, while on Xbox Live you are paying for a more laggy peer-to-peer service. Furthermore, one of the biggest advertised features of Xbox Live is matchmaking, yet the implementation of this feature has been inconsistent since it is left up to the developer. The matchmaking service on Resistance: FOM, meanwhile, has been one of its biggest successes, proving that even at this early stage the PS3’s online capabilities are very competitive. And free. As the PS3 community continues to grow with new features and player-generated content from Home and Little Big Planet, Sony’s online service is looking better and better. And, again, they’re not charging you $270 for it.

3. 50 GB games
If you ever hear someone say “Blu-Ray isn’t needed for this generation,” rest assured they don’t make games for a living. At Insomniac, we were filling up DVDs on the PS2, as were most of the developers in the industry. We compressed the level data, we compressed the mpeg movies, we compressed the audio, and it was still a struggle to get it to fit in 6 gigs. Now we’ve got 16 times as much system RAM, so the level data is 16 times bigger. And the average disc space of games only gets bigger over a console’s lifespan. As games get bigger, more advanced and more complex, they necessarily take up more space. If developers were filling up DVDs last generation, there are clearly going to be some sacrifices made to fit current generation games in the same amount of space.

Granted, some really great Xbox 360 games have squeezed onto a DVD9. Gears of War is a beautiful game and shows off the highest resolution textures of anything yet released, partly because of the Unreal Engine’s ability to stream textures. This means that you can have much higher resolution textures than you could normally fit in your 512 MB of RAM. It also means that you’re going to chew up more disc space for each level. With streamed textures, streamed geometry and streamed audio, even with compression, you can quickly approach 1 GB of data per level. That inherently limits you to a maximum of about 7 levels, and that’s without multiplayer levels or mpeg cutscenes.

Sometimes people ask us, “If Resistance takes 14 gigabytes, why doesn’t it look better than Gears?” Well, for one, Resistance didn’t support texture streaming, so we had to make choices about where we spent our high-res textures. Resistance also had 30 single-player chapters, six multiplayer maps, uncompressed audio streaming, and high-definition mpegs. That all added up to a lot of space on the disc. Starting with Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction we are supporting texture streaming, which will make the worlds look even better, and will also consume even more space on disc.

There’s no question that you can always cut more levels, compress the audio more, compress the textures more, down-res the mpeg movies, and eventually get any game to fit on a DVD. But you paid for a high-def experience, right? You want the highest resolution, best audio, most cinematic experience a developer can offer, right? That’s why Blu-Ray is important for games, and why it will become more important each year of this hardware cycle.

4. Casino Royale
Casino Royale is the first high definition title to crack the top 10 on Amazon’s DVD charts, rising up to number seven shortly after being released. This is significant because it dispels the myth that high definition discs are merely a niche and will never take off with the mainstream.

A lot of people have been waiting on the fence to see whether Blu-Ray or HD-DVD would emerge as the winner of the format war. Well, at this point the war is as good as over. Blu-Ray has won a TKO. It always had superior technical specs and much wider studio support, but there was the question of whether HD-DVD’s earlier release and initially lower price would capture enough of the market to make it the winner. But Blu-Ray has already surpassed HD-DVD in overall discs sold, and is currently outselling HD-DVD discs at about a 3:1 rate. Many neutral observers in the A/V community have called the war in favor of Blu-Ray. If you want minute-to-minute updates, you can follow what’s left of the format war at various locations on the internet:
http://www.eproductwars.com...
http://www.hdgamedb.com/ama...
These sites mainly compare Amazon sales data, but the Nielsen sales data shows the same thing: Blu-Ray discs are outselling HD-DVD by a steadily increasing margin.

Many of Disney, Fox and Sony’s biggest box office movies will release exclusively on Blu-Ray in the next three months, likely pushing the sales separation between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to a margin where many retailers will begin phasing out HD-DVD. Retailers hate a format war even more than consumers, and I suspect they’ll take the initiative to end it as quickly as possible.

5. HDMI
A lot has been said about Sony’s choice to ship with composite cables. I won’t say I agree with that decision, but I think too little has been said of the fact that even the cheaper PS3 SKU supports HDMI 1.3. The PS3 was the first consumer device to support it, and this is a very important future-proofing step. When you go to buy higher-end TVs, the PS3 will support the highest possible audio and video input the TV and receiver can accept. If and when high-def movies start requiring an Image Constraint Token, the PS3 will still be able play them in high definition.

Right now, HDMI seems primarily to be a selling point to the hardcore audio and videophiles of the world. But HDTVs are getting cheaper and more popular all the time, and consumer sophistication and knowledge of high definition audio and video is growing. In a couple years, HDMI devices will be the standard. Graphics and audio in games will also continue to improve, and more and more consumers will want HDMI in order to get the best results on their home theater setups. As this happens, Microsoft has a difficult choice – do they stick with “last gen” video output, or do they release a premium version of the Xbox 360 that includes HDMI but effectively forces early adopters to re-buy the system to get the best results? Sony ultimately made their console more expensive by including HDMI, but over the next couple years it’s likely to play out as the right choice.

6. Standard HDD
When we were developing for PS2, I was jealous of Xbox’s standard hard drive. There are so many things this allowed you to consider as a developer – virtually unlimited save data, improved load times, custom music, downloadable content and user-created content just to name a few. But since hard drives, no matter what the size, never get cheaper than about $50, Microsoft lost money trying to compete with the PS2’s price. That may be the reason they left it out of the cheaper Xbox 360 SKU, thinking that Sony would again leave out the hard drive on the PS3. Instead, Sony made the hard drive standard for both SKUs. This added to the cost of the PS3, but it also let developers use the HDD in games.

The problem with including a hard drive in one version of the 360 and not in the other is that developers can’t use it for the games. Or, at least, they can’t use it for any required features. When you are guaranteed to have at least a 20 GB hard drive in the console, you can write your load caching routines around it, or use it for your application’s storage needs. To a developer, an optional hard drive is roughly equivalent to no hard drive at all.

Another advantage of the PS3 is that it will let you put in any third party hard drive you want. From a developer’s standpoint, this is good news because the market will gradually be able to support larger downloadable games over the course of the PS3’s life. As downloadable content gets larger and more sophisticated, PS3 owners can choose to buy larger hard drives at the best market price. The more this happens, the more developers will be encouraged to create better and better downloadable games.

7. The Wii Fad Will Fade
OK, this one’s going to be controversial, but I have to say it. I like Nintendo a lot. I think Nintendo has innovated far more than any other company in the industry. And I think the Wii is really, really fun. But… let me relate to you a story that may sound familiar:

Your friend Reggie invites you over for a Wii Party. It’s awesome. You and your friends partake in whatever beverages are legally appropriate for your age group. The next day everyone who went to the party rushes out and buys a Wii.

A week later Reggie hosts another Wii Party. This time only half the group comes. It’s still fun, but there isn’t quite as much shoving to get at the Wiimote.

The next week Reggie hosts another Wii Party. You tell him you have bird flu.

Obviously I’m exaggerating, but the Wii does have many characteristics of popular mainstream fads. It’s instantaneously accessible, it’s unlike anything you’ve tried before, and it’s great fun to share with friends. In short, it’s everything Nintendo said it would be and it has captured the world’s imagination. The only downside is that the world is easily distracted. Tickle Me Elmo captured the world’s attention at one point, as did Furbies. They were both instantly accessible, were unlike anything people had seen before, and were fun to share with friends. But a year later, after everyone had seen them and tried them out, their popularity waned.

The Wii is currently riding on a massive wave of mainstream attention and has been purchased by lots of people who don’t normally play games. But how many of those people who are hooked on Wii Sports will also buy Wii Need For Speed? Mainstream fads usually run their course within a year. As the honeymoon period fades, the Wii will be going up against more and more graphically impressive games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. More people will be buying HD televisions and looking for the most immersive and stunning experiences available. For these reasons, I think the Wii will be more successful than the GameCube or N64 but in the long run will still be outsold by the PS3.

8. PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage
The GPUs on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are roughly equivalent, with the Xbox 360 arguably having a slight edge. The difference in CPU power, however, is far greater with the PS3 enjoying the advantage. The PS3’s eight parallel CPUs (one primary “PPU” and seven Cell processors) give it potentially far more computing power than the three parallel CPUs in the Xbox 360. Just about any tech programmer will tell you that the PS3’s CPUs are significantly more powerful. The problem is that it has been challenging thus far to take advantage of the Cell’s parallel architecture.

With the PS2, Sony got away with making a fairly developer-unfriendly system, and its success allowed their hardware designers to ignore developer’s complaints as they made the PS3. People high up at Sony have realized that approach simply won’t work anymore and are trying to fix the problem. Sony is actively improving their libraries, tools and developer support in order to make PS3 development easier. They are giving first party developed techniques and code to third-party developers so that multi-platform games should start looking better on PS3.

Games developed from the ground up on PS3 are the ones that will really show off the PS3’s CPU advantage. The complexity of the distributed processing architecture means that PS3 engines won’t fully blossom until a little later in the lifecycle than the PS2. This has put the PS3 at a disadvantage early in its lifecycle, but within two years you will see games that surpass what is possible on the Xbox 360.

9. PS2 still outselling 360
I know, it’s outselling the PS3 by an even larger margin. But the continued strong PS2 sales really are a good thing for Sony. Anyone buying a PS2 at this point is probably not going to buy a PS3 or Xbox 360 in the next year. And when they do choose to buy the current generation of hardware, the PS3 will be in a lot better position. The price will have come down, the game library will be broad, and the top PS3 titles will probably have the edge in both graphics and sound. Just as important, the people buying into the PS2 now will be getting into many of Sony’s exclusive franchises that they will then later want to play on the PS3.

10. Something For Everyone
One of Sony’s biggest advantages is that it has strong franchises in every genre. Whereas Microsoft’s successful titles are mostly M-rated, and Nintendo’s are mostly E-rated, Sony has a big list of hit titles across the spectrum. When a 30-something gamer (like me) goes to buy a game console, it’s a lot easier to justify the purchase when there are games he can play with his kids as well as more mature stuff.

To Microsoft’s credit, they are doing a good job of catching up. The acquisition of Rare and the development of Viva Pinata have helped to broaden their spectrum. But it takes time to build a franchise, and Sony has been building their suite of titles for over a decade. Consider the breadth, success and critical acclaim of some of their exclusive properties: The Getaway, God of War, Gran Turismo, Hot Shots Golf, Jak and Daxter, Killzone, Ratchet & Clank, Shadow of the Colossus, Singstar, Sly Cooper, SOCOM, and Twisted Metal. These are all million-plus sellers worldwide that are either already announced or likely to appear on PS3. Add to this Sony’s new line up of first-party titles, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Uncharted and White Knight Story, and they have an even deeper and stronger line-up than what they had on PS2.

A lot of industry watchers and even a handful of publishers have been quick to write Sony off this generation, and I think that’s near-sighted. Sony has made a lot of decisions with the PS3 that may have slowed them down in the short run, but should give them a big advantage in the long run. The high price, hardware complexity, and the uncertainty of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war have contributed to the PS3’s slow start out of the gate. But as the price drops, developers master the hardware, and Blu-Ray becomes the new DVD standard, Sony’s early disadvantages turn to advantages. As downloadable games become more common, the 60 GB hard-drive will be a big advantage to developers and consumers. As games get bigger and more sophisticated, Blu-Ray storage will increasingly become a major advantage. And as more and more of Sony’s exclusive first-party titles get released, the PS3 will begin to outsell the competition on a monthly basis. Those publishers who have shifted resources away from PS3 development will find themselves behind the curve and losing money as the market center gradually shifts toward the PS3 over the next two years.

I’m sure many of you may have comments about my point of view. If you do, please email [email protected] and I’ll do my best to respond. Also, I’ll be visiting the various forums to see what people think, including our own at www.insomniacgames.com (click on the community tab). Hope to see you there.

[thegreatone]

I especially agree with the wrongful Sony bashing thats been going on. I've visited this site quite often and it almost seems like their are more negative posts from either X-box fanboys or people who just really hate Sony rather than Sony's fans. Also I find a lot of the articles to be very Sensationalist. For example, I kept hearing how poorly Sony was doing in Europe only to find out truthfully a few days later that they did very well. Take what you read with a grain of salt.

BTW Armyless (how appropriate) Its how stupid is Insomniac not are.

[n4g sucks]

the best article i,ve read in a long time...very valid points( like the point that the 2 gpu,s are not that different, because the graphics on both systems look the same to me also) also the inclusion of the hdd from a developers stand point is interesting. his out look on home and LBP was a insight too....

[Monchichi025]

Just because Sony is not authorizing his comments he thinks it gives him more credibility! LOL We all know that Insomniac makes games for the PS3 so PS3 success will only be his success!! He has a personal objective and it is blantently obvious!!

1. Look at what he put number 1!! His own stupid game!! He's making it sound like Little Planet is the Next coming of Mario or something!! Dude, the game is not even done. It won't even end up being better then Viva Pinata!

2. Free Online?!? Yeah, too bad the PS3 online service Sucks!!!! Yeah you will have Home, but that does not solve any of the gaming issues, just hides them!! Sorry, but everyone knows you get what you pay for, and I'm happy paying my $50 yearly for a far superior online gaming service!!

3.Maybe your using all that file data because you are NOT COMPRESSING!!!! You should try it, it's working wonders for all those studios not being forced by Sony!

4. Yeah, you forgot to mention how Casino Royal is only so high because a free copy is given away with every European PS3 sold!!! Movie sucks, you really expect people would have bought it!!! Oh and yeah, outselling H-DVD only because everyone is using those free vouchers for a free movie. You think people wouldn't use them????

5. Sorry but the majority of the people out there do not care about HDMI. Honestly, my old connection already looks perfectly on my LCD. My games on my "old" 360 still look a lot better then those on PS3's connected with HDMI. So why should we upgrade???

6.I can give you the hard drive arguement. But wait didn't the PS2 lack a HD....and who won that battle???

7. Wii will fade. And what are you basing this on. I know I want one, and I know many of other people that want one to. Especially when Mario comes out!!!

8. Better graphics?!? Hahaha I love this one. Sony has yet to proves this in anyway. Plus, there has never been a Gen where the console with the best graphics won. It's all about affordability and desire. Nothing that the PS3 has.

9.PS2 outselling the 360??? Umm,because it is soo cheap and has a huge library. These people are mass market people with no brand loyalty....that is why they are only purchasing now you idiot. And guess what system will be in this same situation years from now. And if you guess Sony you are DEAD wrong!!

10. Something for everyone???? Last time I checked Sony's library lacked this option. It is X-box who has something for everyone. And with a much larger install base and cheaper to develop for it's a no-brainer what platform small studios will develop for.

[brianpk80]

Nice how reason #1 is his explanation that he had these great ideas that were independently discovered and are being brought to life on the PS3. And it's cute how he tries to set himself up as the lone maverick going against the tide of anti-PS3 sentiment but that self-aggrandizing does nothing to support his arguments.

Reasons PS3 will fail in comparison to its competitors:

1. Price, price, price, price, price
2. Arrogant detachment from consumers
3. Loss of U.S. market
4. Staggering loss of goodwill in EU
5. Avalanche of lost exclusives, a cycle that only accelerates

[n4g sucks]

hahahaha,,,did you compare LBP to viva pinata ?????hhahahahahaha

[Monchichi025]

Viva Pinata actually has had success while that Little Planet is just Sony Hype like everything else (hence....Killzone) I shouldn't diservice Viva Pinata like that. So yeah, my bad!!

[OldSchoolGamer]

Lol not biased, let me point out something
"Are your games available on PC or other consoles?
Sony Computer Entertainment publishes for us exclusively, so there are no Insomniac Games video games for the PC or consoles other than the PlayStation One or PS2."
When listing first party titles: "Add to this Sony’s new line up of first-party titles, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man..."

I think that says enough, he sounds like a fan boy to me, oh wait no he just paid alot of money to quote "work very closely with Sony." lol.

You wanted some analysis your getting it, if you plan on responding keep it to close to the same level please.

1.*He thinks a Sony idea is great, I'm truely shocked, his response sounds like "Mii too-ish". This was received with mixed reviews by the entire industry. Do I think this is a bad thing? No, I think this does give Sony a legit online experience, will people by a PS3 for home? No, they will to play game with each other over the internet. The free games offered in home will be a fad (I point to his claims about the same said games for the Wii being a fad, don't contradict yourself) It's a nice feature, but hardly a selling point. Little Big Planet again looked amazing and I think it will give potential developers a shot, but will it sell systems? Hardly, this will simply give some fun gaming experience that is open ended, but is more fadish than say a Wii.

2. *He is right that free online is a good thing, whole heartedly agree, but what does $50 buy you is my question. Right now, Sony is making alot of promises and hopefully most get delivered on, but what exactly does that $50 buy. Hmm...let me see well its not the extra downloadable content, movies, music, music videos, or free demos. What is it? It called online support d@mn-near standard for almost every single 360 title. Show me 15 good online games for Sony. The majority of those exclusives he so well points too (which shall be some darn good games, don't get me wrong) are lacking the head-to-head matchmaking (I count six most likely to get head to head matchmaking) that the 360 touts in all those titles. What does $50 buy you unified friends lists, convenience, and that head-to-head; and I agree "I agree, Xbox Live is overall offering a better online service right now", and you think they are stopping on making it better? Lol today Netflix just came on board, try again*

3. *Wow this one is most bs one yet. Ok "highest resolution, best audio, most cinematic experience a developer can offer", thanks for talking about gears good thing Blu-Ray was needed for it. So, because something is compressed you are saying its lower quality? What kind of horsesh@t is that? Do millions and millions of people buy Ipod and use MP3's cause they sound like crap? What kind of Kool-Aid is this guy drinking. "If developers were filling up DVDs last generation, there are clearly going to be some sacrifices made to fit current generation games in the same amount of space." Developers like GoW2 developer said the they frequently filled the disk with tons of repeat data to try and get better performance out of the slow player. Sometimes people ask us, “If Resistance takes 14 gigabytes, why doesn’t it look better than Gears?” Well, for one, Resistance didn’t support texture streaming, so we had to make choices about where we spent our high-res textures" Cry me a river, you made such a big deal about needing that space for the 1080p textures before the release, then you see Gears and change your tune, which is it fan boy?*

4. Casino Royale? WTF, are you telling me you know Blu-ray will win the HD war cause you time travel. Regardless of which wins, movie support is not going to effect the console war. This is just spouting what Sony has pounded in to this poor b@st@rds head. Shoot digital distribution will most likely pass both formats, but I can't see the future so I will use most likely, not like Sony boy here.

5. HDMI-First he sidesteps not including HDMI, that he "doesn't agree with it" then goes on to say Microsoft needs it, but introducing it into another SKU will alienate the early adopters. Umm, the reason they were early adopters is they are fans of the Xbox, and if they continue enjoying their experience on the console they will hardly bat an eye at picking it up/trading their old one in. Again, its a choice and kept console prices reasonable for the early rounds. If its so vital may I ask why with it does Gears still look 10 times better than Resistance?

6. Standard HDD-this I believe is his strongest point. Will I think it will ultimately win or lose the war for Sony, not in the least. A standard hard-drive does offer consistency in consoles for a programmer, but again both systems are capable of slapping on in, so I don't see it as a huge advantage either. A programmer can make a game that needs one, a la FF online, that doesn't have one and simply put on the box hard drive needed, yet gee lower price is a bad thing. Has either company sold no lower end models? I know they haven't sold as well as higher end, but these are early adopters who are willing to shell out the cash so what do you expect. But when price cuts start coming bet on the one that hits the sweet spot $200 to sell extreme high numbers compared to early sales, ie PS2. High cost has been part of Sony's alienation of gamers to this point so he can't keep saying it doesn't matter.

Also, I remember Microsoft asking Epic, among other programmers which is more important: more RAM or an included harddrive? Guess what, RAM won out, which system has more available? The 360.

7. Wii? I thought Wii wasn't a Sony competitor. If you are not biased why bash the Wii so much. You have no plans on developing for any system but Sony, so why go at the Wii again? Strange how this Wii "fad" sounds remarkably like Home and Little Big Planet, lol.

8."The GPUs on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are roughly equivalent, with the Xbox 360 arguably having a slight edge."

From here on out no arguing, this Sony fan boy developer just said grudgingly the Xenos is more powerful (he may and try to play it down but nuff said)

"The difference in CPU power, however, is far greater with the PS3 enjoying the advantage. The PS3’s eight parallel CPUs (one primary “PPU” and seven Cell processors) give it potentially far more computing power than the three parallel CPUs in the Xbox 360."

Wow that is the biggest spin garbage I have ever heard, the 360 has 3 "true" cores capable of hyperthreading (edit)*running 2 lines of command each in parallel at full speeds*, which all are uniform making programming a heck of alot easier than on PS3. Versus the 1 PPU and 6 usable SPU's (which are not true cores). The one extra "spu" giving him that huge confidence?

Sony is trying to play catch up on developer tools again? Shocker, but it is easier to learn to develope on the 360 and you will see much better games faster that take more advantage of the system faster. This means less money to develop for, more consoles sold, equals bigger lead, and less Sony exclusive (DMC4 anyone?)

Ultimately graphics and performance comes down to more than GPU+CPU, the GPU edge swings way wide to Microsoft, CPU I'll give to Sony to placate this guy, but RAM and developers do play a part. RAM goes to Microsoft especially if you want more features like Universal friends list, in game chat options, as Microsoft has unified RAM capable of being used where needed and a smaller footprint. Developers can only spend so much time on a game (unless funded by Sony or Microsoft) as they need revenue, so easier to program edge also goes to Microsoft.

9. Well PS2 is outselling next gen? At under $200, again I'm shocked. So what happens when you can get next gen for under $200's. Which is going to be more likely to do it first 360 core, or the lower end PS3? Tough call, huh. As for exclusives, again lower cost=smaller barrier to entry more mass market, less exclusives for Sony, ect. (again exclusives huh like Devil May Cry right? Maybe Halo 3? Mass Effect? Forza 2? Fable 2? short part of the list, you are right, there are none on 360 anyone will want to play, just Rachet and Clank.

10. Lol something for everyone huh? which system has a more diverse lineup of games (currently what like 30-170), or in the future? I see some good titles there that might hit by like 2009, but again you don't think Microsoft will have hits as well you are mistaken.

"And as more and more of Sony’s exclusive first-party titles get released, the PS3 will begin to outsell the competition on a monthly basis. Those publishers who have shifted resources away from PS3 development will find themselves behind the curve and losing money as the market center gradually shifts toward the PS3 over the next two years."

Lol you calling Capcom dumb? You think they don't know anything about making games? They been in this business longer than you and have more hits. PS3 is too expensive to put the extra cash into developing longer times for so multiplatform isn't bothering and the exclusive 3rd party keep landing Microsofts way, but wait don't matter unless they are first party? Is that what you are saying Sony boy?

Anyway tried to be as cynical as I could, just showing how garbage this crap is, he's as unbiased as Bill Gates.

What I find truely interesting is he didn't list Metal Gear Solid as an exclusive am I on to something here?

Again, keep posts thought out, this was written at work so may be a little gramatically incorrect. Just wanted to show you can spin that both ways, and that the future is far from decided.

[Dogswithguns]

Why do you think I bought a PS3 for?

[MrFurious]

Sony built the best entertainment system ever, that's the point.
Despite all M$ effort to win against Sony, they will lose, M$ will not impose his marketing and earning system. sony is brilliant as they are trying to break the wall between devs and gamers, I'm sure they will succeed, as said before, why do you think I bought a PS3?
Surely this is the best machine

[SuperSaiyan4]

How stupid are Insomniac.

The CPU is soo advanced the devs cant do anything with it so the 360 games are the best.

The GPU in the 360 is around 2yrs ahead of the PS3's

The gamers will decide who wins.

[Armyless]

I don't care which Kool-Aid you drink, that's a dumb thing to say. I would say the same thing if someone had said, "How stupid are Bungie".

Argue with his points if you want to, it's an ongoing debate in an open arena of ideas and we'd all like to join you, but degrading a wildly creative and talented development team JUST BECAUSE it produces games for the PS3 is the height of hypocrisy.

Bungie is not stupid, never has been, and neither is Insomniac.

[Killer Cop]

Says the fanboy with one single bubble. Hah.

[The great Me]

That bungie wouldn't come out and make such statements. They just make good games and let that do the talking. So why would anyone need to say that bungie is so stupid? Your argument makes little sense to me.

[DrHooker]

Rationality, this is SuperSaiyan4. SuperSaiyan4 this is rationality. Wait let me get a cup for that dribble :)

[D R Fz]

"Games developed from the ground up on PS3 are the ones that will really show off the PS3’s CPU advantage. The complexity of the distributed processing architecture means that PS3 engines won’t fully blossom until a little later in the lifecycle than the PS2. This has put the PS3 at a disadvantage early in its lifecycle, but within two years you will see games that surpass what is possible on the Xbox 360."

Every developer seems to be saying this.

[BIadestarX]

Ever wonder why? Their job depends on it. They are pretty much telling people please do not compare the games with the 360 just yet, wait 2-3 years. We all know what happends when people compare the consoles. It's obvious that they don't want people to base their purchase on facts (what's being produce today) but intead on something that can't be proven in at least 2-3 years from now.

[THAMMER1]

The theory is that once they are able to unlock the unorthodox CELL they will be able to do more particle effects and background effects and animations.

For example on Gears of war you have rain effects that run down the trees right? When you touch those trees or shoot them the water is not effected. If you dedicate more random CPU operations to back ground physics you can manipulate those features of the game at will. This dose not mean that this is not possible on the 360 it just means that we have a lot of great things to look forward too.

So basically he is saying that the PS3 is like a 100 spoke tire with 40 spokes missing, but you gona fix that.

[Sexius Maximus]

but those same developers who say the Cell is a better chip (which I even agree with, to an extent) also say that the RSX is garbage compared to the 360 GPU. The CPU can only get you so far with a GPU that was outdated over a year ago. That's why BOTH systems have there advantages and disadvantages. ANY developer (unless they work exclusively for Sony) says the power of the 360 GPU is head and shoulders above the PS3.

[THAMMER1]

That is true the GPU on the 360 is better. The 360’s CPU also has much more memory to work with. It is just that the PS3 has some floating point advantages that if the dev. crack the code on and use their imagination they do some extra visual tricks.

Again this is not to be said that it can not be done on the 360 in an equal manor. This is all theory because the CELL is yet to be fully tapped for games development. Sony and many developers are just wet because of what they should be able to do but no one really seems to have an idea when this will happen. (THEY ARE WORKING ON IT SO WELCOME BACK TO THE WAIT.)

[ASSASSYN 36o]

The most contradicting article to date.

[Violater]

Great read.
Now thats a 10 reasons article.

2.0 why do you say its contradictory?

[BIadestarX]

1 - They are 1st/2nd party. and If they don't say that they will all be flipping burgers at your local burger king.

Edit: I would try better, but you see. But it's kind of dificult not judging information comming from them and not rated as bias. Take the fact as an example that he does not openly mentions any areas where Sony is not doing great. As far as he is concern the PS3 and Sony are doing everything perfectly fine. Now we all know that nothing is perfect in this industry. All consoles have their streght and weakness. Even if everything is as this guy says is true, that the PS3 is more powerful that the 360 in all aspecs, it's kind of stupid to say that it will guarantee the console domination. If so, why is the DS killing the PSP, and why did the PS2 dominated last gen when the orignal xbox had a HHD and was way more powerful than the PS2? Yeah, the one things that no body seems to take under consideration: The Games. That's whats going to mark the winner. So while Sony's developers and PRs continue to scream, "The PS3 is more poweful than 8 computer", "The Cell thinks of its own", "The PS3 hardware is a $h!t" most PS exclusives are being brought to the 360 and new IP suchs as Gears, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Lost Oddesy are being developed.

[fenderputty]

They are not 1st party.

[jwatt]

You don't agree with anything he said, you think it's all stupid? You think a standard HDD is dumb? Come on, the guy has a valid point would you feel better if it was somebody from Bungie making this artical? I don't even think you read the artical, even if your a 360 fanboy you don't have to believe Sony will win the console war but the ps3 is a good system with a big future ahead.

[VirtualGamer]

Interesting that you don't actually challenge anything he says with fact or sound reasoning but instead attack his crediblity. Funny that you did not questions Microsoft Ozymandias credibility for his blog entry on the PS3 use of memory?

http://ozymandias.com/archi...

Instead you stated "Ok, fanboys proceed to flame the guy. eventhough he is right."

So I am going to go out on a limb here and say your a Xbox 360 owner and guess what everything MS says is the gods honest truth and everything Sony says or any of the exclusive developers of games for Sony are all wrong.

I am curious then how your going to explain someone like Mark Rein's comments in a recent interview. His comments seem to support what is being said by Insomniac Games Chief Creative Officer Brian Hastings. Considering he does not have to say nice things about Sony or he will be working at Burger King flipping burgers I wonder what motivation is?

"The comments I said [in 2005], if you take them in the context I actually said them in, were true. There are certainly going to be lots of games that are gimmicky, but as I said, Nintendo has made some great games for it. Wii Sports is great, Zelda is great, Wii Play is a blast... Those games that people make specifically for that platform, they're always going to be good."

Rein also has positive things to say about PlayStation 3, and some strong words for Sony's critics. "People just seem to want to take a smack at them, and I can't figure it out. They're the leader, so I guess they have a target on their back."

Take the issue of stock supplies, Rein says - "So wait, if they don't have enough machines in stores, that's a bad thing? If they do have enough machines, that's a bad thing? Pick one!

"The PlayStation brand is very, very strong, and maybe you and I, who are in the games industry, maybe we over-read the press - but the gamers out there, they aspire to buy a new PlayStation.

"I went to a Target store a month or two ago and I was in the electronics area, and a non-typical gamer looking guy walks in the store and asks for a PlayStation 3. I walked up to him and asked him why he wasn't buying an Xbox 360, and he said, 'Well, I had a PlayStation 2, it was awesome - I would never think of buying an Xbox.'"

However, Rein concedes, the PlayStation 3's high price point may put some consumers off at the start of the console cycle.

"Yeah, it's a high price, because it's a new, high-end piece of equipment - but history shows that price will come down... They probably won't all buy one when it's $600 or $500, but when it's $400, $300, when the software they like is out - they'll start buying them.

"Motorstorm has come out, it's a great title. As the big titles come out, they're going to sell a bunch of machines. When PlayStation Home comes out, they'll sell a bunch of machines."

All in all, Rein concludes, PlayStation still has the edge as the next-gen console battle gets underway.

"Sony has a very, very strong brand, so in my opinion, they're still the one to beat. The Wii is an impressive piece of hardware, but as you get the visually more impressive games coming out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as the marketing dollars get turned up to support the larger quantities of machines, and with potential price drops, titles like Singstar which appeal to the larger market... Those machines will ignite, they'll take off and they'll sell just fine."

http://gamesindustry.biz/co...

Sorry but your going to have to do better then just simply throw mud if you really want to convince anyone your right.

[BlackIceJoe]

I then hope to see many great things come out of the games Insomniac makes.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

This is the same things being said over and over...yet people dont know that Insom is 100% independent....and that dosnet mean they are sony fanboys they just like sony and there games sell well on there just like the new R&C willl...

[xfrgtr]

PS3 RULES

[power of Green]

Nonsense there is just as many devs etc saying the opisite, as if the 360 console will stand still letting PS3 pass it up.

[achira]

he is 100% correct. resistance is an awesome game, i hope resistance 2 will appear in the near future.

[Adamalicious]

Resistance may not have reinvented the Shooter, but I don't think I had that much fun with a shooter since Doom came out (maybe Doom 2). If you've played it you know what I'm talking about. If you say Resistance is lame - you haven't played it (IMO).

I think we'll see the next chapter of Resistance in about a year from now. Insomniac has been putting out one title a year - and unless they are extending the dev cycle we ought to be getting a R&C and a Resistance roughly every calendar year. Totally speculation there, but based on historical trends at least.

Insomniac does such great work - top to bottom. Every dev should aspire to their level of quality.

[DreamSnach2]

sony is about shout out and they are going to say anything they can, to be in the news. this may be the end of them (i hope)

[jwatt]

Yes Ms has big hit games like Halo but the ps2 has 100 million sold you know how many loyal fans are eager to play a Socom, God of war, Gran turismo a Ratchet or Jak game on the ps3. you are not going to see the end of Sony!

[consolewar]

that it's gonna be worth it in 2 years or more, yet sonytrolls say great sony ftw. WTH wow talking about being a fanboy.

I guess Sony is right " Wait Beyond "

[marshman]

Good Read sounds like someone that actually knows what they are talking about unlike all the Haters.
Good for Sony and Insom.

[shikwan]

1. No GLOBAL online community.

2. No UNIFIED online features.

3. Games that are 'late to the party'; Games that have been on other systems for well over 1 year before being enhanced and released on PS3.

4. No HD/SD movie downloads. (HINT: Disc-based video media is going the route of the CD.)

5. No inclusion of HD or HDMI cables out-the-box.

6. A hdd with no PC connectivity means no convienent way to transfer large amounts of existing media to PS3.

7. The Wii Fad Will Fade but not before Sony copies everything that Wii has going for it.

8. PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage - which is then crippled by it's memory usage and programmability.

9. PS2 still outselling 360...and the PS3.

10. Something For Everyone...who can AFFORD it. 360 has something for everyone AND is affordable.

****BONUS REASON****

11. Because investors or profitors have to continually produce these stories to maintain their (and everyone else's) continually declining confidence in Sony's hype machine.

[InMyOpinion]

You really killed it with that reply.

[R34GTR]

1. GDC2007: "PLAYSTATION HOME" THIS FALL

2. GDC2007: PLAYSTATION HOME... THIS FALL (yea pull the wait card but I dont mind waiting for something that will be free and more likely better)

3. Ummmm since their was no console back in 2006 to release these games on... they are just being released now... and the PS3 owners get some nice graphics touch up for their troubles. Everything else from here on out will be seeing simulatneous release. Come on... name a new release multi that didnt launch simulataneous. (I'll wait)

4. They are Sony....(Media freaking Kings) You honestly dont think its a matter of time before their media downloads blow Microsofts out of the water... HD movies were on Xbox360 Market place @ launch or 5 months later?

5. Yea... your right... I really see that causing the PS3 to Flop.. good one. lol

6. Their is 3rd party software that allows this now. http://www.redkawa.com/medi...

7. Yea your right... especially the dual shock 2. The Best Controller pad 10 years and running. Not my words. Just read up on it. Its winning awards.

8. ohhhhh crap... your a dev now??? So explain the jaw dropping games coming out for the PS3. Exlplain ninja Gaiden Sigma @ 1080P,Constant 60FPS and Real Time Self-Shadowing. "No game has accomplished all those feets at once" Not even your beloved Gears.

9. Yes.... Sony is still outselling Sony and Microsoft. lol

10. Price is probably your best point you made but just like any good consumer knows. "You pay for what you get."

BONUS COUNTER:

Cause fanboys like you will constantly troll around in PS3 forums and news and try spin positive PS3 outlooks. If your soo confident let me ask you. What are you soo afraid of then????

[SmokeyMcBear]

shikwan is pure comedy....

1&2 no global online community... hmmm home.. is free.. mmmmm frrreeeee

3. yes because you know ps3 has only been out 4 months.. and i like you r key word.. enhanced.. nice word there

4. Yeah spend 5 hours and money to download a movie you will watch only once..and no hard drive to store it on.. unless you pay extra for it.. mmm pay extra

5. How bout the inclusion of an HDMI port.. you can actually use it.. wow what a concept, i guess the elite sku is covering that though.. so go ahead and buy that if ya want

6. So you have all your media on your PC right,or is it an external HDD, cuz I can connect that directly to my ps3 if I wanted to, which I do.. also look up location free player.. its nice, no wires.. what a concept

7. Yes it will fade, and sony will have copied the best parts, I'm not sure how this is a bad thing

8. Yes major CPU advantage, and the programmibility is becomeing easier every day, "Edge" 1st party developer tips, its only going to get better

9. Yes PS2 is still kicking but.. you actually think those 110 million are going to change over to the 360? when they have a proven quality name brand that has lasted 6 years and still going strong.. you remember red ring of death.. remember?

10. Afford is a relative term, I'm sure average joe american is still balking at the both price tages, get down to 150 then its for everyone, ie. see PS2, the price drops will come for both.

****BONUS****

11. Don't be scurred cuz people are saying good things about Sony, if it was such a crap brand and nobody wanted, all the shouting from these so called profiteers wouldnt matter? Right?

[jwatt]

Thank you for shutting him up.

[BlindPublic]

2. Rainbow Six: Vegas & Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 were both released on 360 after Ps3 launched, and have both as of now have yet to release on Ps3. There are several others that released on 360 just before the ps3 launch that have as of yet not been released, but I left those off.
Hope the wait wasn't too long.

[bee2427]

yea the wait will take about 6 months after the ps3 came out for "other" great games to come out... I think it took xbox about a year and a half ... thanks sony

[InMyOpinion]

How come Itagaki san chose the 360 as platform for Ninja Gaiden 2 then?
If Sigma has 1080p, real time self shadowing and runs at 60fps do you really think Ninja Gaiden 2 won't have that? How come capcom went multi-platform with DMC 4 since the Ps3 is set to be number one this generation?

Btw, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is not even close to GOW graphically. It looks like an upscaled xbox game but with more detailed characters. Check out the poor detail on the environments.

First pic is Sigma, the rest are from the original xbox version.

[DartsPluck]

1. No GLOBAL online community. lol yes there is... are you like ignoring what he said?

2. No UNIFIED online features. lol? yes there is

3. Games that are 'late to the party'; Games that have been on other systems for well over 1 year before being enhanced and released on PS3.
Good for you fanboy of 360

4. No HD/SD movie downloads. (HINT: Disc-based video media is going the route of the CD.)

5. No inclusion of HD or HDMI cables out-the-box.
lol.... you really dont know much

6. A hdd with no PC connectivity means no convienent way to transfer large amounts of existing media to PS3.
... now your getting sad

7. The Wii Fad Will Fade but not before Sony copies everything that Wii has going for it.
doubt it

8. PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage - which is then crippled by it's memory usage and programmability.
Uh huh

9. PS2 still outselling 360...and the PS3.
Yes.. but ps2 is also outselling the original xbox (omg gonna cry cause halo didnt get bought, yes theres a corner.. go cry)

10. Something For Everyone...who can AFFORD it. 360 has something for everyone AND is affordable.
umm in australia ps3 is $100 more expensive, has more GB, has a free game.. Xbox has less GB and no game... Who wins?

****BONUS REASON****

11. Because investors or profitors have to continually produce these stories to maintain their (and everyone else's) continually declining confidence in Sony's hype machine.

I dont know if you realised, but when sony released the PS3 they were making a loss of roughly $100 U.S each ps3 sold.. they're obviously devote...

Now would you fanboys SHUT UP

[Toolman]

Interesting read, he had some very good points.
I agree with the advantage of blu ray and HDD in every PS3 SKU.
We have allready seen the advatange that the HDD gives the PS3 with Oblivion.
As a result, the game runs a lot faster than the 360 build. Entering dungeons or buildings results in a load of 3-5 seconds, compared to the 7-10 seconds or longer for the 360 version of the game

[MEGANE]

Xbox fans if u hate ps3 so bad! why do u care so much!!... i dont really see any ps3 fanboy talking crap abaut 360...because we really dont care we all know ps3 its better n u will see it in a year from now... PS3 RULEZ

[shikwan]

Then perhaps you're just as out-of-touch as Sony.

[jwatt]

It's lonely at top, People will always hate because your # 1. You know how many people hated the lakers when they were winning, or how many people hated on the N.Y Yankess because they won so many championships. People just hate on Sony.

[Optimus Prime]

i dont really see any ps3 fanboy talking crap abaut 360... what site are you on, not on this one, or unless you dont know how to read. you stupid sony fanboy.

[Theo1130]

1)Home & Little lost planet are not system sellers to casuals, are casuals gamer dont even know what they are.
2)50 a year but still better that haveing your cell phone number as invites
3)Storage issues are just brought up this gen by fanboys who champion this as nessarry. The reason that mass Effect and Oblivion is that there is no cutsence so all of that can be compressed by 70%
4)A Movie...wow that a weak exuse to buy a gameing console
5)Revision coming to 360
6)This is a plus but its not really nessary except for the ps3 witch dumps assets to speed up load times
7)wii is a fad but a powerful one, which stands to blast ps3 in japan
8)More powerful, but hard to redem power
9)ps2 out selling next gen still is aproblem for all especially sony, The more ps2 that sell that one more thats not buying a ps3 in the next years
10)IT does have something for everyone but not alot of system sellers. GTA is multiplatform, and 2nd last gen top seller was halo and that exlusive to xbox 360

Inconclusion: HES JUST SPITTIN TO KEEP HIS JOB

[DJ]

1)Home & Little lost planet are not system sellers to casuals, are casuals gamer dont even know what they are. -"Which is why there's going to be marketing before these are released. We got this stuff at GDC; just wait for the magazines to publish huge articles on HOME and LBP"

2)50 a year but still better that haveing your cell phone number as invites. -"Wait, was that...was that an argument? 5 years of Xbox Live is $270, and it's obviously not $270 better than other online services (which are free, AND more reliable)."

3)Storage issues are just brought up this gen by fanboys who champion this as nessarry. The reason that mass Effect and Oblivion is that there is no cutsence so all of that can be compressed by 70%. -"Bioware already stated that they cut corners to fit Mass Effect onto one disc. Why is one disc necessary? It's because non-linear titles can't have you swapping discs every time you travel to a different part of the game world. Storage is an issue brought up by game developers, not 'fanboys' as you so call them."

4)A Movie...wow that a weak exuse to buy a gameing console. -"You obviously didn't read the article very well. HD-DVD launched earlier and at a lower price, but never cracked the top ten for movie sales. If Blu-ray continues being a success, it'll benefit everyone involved with Blu-ray."

5)Revision coming to 360. -"That's actually the point. HDMI should've been included from the beginning. I sure as hell wouldn't be happy spending an additional $480 for a console manufacturer's mistake."

6)This is a plus but its not really nessary except for the ps3 witch dumps assets to speed up load times. -"Dumps assets? Wow, you must really hate the PS3. It helps a lot, and many 360 devs have actually complained about not being able to rely on having a standard HDD to stream data onto and off of."

7)wii is a fad but a powerful one, which stands to blast ps3 in japan. -"O..k?"

8)More powerful, but hard to redem power. -"Just like the PS2 was hard to redeem power from? The only difference is the Cell is a LOT easier to handle than the Emotion Engine, and even shares some common architecture."

9)ps2 out selling next gen still is aproblem for all especially sony, The more ps2 that sell that one more thats not buying a ps3 in the next years. -"See, Microsoft took this approach. They abandoned their Xbox userbase in hopes that they would immediately 'jump in' to the 360 camp. Sadly, only 12% of original Xbox owners own a 360. A PS2 is only $120, and hardly a financial obstacle when upgrading to a PS3. The PS3's backwards compatible as well, so there's no risk involved."

10)IT does have something for everyone but not alot of system sellers. GTA is multiplatform, and 2nd last gen top seller was halo and that exlusive to xbox 360. -"Halo was exclusive to the Xbox. What you forget is that those are only two titles. Even with Halo, the Xbox was still a financial disaster. It takes 30~50 amazing titles to determine which console is top dog, not just one or two. Microsoft is learning this the hard way."

[bee2427]

its not a gaming consol its an entertainment consol we paid 120$ more then ure elite xbox to have the internet, a blu-ray player, and wireless connection alrdy in it... just buying a wireless adapter would cost 580 for the elit xbox ... although it is sexy as hell

[LSDARBY]

He makes great points, and i think sony's first party games like Killzone & The Getaway using Playstation EDGE will show some PS3 power

[techie]

"Whether you love or hate Sony, if you’re trying to spin Home as a bad thing I can only conclude that you’re part of Microsoft’s $3.2 billion viral marketing campaign.

For the last nine months it has been fashionable to bash the PS3. At first it was controversial, even titillating, to make sensational and dire predictions about the PS3’s future. You could watch it happen again and again – a rumor starts on a message board (“The PS3s all caught on fire at TGS!”, “Blu-Ray won’t have any Porn!”), then it gets picked up by a games industry website, and a few days later USA Today runs the story with the headline “Experts Say PS3 Doom3d!1!!” "

He's basically arguing against FUD. Good for him to give 10 logical reasons.

Those who disagree or have no interest in the ps3 then you can stay back and think...yeah they're wrong, but we'll see how it pans out.

If you agree then you can be smug.

[Theo1130]

I looked at it and was "Virtual Myspace great", but i hate my space and that crap. So keep your home ill just talk to my friends when were bombing on Noobs in a game

[SmokeyMcBear]

here's a thought.. you don't actually have to use it to play online multiplayer games.. hmmm... its free a great thing.. say it with me.. free.. just an awesome word.. free

[power of Green]

I guess i would be saying all that too if i invested in PS and more importantly the PS3, these guys are use to PS being on top and he knows A R&C type on game would not do well in non Sony dominated industry.

* Only Sony fanboys give a fack about Home and little Big Planet.

* Free online is fine and dandy but we're paying for the the evolution of XBL Sony is years behing despite whats implemented as of right now(Sony's not catching up to XBL thats for sure and we'll know this around Xmas time fore sure) millions are not worried about $50 bucks a year lol we known we are paying for XBL's growth a few bucks a month! big deal no gamer thinks to him/herself about anual spending.

* Space not a factor!; with Xbox style games we dont like Cut-scenes we dont care if games are on more than 1 disc and MS compression is getting better and better(state of the art actually, revolutionary).

* Who cares about Movies MS is king when it comes to movies Net-Flix, Video market place, HD-DVD, DVD, PC, and even Blu-ray if needed.

* HDMI is not needed lawfuly but MS did promise the hardcore niche they would give them this opition who cares about it anyways let the people that want it have it and pay for it.

* MS has the most diverse line-up hands down. End of story.

* PS2 was a fluke THis is the most ridiculous point of then all these points this guy makes are BULLSHIT at best and will ofcourse make sense to people looking to take down MS and pick them apart.

* PS3 is not more powerful.

[techie]

Ok that would be a valid point if he said "the ps3 is the best cause i say so and i like it" But no mattre what his position is and whether he is positive towards Sony he provides 10 compelling arguments. The arguments are what you should be reading...and if you don't agree with them you say why.

Even though he is positive to Sony, he makes 10 more valid points than any FUD'er...I haven't actually seen a valid point other than PRICE (very important) and Games...the rest appears to by naysaying for the sake of it.

POG - number 1...only xbox fanboys don't care about HOME and LBP...the consumer will decide whether they are a good idea...and a lot of us see potential in them.

MS the most diverse lineup? Once again spoken by someone who hasn't researched the opposing side, so how could you make a comment about it?

LOL everyone's saying a movie's not a good reason. His point is the first HD format to get into the top 10 best selling among dvd's was Blu-ray.

I think he makes valid points that will be showing...but I think they are more about why the ps3 is here to stay and will do well, not why it is going to win...that is all speculation at the moment.

[fenderputty]

"Space not a factor!; with Xbox style games we dont like Cut-scenes we dont care if games are on more than 1 disc and MS compression is getting better and better(state of the art actually, revolutionary)."

Then later in his post,

"MS has the most diverse line-up hands down. End of story. "

He's limiting the types of games that THE WHOLE COMMUNITY wants and then makes the diversity comment. Seriously, you're so illogical it's sickening. LBP is the most revolutionery game to come to a system and you still have the audacity to make your claims. TSK TSK.

How are the PS2 sales not relevant?

[romaink]

it seems like every week we get new analysts seeking to be opinion leaders. I personally don't care... Do they think everyone wants to wait two or three years to play good games after buying a system for $600?

I wonder why everyone is so loyal to Sony after all their arrogance and lies. Is it just the name?.. I once liked Sony, but since their numerous lies of True HD only being availabe on their system, I've just become sick of them.

[jwatt]

He's just talking about the games that truly take advantage of the ps3. Since your sick of Sony I would recommend not buying a ps3 in fact I would recommend not going near anything Sony related, even a artical about Sony. You shouldn't even go see Spiderman 3 because it's own by Sony.

[ApocalypseShadow]

you can't say dvd9s won't hit a limit or is better than bluray.

you can't say microsoft came up with a better way for the little people to make games you can share with others or play with others because they didn't.even with xna.

you can't dispute cell because it's "godzilla" that can crunch numbers better than any off the shelf cpu.you just got to know how to use it.

you can't say that 360 is outselling ps2.and only doing marginally better than ps3.360 is doing worse compared to xbox 1 in the same time period.and what do you think those ps2 gamers are going to buy after ps3 drops in price?360?nope.they will get ps3 to keep playing those games and future ps3 games.

you can't say not having a standard hard drive is cooler than having it as standard.i loved the fact that my xbox had a hard drive as standard.

you can't say that hdmi is not going to be used for future tvs.if the elite is coming,sony was right again and microsoft is playing catch up instead of leading the way.

you can't say that bluray movies are selling less than hd-dvd.there are no free bluray movies given out to spin the numbers.hd-dvd is getting outsold monthly.your hd-dvd add-on is slowly becoming obsolete.and more bluray movies are in the top ten and more like spiderman3 will hit in the top ten.and only on bluray and dvd.

you can't say paying for xbox live is better than free online play.hmmmmm......pay for sex or get free sex?i'd rather get sex from my girlfriend for free than pay for it.microsoft has billions but can't give free service.that's sad.

sony is not charging for home.you can totally bypass it.not use it.again,how is that a bad thing?you can't spin something given for free.pssssssst.he you....yes you.....i got something free for you.

if you are going to dispute what he says then,dispute it.come up with reasons why he is wrong.don't try to trash what he says.dispute it.you can't can you?because he is right about all of it except wii maybe.but dispute it in a civil manner than trashing his blog.

edit:did you notice deepbrown,he said 3.2 billion viral marketing campaign to bash ps3.that is just an estimate on what microsoft is doing to try to win.they are playing dirty just like some of our idiot politicians who play dirty to get voted into office.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Ok...just a little fun here...

You said, "you can't say paying for xbox live is better than free online play.hmmmmm......pay for sex or get free sex?i'd rather get sex from my girlfriend for free than pay for it.microsoft has billions but can't give free service.that's sad."

I would say, well sure I can get sex free from your girlfriend but I at the moment can't say it's good. I mean there is ok sex and then there is great sex ...and if what your girlfriend is offering up is just ok sex and for $50 I can get great sex for the whole year. Well sorry mate but I am gonna kick your GF to the curb and pony up some duckets for great sex! ;)

[Skynetone]

blu-ray {will win hd battle}
hdmi {has know become standard}
hard drive as standard {wise move} quicker loading times
free on line {free free free}
the games {well hmmmmmm}wait and see

[MEGANE]

We all know MicroSoft is trying to buy CAPCOM. I tell u this MS doesnt get a peny for DMC4 ON 360 he will actully pay them n everyone else to put their games on 360.

[BoneMagnus]

Why can't they just say what they like about a particular platform and then shut up?

Yes, he makes some good points, but he's still biased and most of his points are debatable.

Look, I own a 360, and I'm more than sold on eventually getting a PS3 - this fall more than likely. Can y'all just shut up now?

[techie]

Yes they are his opinion!...please find a fact about any console now except sales...?

He has put them forward FOR debate so DEBATE THEM...dont just say they are open to debate...that's the point.

Why is he wrong?

[OC_MurphysLaw]

These are his opinions...not fact. So you read and appreciate what he says and then we debate amongst ourselves over his points.

My one question to him would be around his comment: "First of all, let me make it clear that Insomniac is a 100% independent development studio. Sony has neither endorsed nor authorized what I’m writing here."

Now, certainly they are "independent" technically but that independence is subjective to say the least. I mean honestly does anyone here think Insomniac is not a Sony Only Developer? And with that "Sony Only Status" given the same love as a 1st party dev from Sony? You only need to look at this company's game history to understand they are 100% in Sony's pocket. Unless I am wrong here...and I don't think I am based on the game catalog on their site....they have NEVER made anything but Sony Playstation games. He loses a big chunck of "independent" credibility right there. He would be hung from the rafters if he had said anything truly negative about Sony. Insomniac is so far up Sony's a$$...this is the kettle calling the pot black with regards to "viral marketing". Now had this been someone from say and EA or a Ubisoft or even Epic I would have read more closely. But alas ....this is just Sony PR in sheeps clothing.

[fenderputty]

Trying to debunk his entire article based on his relations with Sony is lame.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

"Trying to debunk his entire article based on his relations with Sony is lame." - Quite the opposite, especially when out of the shoot he is trying to position his opinion as non-biased and somehow completely independent. Sure he may have written this on his own accord but his bias is with out a doubt in the Sony camp. That is his lively hood...it must be.

Secondly...its a flippin long a$$ article. So I am not going to try and debate the whole thing. But a couple of quick hits for you:

"There’s no question that you can always cut more levels, compress the audio more, compress the textures more, down-res the mpeg movies, and eventually get any game to fit on a DVD. But you paid for a high-def experience, right? You want the highest resolution, best audio, most cinematic experience a developer can offer, right? That’s why Blu-Ray is important for games, and why it will become more important each year of this hardware cycle. "

- Oblivion completely shatters this argument. It has 100+ hours of gaming, beautiful hi-res game....sorry..Blu-ray is a nice to have but it is not "needed" for gaming.

"The Wii Fad Will Fade" - OPINION...not fact....when its proved fine...but he has no facts to back this opinion up. The Wii is crushing everyone right now...and its not slowing up.

"PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage - Games developed from the ground up on PS3 are the ones that will really show off the PS3’s CPU advantage. The complexity of the distributed processing architecture means that PS3 engines won’t fully blossom until a little later in the lifecycle than the PS2. This has put the PS3 at a disadvantage early in its lifecycle, but within two years you will see games that surpass what is possible on the Xbox 360."

This is not an advantage...The complexity of the cell dev is a major DISADVANTAGE to the PS3. If it is going to take 2-3 years for the PS3 to finally pull ahead of the 360 then the PS3 is toast for 2-3 years. And by that time the next gen of consoles will be rounding the corner...and guess what....the PS3 will be outdated comparitively speaking. We want great games now...not 2-3 years from now.

...I will admit he does make some decent points. but overall this article has bias all over it.

[MEGANE]

its because of HALO n GEARS (this one eventually will be on ps3).

[Optimus Prime]

well what ever will make you sleep at night. but now wake up from your wet dream. it will never happen

[JHFKDFNFGJKFHDKF]

""First of all, let me make it clear that Insomniac is a 100% independent development studio. Sony has neither endorsed nor authorized what I’m writing here. "

AND IF ANYONE SAYS OTHERWISE, THEY'RE FIRED!

on a serious note - He actually lists litte big planet and Home as a reason why they will WIN? Microsoft has been planning to intergrate a youtube-esque service into games for ages, its called Halo 3 saved films, and we havent seen the half of it yet.

Also I'm surprised that he lists HDMI as an advantage - seeing as from this fall onwards ALL xbox 360's will be sold with HDMI and 120GIG as standard (120GB in premium), which also completly counters his argument about 60GIG on the PS3.

Finally, his point on the PS3 online, yeah its "free", but nothing in this world is free - the cost has been shifted to developers, which will make them less likely to intergrate online features into PS3 games as they will have to pay for their own servers plus service fees, so I would argue that this point actually benefits Microsoft.

All in all, a few credible points but mindless SONY PR drivel throughout, im dissapointed in insomniac.

[SmokeyMcBear]

nope, you see you still have that sku that doesnt have a standard HDD... which means developers will still have to program games that don't rely on having an HDD, until all sku's have an HDD, developers cannot use it, and if they do start programming games that use it, that means everyone that bought a 360 without one is screwed. And the fact that you can turn something as good as free into a bad thing, simply amazing

[GeneYus]

Advertisements will pay for Home, not developers.

[coxyefc]

never doubted the ps3 being more powerful, what i have doubted is these idiotic fanboys stating that some 360 games like mass effect, gears of war dont look great when they do, if they were ps3 only these idiots would be using them in this embarrassing console war. for me, i will be getting a PS3 anyway, always planned to as I have fond memories of ps1 and ps2 and cannot see a reason why I wont have fond memories of PS3. Owning a 360 and PS3 for me , will bring myself a wonderful gaming experience as a whole.

[ApocalypseShadow]

then tell me why dvd is better than bluray?bluray games cost the same as dvd-9 games.tell me why you think that.never mind that he is working on ps3 games.

tell me why hdmi is not needed but every new tv is including it.tell me.

tell me why ibm and other companies are not using 360's cpu to crunch numbers over ps3?tell me about folding home on 360.tell me about servers and blades using 360 components.

tell me about how bluray is being outsold by hd-dvd.show me those figures.

tell me about how microsoft has this big portfolio of games that are internally made by microsoft.and that it matches sony's worldwide studios.notice how the big sony games are being pushed back but have high quality on release?notice that the games being bought in europe are motorstorm and resistance at the top 2 out of 10?

don't say that these are his opinions.prove he is wrong right here to all of us instead of dismissing his blog.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I will first concede...as I did in another response...he does have some valid points. But he is bias...and to try and pass off as not being under Sony's watchful eye is totally ubsurd.

tell me why hdmi is not needed but every new tv is including it.tell me. - HDMI will eventually be a standard in every household. Yes all the new tv's have it...But MOST of the TV's out in the real world do not have HDMI yet. Over time that will change...but that won't be the case this year, nor next...and probably not even 3-4 years from now.

tell me why ibm and other companies are not using 360's cpu to crunch numbers over ps3?tell me about folding home on 360.tell me about servers and blades using 360 components. - IBM made the cell in tandem with Sony I believe. It's their new technology so of course they will back it. Tell me why most PC's coming to the market are not using the Cell? Why are they going with the dual and quad core processors? That argument swings both ways. As for folding at home...the PS3 is good at crunching numbers..nobody debated that. Crunch numbers all you want. I want good games.

tell me about how bluray is being outsold by hd-dvd.show me those figures. - Won't argue this point. I think Blu-ray is winning the war with HD-DVD. Sony's PS3 card is helping push that war to their advantage...and they very well may win that war.

tell me about how microsoft has this big portfolio of games that are internally made by microsoft.and that it matches sony's worldwide studios.notice how the big sony games are being pushed back but have high quality on release?notice that the games being bought in europe are motorstorm and resistance at the top 2 out of 10? - How easily you forget games like: Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom and Genji: Days of the Blade. Where are those on the list of high quality on release? And Motorstorm and Resistance being top 2 on the heels of the launch of the PS3...SURPRISE? They are admitedly two of the best games on the system so how could they not be the top two performers since pretty much anyone getting a PS3 is buying one or both of those?

[darx]

As Casino Royale is a movie.

Little Big Plant is something more for my little sister. To each their own I guess.

I'm into online gaming as much as the next guy but I can't see myself dressing up a virtual HOME with virtual paintings, potted plants and furniture...sounds kinda boring. I think I'd rather spend my time playing a real video game, which is the reason I bought a console. Neat concept though. But most of the people in my world who own a PS2 will NOT be utilizing HOME on their PS3 if and when they purchase one. They are very CASUAL gamers. And I am sure there are alot more people like them out there.

Remember...Cliffy B. is on record as saying "They only scratched the surface of the 360."

"The Getaway, God of War, Gran Turismo, Hot Shots Golf, Jak and Daxter, Killzone, Ratchet & Clank, Shadow of the Colossus, Singstar, Sly Cooper, SOCOM, and Twisted Metal"

Nothing there making me rush out to buy a PS3. Except for God of War...sweet games.

At some point maybe I will buy a PS3. Most likely when a price drop has occured.

In the mean time I will play my 360, as for myself I prefer Microsoft's 1st party titles and online network over what the PS3 has too offer.

To each their own!

[JHFKDFNFGJKFHDKF]

around 100,000 units wasnt it?
:D
Also dont make me point out those appauling attatch rates.

At the end of the day, it doesnt matter if Sony's hinderances will benefit them in the future, 360 and Wii will be so far ahead it'll be impossible to catch up

[gooner]

abot 18,000 in a week(onthe worts of weeks about 40k a week on the best of weeks) and dnt let me point out the amount of defective consoles

[zonetrooper5]

Some of the points i did agree while others i just thought, "Why don't you just shut the hell up!"

Games will look alot better as the years go by. The Nintendo Wii must be a pretty big fad if its already sold 6 million and is outselling the PS3 by 4:1.

[techie]

Ok 360fanboys. The only way to combat this is ONE debunk every single argument. and TWO provide 10 compelling reasons why the 360 will win. 10 well thought out, compelling arguments that will rival the above...

So far all I've seen is "the 10 reasons why I don't like what I'm hearing"...come on this guy deserves a stronger retalliation than that.

10 reasons...that's all.

Chacron. good response.

360 wont be in the lead forever...or at least there will be just as many ps3's on the market.

No role playing games? UMMMMM FINAL FANTASY??? lol funny. plus there are unannounced mmorpgs and rpgs...that are to be announced very soon...keep a look out.

As of the end of the year there will be 320 games available - not 500. For the ps3 there will be about 220...research ps3 exclusive titles laddy...I have and it's the only reason I would cash out for one as the games appeal to me more. No more reason to it.

Halo...will sell well. Good one...did it sell that many consoles last gen? Nope. Having a face of Halo on your console is not a good thing for the mass market. Sorry it isn't. And I know Microsoft are changiing that this generation. Good.

The ps3 does support 7 wireless controllers....LOL. The only people who heard the promises were hardcore gamers...the average consumer know nothing about it. They know only what they see.

Achivements are good...but are somewhat unhealthy...and cement the fact that xbox gamers are hardcore showoff gamers. It can be quite intimidating.

I would have let you have 7. Price :)...though that's to change with the elite.

[JHFKDFNFGJKFHDKF]

In all fairness I don't believe that his arguments merit much of a response, as many can be disproven, but I'll give it a fair go.

6 reasons why the xbox 360 will beat the PS3

1) More appealing to developers

What most forget is that as of now, the xbox 360 is the largest selling seventh generation console available ( The Wii is outselling it monthly, but overall the 360 still has the monopoly). And as such, developers will be far more inclined to port their games over to xbox 360, or in the long run make their games exclusive to xbox 360 because of this larger installed base and thus the larger opportunity for money. The current attatch rates of around 5.2 are also very appealing to developers - as it shows that games are selling on the xbox 360, and again at the time of writing, the same cannot be said for either the Wii or the PS3 (with both dwindling in attatch rates even though the Wii is bundled with a game)

2) GAMES!, GAMES! and more GAMES!
We hear alot of talk about Sony having the biggest variety of titles, but from where Im standing, their first party lineup seems to be slightly heavy on shooters, racing and action games, as far as im aware there are NO Role playing games in development within internal Sony development houses, whereas Mass Effect and Fable 2 fill that gap nicely in the Microsoft camp. How can Sony expect to capture the causal market with such a limited library?
The simple fact is that by the end of this year there will be over 500 games available for the xbox 360 worldwide, not including the as-of-yet un-announced titles. Finally, third parties such as Capcom have now started bringing their long-Sony exclusive games over to xbox 360 (albeit simmilar things have happened with developers bringing games to PS3, but not nearly to the same degree)

3) Online

We know its not free, but xbox live completly outsrips Sony online in terms of features and usability, sometimes you simply get what you pay for.
Also, who said that Sony online is free? Fair enough, at the moment there are no extra costs for consumers who wish to play online, but these costs are simply being shifted to the developers, which makes it LESS appealing to make a game have online capabilities, as a prospective developer would have to pay additional funds for servers and potentially service fees.

What does this mean in short? Dont expect to be able to play most third party games online, and even if you can, dont expect not to be charged for it.

4) Halo 3

Before you all jump on me at once, yes - we know Halo 3 is one game, but if Brian Hastings listed little big planet as a reason out of 10 - hell, Halo 3 more than qualifies.

To those who dampen the hysteria associated with Halo. Let me put this in perspective, we all know the PS2 completly wiped the floor with the xbox, but in november and december of 2004 the xbox outsold the PS2 in America by an incredible margin. The launch date of Halo 2 was the single most grossing day in entertainment history, and if you think Microsoft is going to miss the opportunity to exceed that record with Halo 3, then your an idiot.

5) No false promises

I remember watching the E3 2005 Sony Press conference and being wowed at the prospect of a PS3 with a gigabit ethernet port, TWO HDMI outputs and support for up to 7 wireless controllers! Did any of this come to fruition? at all? The answer is a resounding no. Eventually developers get tired of false promises, and so do consumers.

6) Achievements

Before I explore the benefits of achievements, let me just comment on Sony Home trophies, and their incapacity to match this revolutionary feature. The single defining reason why achievements work is that they dont just exist on xbox live, you can take your gamercard into any internet forum and boast to the world. The second you see someones gamertag on xbox live you see their achievement score. Whereas I'd have to *visit* someones trophy room on a completly seperate service with regards to Sony's trophy mechanism, meaning that it is fundimentally flawed.

Though achievements may seem slightly trivial classifing achievements as a fundimental reason as to why the xbox 360 will win the war. Consider this. Person X has a PS3, an xbox 360 and a Wii. A game comes out on all three platforms, he, like many buys the xbox 360 version because of achievement points, this increases the average attatch rate of the console, making it more appealing to developers, meaning more games will be released on it .

Though I only managed 6, in all fairness the 10 above where mostly farsical anyway.

[Robotz Rule]

*Nintendo Wii is just a fad that will pass once people want a real console.

*Halo 3 and Gears Of War are the only games keeping the 360 alive.

Anyways...I'm glad to own both a Xbox 360 and Playstation 3...the Wii?I've got nothing to say.....

And the only 360 game I want that actually interests me is Halo 3,Blue Dragon....ZZZZZ......ZZZZZ.... .ZZZZZ.....Boring!

[IPlayGames]

its good to hear from someone that been there

[Vojkan]

Good article

[ps3gogetitt]

Insomniac please I like your games but if you want to remain credible don't make statements like this please...

'First of all, let me make it clear that Insomniac is a 100% independent development studio. Sony has neither endorsed nor authorized what I’m writing here. '

I know I am your average sony fanboy but I have to admit that gears is more fun than resistance... looking forward to R&C though now just shut up and go make games please, rachet and clank need to come out tomorrow.

[THAMMER1]

He is totally wrong about XBL. But we all can tell that. The only thing that I would even be concerned about is if the PS3 can reach this new potential before we move on to a new generation. We will not see much that can totally blow one console away over the other.

Right now the 360 is doing great and out performing the PS3. The PS3 may have its day. Let’s just hope it is not too late in the game.

[ps3gogetitt]

And you fanboys need to stop lying about ,”I own all 3 systems but you bash one of the systems anyway that you supposedly spent money on, SHUT UP with your lies you know you want MGS and god of war and lair (drool), you know you want halo 3 and gears and mass effect (drool)

[gooner]

1)xbots,we talk about 360 so much that every time their console gets red lights instead of admitting it they will buy a new one driving up sales figures

2)halo 3 this should keep the console alive for two years(now that gears is good its a 2 game system)

3)we pay $50 a year for better online services so its better take that sony fanboys :P

4)its cheap er we 360 fans are short term thinkers
360 webcam $40 ps3-most webcams work $5
wifi 360 $100
controller charger 360 $20 ps2 $1 mini usb
ect.

5)we wanna be a cheap ps3
were gonna get black
hdmi
large hard drive

6) games we gonna alot of ps3 exclusives fullfilling our mission of becoming a cheap ps3

7) cheap gimmick to anyone thinking of getting a ps3 remember 360 hearts you

8)our bosses constantly cussing ps3 come on peter this can damage their rep

9)gamespot we got them converting potential ps3 buyers for us even though it cost us dearly paying them it will pay off

10)last but not least publicity buyig a 360 would make you bill gates byatch what teenage boy dosent have that fantasy :)

their deepbrown

[ps3gogetitt]

Please stop being a fanboy, I didn't know sony released the ps3 in trinidad, admit it you know you want to play halo 3 more than any other ps3 game, admit it I dare you admit it... Halo 3 brint it, gta4 bring it (whichever version gives me more) god of war 3 bring it, mass effect bring it, MGS bring it, forza bring it... and this is how my year would look

[gooner]

if i saw sony fanboys being dumb as mart or pog ill wind them up aswell.
i do want halo 3 if i dident i would have never said it wouyld keep 360 alive but not as badly as certain ps3 games.i think halo 1 & 2 was way too good and anything trying to become a sequel will fall flat.sony dont release ps3s in trinidad but we get them from america (EVERYONE in trinidad has family in us\canada\eu.)sony would never do that because our government dosent give a toss about copywrite(pick up a trinidad news paper go to classified you will see COMPANIES selling moded psp\ps2\ps1.

[ApocalypseShadow]

see,you've only had sex from one girl.and you think that it is the best sex around.but in reality,there are more girls out there that can give you more and still do what your girlfriend is doing.and do it for free.having sex is great.but it doesn't mean that there aren't other girls that can do it better.gamers can see what i'm saying.

sony is slowly but surely knocking down all the advantages of xbox live in a shorter time frame.friends list,3d interactive online with 3d representations of achievments and you as a gamer.and they are doing it for free by letting advertising sponsor it.microsoft has MONEY and CONNECTIONS,but can't get you free online play.

can you say dvd is better than bluray?
can you say that future tvs aren't including hdmi?
can you say that 1080p is not one of the future resolutions for tvs?
can you say that no hard drive standard is better than standard?
can you say that 2d pages are better than interactive 3d?
can you say that xna has pushed user created content?
can you say hd-dvd is better than bluray as a medium?
can you say hd-dvd is supported more than bluray?
can you say hd-dvd is outselling bluray?
can you say that microsoft has more franchise than sony?
can you say that microsoft is more innovative with consoles over sony?or are they copying sony's ideas?what hd camera games do you play?
what controller did microsoft copy?sony's or nintendo's?what system did microsoft copy?sony's or nintendo's?
if the 360 cpu is so powerful,what else can it be used for?why not?oh,it can only be powerful for games but nothing else.oh,i see....hmmmmmmmm.......

dispute what he says.i'm sitting back and i see none of you fanboys can dispute sony's future proofing the system.even backing down with rumble.that's future proofing.letting you switch hard drives.that's future proofing.counter what he says with detailed comments and links like deepbrown says.show us.

edit:ps3gogetit, i'm not going to dispute that hd-dvd is cheaper to make over bluray.but why is it i don't see the price difference at retail?bluray movies cost the same as hd-dvd movies.and the best codecs used look just as good on bluray as hd-dvd.the movie has to have better codecs released on it.it's not the disc itself that is inferior.it's poor codecs by lame movie companies being used.

chacron,don't worry about shutting me up.dispute what he says intelligently.that's what i'm saying.tell me how microsoft future proofed the system.you mean by selling you a new version called the elite?that's future proofing a system?by selling you a new one?hahahahahaha!!!!

dispute his claims intelligently.

[JHFKDFNFGJKFHDKF]

can you SHUT. UP.

DVD outsells blu-ray, it also reads faster.

Xbox 360's will include HDMI as standard fairly soon

moot point

HDD will be standard soon enough as well.

Err.......interactive menus? I think ill pass, I use menus to get into games, i dont want the menu to be a game in itself

XNA was only recently launched, give it a chance, Rome wasnt built in a day.

why are you associating HD-DVD with the 360?

why are you associating HD-DVD with the 360?

why are you associating HD-DVD with the 360?

Microsoft has BETTER franchises than Sony, quality over quantity.

Sony seems to be copying more ideas than innovating itself *cough* online *cough* xbox guide button

again a moot point

Well At least Microsoft actually changed their controller, im getting sick of the dualshock or whatever they've renamed it.

errr.... the 360 CPU is licsensed by Microsoft, unlike Cell which is being liscenced TO Sony

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Ok first off...you know I was just kidding around about the girlfriend comment. But as you will find...you will pay for that sex one way or another. whether its up front or you are buying her dinner on the date....sex never comes free...it has a price tag I promise you that. I will chuckle at the rest of your comment about sex as I need not debate my sexual past with you. I am confident in where I stand in life and sex.

Live is a great service. And while its not free I for one think its worth the money. I am not interested in a Sony version of Second life...I have no desire to walk around a virtual world to show off my 3d awards. I am sorry but I would rather just look you up and compare our acheivements side by side and see what you have done compared to me. How can you do that in your trophy room if my trophys are across the hall in another apt? I can message my friend at any time, in any game and they get that message right away. I know that EVERY game coming to the 360 will have some kind of online features. Can you say the same? NOPE...

can you say dvd is better than bluray? - depends on what better means in your book? does bluray have larger storage and res? yes...is it out selling DVD - HELL NO!

can you say that future tvs aren't including hdmi? Already answered...yes eventually they will...but the majority of people don't and won't have HDMI for propbably 3-4 years AT LEAST so its not a necessary tech now.

can you say that 1080p is not one of the future resolutions for tvs? Sure it will be one of the future resolutions. So will 720p...as well as 480p...whats your point on this?

can you say that no hard drive standard is better than standard? This I totally agree with. I do think MS made an error here.

can you say that 2d pages are better than interactive 3d? Already answered above....2d pages are far better and faster to get what you want and play games than traversing around a 3d enviornment.

can you say that xna has pushed user created content? Well I can't say personally, but from what I have read that yes indeed user created content has been created and is available to play in XNA and might be making its way to LIVE soon.

can you say hd-dvd is better than bluray as a medium? Nope...I honestly don't care either. I don't care which one wins. Eventually a new storage medium will win out. But that war is far from over for now.

can you say hd-dvd is supported more than bluray? No certainly not. Sony is one of the largest movie studios to start so Bluray has a definite leg up here.

can you say hd-dvd is outselling bluray? Already answered before....

can you say that microsoft has more franchise than sony? Sure they do...they also have a ton more crap franchise titles than MS. Sony has a big dev house...they have lots of games....a vast majority of which have been pretty poor.

can you say that microsoft is more innovative with consoles over sony?or are they copying sony's ideas?what hd camera games do you play?
what controller did microsoft copy?sony's or nintendo's?what system did microsoft copy?sony's or nintendo's? LOL....I could care less about who is more innovative. MS basically jumped into console gaming as they saw a flaw in Sony's plan. Sony was content to let the PS2 rule the roost for years... MS came in and pushed Sony. No they didn't innovate...well there is that little online thing called LIVE...but other than bringing Online gaming to consoles they didn't innovate the console. They improved it and forced Sony to do the same.

Competition of console makers is good for all of us.

[Retro-Virus]

Listen to a Professional !

And oh, since when did RSX go a year behind ATI's GPU ???

Rsx pipelines:-

-24 shader pipelines.
-each pipeline produces 5.7 ops.{(shader opperations per second)
-a total of 136 sops

ATI pipelines:-
-48 shader pipelines.
-each pipeline produces 2 ops
-a total of 96 sops.{(shader opperations per second)

Now you think...but wait this is only shader operations.
Wrong !!

Since the ps3 pipelines can produce that many sops, it is going to do the same with all its operations. That is why the RSX's pipelines are so strong. So under no blowtard's assumption is the RSX a push-over.

Tech Specs:-

Clocked at 550 MHz * 1.8 TFLOPS (trillion floating point operations per second). * Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines * 136 shader operations per clock. It should be noted that will contain only 8 ROPs as opposed to G70 , that contains 16 ROPs. * Transistor count of 300.2 milllion transistors * 74.8 billion shader operations per second * 33 billion dot products per second * 128-bit pixel precision offers rendering of scenes with high dynamic range imaging * 128-bit memory bus width , as opposed to G70 with a 256-bit bus width * S3TC [1] * Over 1.2 Billion Vertices per second. (Probably about 370 million polygons per second in a worst scenario and 800-900 million polygons average).

and oh, CELL >>>>>>>&g t;>>> Xenon !!

[ps3gogetitt]

Well..ahhh I have to disagree with you on this one , HD DVD is actually better quality image wise in most comparisons done... see tomshardware or cnet or some other site that compares them and it's actually cheaper to make so actually will be better priced for the consumer if blu ray wasn't in the picture, and I have to say currently and I stress curently the 360 is the console to have...I mean we have these for games first afterall right?

[ps3gogetitt]

Stop talking about specs of each system, it doesn't matter unless we see the difference in games, games that's why we bought the consoles right? or maybe some of us have opened up our systems and have them in cabinets on display as entertainment.......

[blooodFrenzy92]

1. EASIER TO MAKE GAMES - its clear that develepers find it easier to make games on the 360. Its more accesable as well as cheaper. The ps3 is newer technoogy and will take longer for develpers to get used to it.

2. People love acheivment points - as dumb as it may be its clear that acheivment points has become a huge success. People are buying games they normally would never buy ex - cars, open season simply because you get acheivment points. Think how fast you would be done with crackdown if there were no achievments. In a whole acheivments= replay value and thats what gamers want.

3.RPGs - The xbox is oviously known for its shooters but its a suprise to me to see how many good rpgs the xbox is gaana have ex blue dragon, two worlds , lost oddysy MASS EFFECT maybe ff13 much much more. Cant say much for the ps3 though uhhh oblivion enchanted arms andd uuuhh ff13. 2 or even all 3 are going to the xbox.

4. xbox live ownes playstation network - come on even the ps3 fanboys can agree that xbox live is the sh*t. Need i really say more.

5. Rumble - the six axis controller is a love it or hate it type of thing. but many more say rumble is the way to go.

6. ps2 is better than ps3 - What personally made the ps2 so good was all the games it has . Ex gta , re 4 , dmc , gow , kh , ff , the list goes on. Most of all these great games i said the sequels are going to xbox. Which brings me to my next point

7. GREAT LIBRARY - honestly the original xbox didnt have a great library. Halo fable some others were good but not nearly as great as the xbox 360s. its the ultimate library for any type of gamer.

8.Taking exclusives - if microsoft keeps this up sony is screwed. Over a dozen ps3 exclusives lost and more to come. MGS4 on xbox 360 - death of ps3.

9. GRAPHICS + Gameplay - The wii has good gameplay graphics suck. The ps3 has about the same graphics as xbox and gameplay is actually quite mediocere from what i saw. Camera issues in genji and the beloved resistance is a call of duty with aliens. Ok heres a nice innovative list from Microsoft. Gears riddiculusly innovative , viva pinata a one of a kind gem from rare. Crackdown innovation screams all around it , dead rising , Bioshock , fable 2 , the list goes on

10. halo 3 , mass effect , bioshock , gta 4 - System sellers xbox wins. Sony finished ! ! !

[bee2427]

Did u read the article? Sony is helping developers take full advantage and make developement easier.. do u really think having a controller that shakes is going to win a CONSOL war? How in gods name is the ps2 better then the ps3 (id really like to read that answer)? and the only thing xbox is saying is that they are equil to ps3 not even better and ps3 just came out so how is it going to win the war again?

[slampamper]

the xbox 360 is alrdy 6 out for 6 month (or more, dunno) and i Think that that explains it got more games

btw, god of war3 and FF XIII wont go to 360. u also forgot sum other ps3 exclusives: heavenly sword, lair, ratchet and clank 5, metal gear solid 4 and killzone 2. i thought they r even making a sequel for resistence: fall of men. but i do wish crackdown, gears of war and lost planet were on ps3 though hehe

[Scrumptious]

Although this guy is biased, he does make some interesting points. A lot better at communication than the Sony folk.

-Home. The only point I will agree with is it's free. Anyone excited by this is a true Sony fanboy. It's like virtual Myspace for teenagers with too much money
-Little Big Planet. I have mixed opinions on this one. May end up being fun at first, but wear off quickly. People want to play games, not tediously build their own levels.
-As a Wii owner, I am sad to say I agree. My Wii has been collecting dust for some time now.
-The whole GPU/CPU arguement has been going on for a while now. I think we all agree the 360 has the more powerful CPU, while the PS3 has the potentially more powerful CPU. By the time developers start to harness thiss, which he states will take even longer than PS2, it might be too late. 360 is still selling at least double that of the PS3, and coupled with a price cut and back-to-back AA title release starting in May, it may be over for the PS3.
-Last generation proved even though you may have the most "feature-packed" hardware, you will not win outright. Games are getting better and better for both platforms, so at what point in time will these features start to matter? The last year of this lifecycle?
-Live members will tell you it's well worth the money. If you aren't a member, hold your comments. When PS3 can match the features for free, then I'll be pissed.

@shadowgamer. You made some truly stupid arguements, especailly about the controller.

[Armyless]

"When PS3 can match the features for free, then I'll be pissed."

Why would you even care what Sony does if you're happy with Live?

[4me2]

"Live members will tell you it's well worth the money. If you aren't a member, HOLD YOUR comments!"

--> Same could be said if you do not own PS3: HOLD YOUR comments!

"halo 3 , mass effect , bioshock" - as of now nobody knows if they as good as advertised.
So you saying because they on 360 must be excellent but you would bash any PS3 game without playing it. That's objective.

"xbox live ownes playstation network" - for now you're right but gap is closing, its free and HOME is going bring something similar to achievement.I personally that com

"EASIER TO MAKE GAMES" -we all know that by now.
http://www.gamepro.com/news...
This is what producer of Ninja Gaiden saying and I guess he is respected by 360 fans:
-----Quote start
Has it been difficult to develop for the PS3 overall?

For us it's not a question of being easily to develop for, that's a relative term. When we first got our hands on the hardware it took us a while to get back into the flow of working with Sony, because they way they do things is a little different. The developers that say it's too hard to develop for and complain about it are missing the point. It sounds like an excuse to the consumer to us.

There are a lot of people out there that bought the PS3, and it's not a question of whether it's easy or hard. If your going to do a project you have to do the best you can. It's like if you bought a CD and it sounded bad and the singer said it was because the studio and the engineer were no good. Ultimately it's up to that person to make sure they have the quality that's needed. Look at what were able to do and the quality we are able to achieve and that speaks for it self. I think people will be satisfied with what we were able to do. If we can do it then other people will be able to do it as well.
---Qute end
Developing for Wii is the easiest process? Should devs leave 360(and PS3) for Wii? Sales number is the only factor that counts and
developing is as difficult as the tools you're using..

Rumble is coming back.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

It`s better than the 360 period.
if you`ve owned both YOU understand.

[Killer Cop]

Bulletproof, waterproof and fanboyproof.

Seriously, I officially love this guy now. Finally a person who understand everything of this console war. This guy is THE man. I can't wait for all the Xbox 360 fanboys stating bah-nonsense and he-is-wrong-because-i-know-eve rything-much-better-than-him.

Is it just me, or do every single Xbox fanboy have what is equal to 1 single bubble?

"If you ever hear someone say “Blu-Ray isn’t needed for this generation,” rest assured they don’t make games for a living."

Talk about Microsoft.. ^^

[Retro-Virus]

That was a good one !

[EasilyTheBest]

1...SEGA with Dreamcast was a big company quite a bit of cash, Sony is a bigger company with a whole load of cash, Microsoft is a stupidly rich big company WHO AINT GOING ANYWHERE.
The one with the most money will win. They always do.
Please note the word (always)... Yes Im sure youll point out 1 or 2 times out of MILLIONS of times where the one with the most cash didnt win, but hey thats obvious isnt it?

[TheExecutive]

But sony is worth more than MS.

[fenderputty]

as if you HAVE to use the three dimensional interface. EVERYTHING that can be done in the HOME UNIVERSE can be done on the XMB. So if you're not into the whole "myspace" thing, you can still use all the functionality of home without all the bells and whistles.

[bee2427]

becuz 360 fans keep talking about xbox live

[OldSchoolGamer]

"Are your games available on PC or other consoles?
Sony Computer Entertainment publishes for us exclusively, so there are no Insomniac Games video games for the PC or consoles other than the PlayStation One or PS2."
I think that says enough, he sounds like a fan boy to me, oh wait no he just paid alot of money to quote "work very closely with Sony." lol.

You wanted some analysis your getting it, if you plan on responding keep it to close to the same level please.

1.*He thinks a Sony idea is great, I'm truely shocked, his response sounds like "Mii too-ish". This was received with mixed reviews by the entire industry. Do I think this is a bad thing? No, I think this does give Sony a legit online experience, will people by a PS3 for home? No, they will to play game with each other over the internet. The free games offered in home will be a fad (I point to his claims about the same said games for the Wii being a fad, don't contradict yourself) It's a nice feature, but hardly a selling point. Little Big Planet again looked amazing and I think it will give potential developers a shot, but will it sell systems? Hardly, this will simply give some fun gaming experience that is open ended, but is more fadish than say a Wii.

2. *He is right that free online is a good thing, whole heartedly agree, but what does $50 buy you is my question. Right now, Sony is making alot of promises and hopefully most get delivered on, but what exactly does that $50 buy. Hmm...let me see well its not the extra downloadable content, movies, music, music videos, or free demos. What is it? It called online support d@mn-near standard for almost every single 360 title. Show me 15 good online games for Sony. The majority of those exclusives he so well points too (which shall be some darn good games, don't get me wrong) are lacking the head-to-head matchmaking (I count six most likely to get head to head matchmaking) that the 360 touts in all those titles. What does $50 buy you unified friends lists, convenience, and that head-to-head; and I agree "I agree, Xbox Live is overall offering a better online service right now", and you think they are stopping on making it better? Lol today Netflix just came on board, try again*

3. *Wow this one is most bs one yet. Ok "highest resolution, best audio, most cinematic experience a developer can offer", thanks for talking about gears good thing Blu-Ray was needed for it. So, because something is compressed you are saying its lower quality? What kind of horsesh@t is that? Do millions and millions of people buy Ipod and use MP3's cause they sound like crap? What kind of Kool-Aid is this guy drinking. "If developers were filling up DVDs last generation, there are clearly going to be some sacrifices made to fit current generation games in the same amount of space." Developers like GoW2 developer said the they frequently filled the disk with tons of repeat data to try and get better performance out of the slow player. Sometimes people ask us, “If Resistance takes 14 gigabytes, why doesn’t it look better than Gears?” Well, for one, Resistance didn’t support texture streaming, so we had to make choices about where we spent our high-res textures" Cry me a river, you made such a big deal about needing that space for the 1080p textures before the release, then you see Gears and change your tune, which is it fan boy?*

4. Casino Royale? WTF, are you telling me you know Blu-ray will win the HD war cause you time travel. Regardless of which wins, movie support is not going to effect the console war. This is just spouting what Sony has pounded in to this poor b@st@rds head. Shoot digital distribution will most likely pass both formats, but I can't see the future so I will use most likely, not like Sony boy here.

5. HDMI-First he sidesteps not including HDMI, that he "doesn't agree with it" then goes on to say Microsoft needs it, but introducing it into another SKU will alienate the early adopters. Umm, the reason they were early adopters is they are fans of the Xbox, and if they continue enjoying their experience on the console they will hardly bat an eye at picking it up/trading their old one in. Again, its a choice and kept console prices reasonable for the early rounds. If its so vital may I ask why with it does Gears still look 10 times better than Resistance?

6. Standard HDD-this I believe is his strongest point. Will I think it will ultimately win or lose the war for Sony, not in the least. A standard hard-drive does offer consistency in consoles for a programmer, but again both systems are capable of slapping on in, so I don't see it as a huge advantage either. A programmer can make a game that needs one, a la FF online, that doesn't have one and simply put on the box hard drive needed, yet gee lower price is a bad thing. Has either company sold no lower end models? I know they haven't sold as well as higher end, but these are early adopters who are willing to shell out the cash so what do you expect. But when price cuts start coming bet on the one that hits the sweet spot $200 to sell extreme high numbers compared to early sales, ie PS2. High cost has been part of Sony's alienation of gamers to this point so he can't keep saying it doesn't matter.

Also, I remember Microsoft asking Epic, among other programmers which is more important: more RAM or an included harddrive? Guess what, RAM won out, which system has more available? The 360.

7. Wii? I thought Wii wasn't a Sony competitor. If you are not biased why bash the Wii so much. You have no plans on developing for any system but Sony, so why go at the Wii again? Strange how this Wii "fad" sounds remarkably like Home and Little Big Planet, lol.

8."The GPUs on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are roughly equivalent, with the Xbox 360 arguably having a slight edge."

From here on out no arguing, this Sony fan boy developer just said grudgingly the Xenos is more powerful (he may and try to play it down but nuff said)

"The difference in CPU power, however, is far greater with the PS3 enjoying the advantage. The PS3’s eight parallel CPUs (one primary “PPU” and seven Cell processors) give it potentially far more computing power than the three parallel CPUs in the Xbox 360."

Wow that is the biggest spin garbage I have ever heard, the 360 has 3 "true" cores(edit)*running 2 lines of command each in parallel at full speeds*, which all are uniform making programming a heck of alot easier than on PS3. Versus the 1 PPU and 6 usable SPU's (which are not true cores). The one extra "spu" giving him that huge confidence?

Sony is trying to play catch up on developer tools again? Shocker, but it is easier to learn to develope on the 360 and you will see much better games faster that take more advantage of the system faster. This means less money to develop for, more consoles sold, equals bigger lead, and less Sony exclusive (DMC4 anyone?)

Ultimately graphics and performance comes down to more than GPU+CPU, the GPU edge swings way wide to Microsoft, CPU I'll give to Sony to placate this guy, but RAM and developers do play a part. RAM goes to Microsoft especially if you want more features like Universal friends list, in game chat options, as Microsoft has unified RAM capable of being used where needed and a smaller footprint. Developers can only spend so much time on a game (unless funded by Sony or Microsoft) as they need revenue, so easier to program edge also goes to Microsoft.

9. Well PS2 is outselling next gen? At under $200, again I'm shocked. So what happens when you can get next gen for under $200's. Which is going to be more likely to do it first 360 core, or the lower end PS3? Tough call, huh. As for exclusives, again lower cost=smaller barrier to entry more mass market, less exclusives for Sony, ect. (again exclusives huh like Devil May Cry right? Maybe Halo 3? Mass Effect? Forza 2? Fable 2? short part of the list, you are right, there are none on 360 anyone will want to play, just Rachet and Clank.

10. Lol something for everyone huh? which system has a more diverse lineup of games (currently what like 30-170), or in the future? I see some good titles there that might hit by like 2009, but again you don't think Microsoft will have hits as well you are mistaken.

"And as more and more of Sony’s exclusive first-party titles get released, the PS3 will begin to outsell the competition on a monthly basis. Those publishers who have shifted resources away from PS3 development will find themselves behind the curve and losing money as the market center gradually shifts toward the PS3 over the next two years."

Lol you calling Capcom dumb? You think they don't know anything about making games? They been in this business longer than you and have more hits. PS3 is too expensive to put the extra cash into developing longer times for so multiplatform isn't bothering and the exclusive 3rd party keep landing Microsofts way, but wait don't matter unless they are first party? Is that what you are saying Sony boy?

Anyway tried to be as cynical as I could, just showing how garbage this crap is, he's as unbiased as Bill Gates.

What I find truely interesting is he didn't list Metal Gear Solid as an exclusive am I on to something here?

Again, keep posts thought out, this was written at work so may be a little gramatically incorrect. Just wanted to show you can spin that both ways, and that the future is far from decided.

[DJ]

"Wow that is the biggest spin garbage I have ever heard, the 360 has 6 "true" cores, which all are uniform making programming a heck of alot easier than on PS3. Versus the 1 PPU and 6 usable SPU's (which are not true cores). The one extra "spu" giving him that huge confidence?"

Nope, the 360 has 3 'true cores', and are dual-threaded. Dual-threading, as any computer expert can tell you, does not equal dual-core performance. Not even close.

BTW, I don't know why you and other Sony-haters keep touting that the PS3 only has 6 SPUs available. Makes me wonder how Ninja Theory is doing all their audio processing on SPU #7 if "it doesn't exist". Nice try at pulling damage control for Microsoft, but upcoming titles are already showing the Playstation edge (no pun intended).

[OldSchoolGamer]

I asked to keep comments at the level I posted at, using logic, reason and a modicum of research. 360 has 3 dual cores(edit)*running 2 lines of command each in parallel at full speeds*, ie 6 cores. These are considered dual cores cause they share some resources, but are all true cores. Dual-core technology places two independent execution units onto the same processor die--think of it as two processors in one. This idea differs from Intel's Hyper-Threading technology, which uses a single (physical) execution unit but allows the processor to run two separate (logical) execution threads. Do a little research next time please.
I apologize remember the xbox 360 stats wrong. It is 3 cores utilitzing hyperthreading, hyperthreading does not run each one at half speed though.
Also 1 SPU is reserve for "error checking".

[TylerDurden]

Also depending on what the program is doing a logical processor can do anywhere from 30% to 90% of what a physical processor is doing. At least that is what Jeffrey Richter told me.

For number crunching the Cell is more powerful as that has been proven. In theory it could be more powerful than a more standard CPU. That's the problem though if the Cell is more powerful for games than how come we haven't seen any proof yet? For Sony to make that claim wouldn't they have had hard evidence to back it? If so, where is it? Sony themselves hasn't proven that the Cell is better for gaming, how could they expect some 3rd party shop to prove it?

Unless the titles that you are mentioning it prove this claim.

***Edit***
I posted my comment about logical processors before I saw OldSchoolGamer's reply. I figured that when DJ said dual threaded he meant hyper threaded and that is why I replied to. OSG thanks for informing me that it is 3 dual cores and not hyper threaded.
*************************

[OldSchoolGamer]

of course, unfortunately article response is written at end of day, at work, so couldn't go into the level of detail I wished. His blog was obviously written over days, my response is in about 30 minutes with interruptions, from facts off the top of my head. lol.

[4me2]

"Are your games available on PC or other consoles?" - I was playing games exclusively on PC but cost is kind of high. Just good graphics card is about the same price as a console(good for next 5 years). And now to play Windows Vista games you need new GPU($400 to $700), VISTA itself($159 to $300) plus most likely new MB, faster memory and so on. For the price of upgrading my PC I got all 3 consoles. No more PC gaming for.
If you're also PC gamer you should not complain about PS3 price.

"So, because something is compressed you are saying its lower quality?"
Obviously you are not a programmer. If you use compressed data they will be lower quality i.e. MP3, JPG unless you use Lossless Data Compression. The other point is when you stream compress data you actually have to create handler to process it(additional lines of code) and reserve extra buffer for in-memory decompression. If you have uncompressed data you can just stream exactly where you need them.

I actually enjoy my Blu-ray player, you may not (unless Bill Gates tells you to) but there are many many that do.

HDMI -Sony should include component or HDMI cable in the box- PS3 uses standard HDMI cable ($7.00 on the internet) or got if for free when I bought my TV.

"Well PS2 is outselling next gen? At under $200, again I'm shocked"
spin around
Well 360 is outselling PS3? $200 cheaper, again I'm shocked

'360 has 6 "true" cores, which all are uniform'
-NO! 360 has 3 cores and 2 hardware threads per core. Thread is not the same as core. Threading is sharing CPU time between processes. If single core runs at full speed at 3.2GHz then 2 processes(assuming they are the same) on the same core will run with 1.6GHz each, 10 processes would run at 320 Mega(Not Giga) Hz each.

[OldSchoolGamer]

"Are your games available on PC or other consoles?
Sony Computer Entertainment publishes for us exclusively, so there are no Insomniac Games video games for the PC or consoles other than the PlayStation One or PS2."

When listing first party titles: "Add to this Sony’s new line up of first-party titles, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man..."

That quote is from insomniacs FAQ (frequently asked questions), showing bias, in addition to him listing Resistance as a first party game.

"So, because something is compressed you are saying its lower quality?"
Obviously you are not a programmer. If you use compressed data they will be lower quality i.e. MP3, JPG unless you use Lossless Data Compression. The other point is when you stream compress data you actually have to create handler to process it(additional lines of code) and reserve extra buffer for in-memory decompression. If you have uncompressed data you can just stream exactly where you need them.

That is my point, you are obviously not a programmer, as you can get equal quality as compressed just takes a little effort. Go look at Gears again and play some Resistance and you'll see the difference.

"I actually enjoy my Blu-ray player, you may not (unless Bill Gates tells you to) but there are many many that do."

I'm happy for you did you even read my or his posts? Blu-ray and HD-DVD are nice, but obviously you are a Sony boy if you have Blu-Ray already or are very rich! I'll stick to good old dvd's till cost on both come down and a winner is decided.

"HDMI -Sony should include component or HDMI cable in the box- PS3 uses standard HDMI cable ($7.00 on the internet) or got if for free when I bought my TV."

I agree if you are going to put the connection on your system you should include the cables, I know you don't have to be an idiot and tell them you used non-sony cables, but it does technically void your warentee.

""Well PS2 is outselling next gen? At under $200, again I'm shocked"
spin around
Well 360 is outselling PS3? $200 cheaper, again I'm shocked"

Thats my point 360 will always cost less, and if you took marketing that is a lower barrier to entry for consumers, easier to be accepted.

360 has 6 "true" cores, which all are uniform'
-NO! 360 has 3 cores and 2 hardware threads per core. Thread is not the same as core. Threading is sharing CPU time between processes. If single core runs at full speed at 3.2GHz then 2 processes(assuming they are the same) on the same core will run with 1.6GHz each, 10 processes would run at 320 Mega(Not Giga) Hz each.

It is true the 360 has 3 cores each using hyperthreading (again wrote this whole thing in 30 minutes leaving work from specs off top of my head), but the hyperthreading does not run at half speed it runs in parallel same as the cell spu's. In this instance sorry wrong again.

Again please do some research they are true cores or read other posts but let me break it down for you and will provide a good link that explains the difference (please read it you desperately need it):
The Dual Processor

A traditional dual processor system contains two separate physical computer processors in the same chassis. The two processors are usually located on the same circuit board (mother board) but occasionally will be located on separate circuit boards. In this case, each of the processors will reside in its own socket. A dual-processor (DP) system can also be considered a subset of the larger set of a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) system. A multi-processor capable operating system can schedule two separate computer processes or two threads within a process to run simultaneously on these separate processors.

Hyper-Threading Technology

Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) was developed by Intel Corporation to bring the simultaneous multi-threading approach to the Intel architecture. With HT Technology, two threads can execute on the same single processor core simultaneously in parallel rather than context switching between the threads. Scheduling two threads on the same physical processor core allows better use of the processors resources.

http://www.devx.com/go-para...

[kikilala]

bro.. bro.. slow down a bit.. i think u are the one that should have done your research better.. Im not trying to pick a fight or something.. but u are clearly misinformed about the CPU cores Vs Threading..

Quote:

"I asked to keep comments at the level I posted at, using logic, reason and a modicum of research. 360 has 3 dual cores(edit)*running 2 lines of command each in parallel at full speeds*, ie 6 cores. These are considered dual cores cause they share some resources, but are all true cores. Dual-core technology places two independent execution units onto the same processor die--think of it as two processors in one."

End quote.

The definition of dual core is correct. But ur statement saying the 360 has 3 dual cores*running 2 lines of command each in parallel at full speeds*, that is just plain bull..

Imagine 3 dual core processor on 1 processor die.. that is 6 cores.. not to mention with threading.. maybe i misread u.. but still there only 3 cores in the 360 processor.. not 6.. yes it capable of running 6 instruction set at a time with the threading feature.. but it still DOES NOT equal to 6 cores..

thanks to you i dont have to go and look for the definition of threading..

"Hyper-Threading Technology

Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) was developed by Intel Corporation to bring the simultaneous multi-threading approach to the Intel architecture. With HT Technology, two threads can execute on the same single processor core simultaneously in parallel rather than context switching between the threads. Scheduling two threads on the same physical processor core allows better use of the processors resources."

Basically, threading allows u to run 2 instruction simultaneously instead of having to queue instruction and run them through one by one. But one thing that u get wrong, with threading, u are not running the 2 instruction set at the same speed as running 2 threads on 2 cores. Its not that fast, but its faster then running 2 threads on one core.

For example, let say it takes 1 second to run one instruction on a single core w/o threading feature, so that make 2 second for 2 instruction. What threading does is it optimize the way the code is processed, so with threading feature instead of 2 seconds for 2 instruction, it may become around 1.5 second for 2 instruction but it'll never reach 1 second per instruction (like TylerDuren says, 30%-90%). If u ran the same thing through dual cores it will only takes 1 second, since it can run both simultaneously without the need to thread.

To make it clear..

2 cores > 1 Threading core > 1 plain core

I've included a diagram for you on how threading works. Assume that each color group represent an instruction. I apologize if i offended anyone here, but im just trying to give the fact.

*P/s: I've heard that only 1 of the 3 cores of 360 are running at full 3.2 GHz while the other 2 only run at half the speed, they say it got to do with the bus speed or bandwith.. not sure though.. can anyone give me a link to prove or disprove this.. for the time being i take this as rumour.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

Most of u are guys are judging ps3 on games that came out for ps3 a year after its release and rushed ports by EA and ubisoft...Plz...U guys are the ones being fanboys at least be realistic...for a 600 dollar system to sell like 10 000 less then a system that has been out a year is great with out any super AAA titles..Ps3 will do fine and will win regardless of being number one "which it will" because blu ray wins the HD Dvd player wars and ps2 aint sell 100 mill being 300 bucks not untill a price drop...till ps3 drops around at least 450 it wont be covering the market like ps2 did...but who knows this genration is a whole new ball game

[Killer Cop]

@shikwan

1. No GLOBAL online community.

[What do you mean? Everyone can play R:FOM online. But some can't go to PS Store, oh yes those little countries with like 100.000 habitants, really matters.]

2. No UNIFIED online features. [Right, again, what do you mean? Friends-list? Don't you think Sony will add that soon?]

3. Games that are 'late to the party'; Games that have been on other systems for well over 1 year before being enhanced and released on PS3.

[So..? They are enchanced so it even you can say?]

4. No HD/SD movie downloads. (HINT: Disc-based video media is going the route of the CD.)

[Why download a movie to HDD and fill it totally up in 1 hour, when you can have it on a single disc?]

5. No inclusion of HD or HDMI cables out-the-box.

[Buy one with your PS3? Talk about MS-Bash-style.]

6. A hdd with no PC connectivity means no convienent way to transfer large amounts of existing media to PS3.

[Duh, by the time Blu-ray wins, we will all have Blu-ray BURNERS, so yes it is easy to transfer. Ever heard of a removable HDD going through USB? Ever heard of a USB storage device?]

7. The Wii Fad Will Fade but not before Sony copies everything that Wii has going for it.

[What a piece of Sh*t to say..]

8. PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage - which is then crippled by it's memory usage and programmability.

[Programmability is being fixed as we speak. Memory of PS3 is fine, it depend on HOW to use it, not just have the big numbers.]

9. PS2 still outselling 360...and the PS3.

[If you knew, Sony also made the PS2. Which can support the PS3 with it's income.]

10. Something For Everyone...who can AFFORD it. 360 has something for everyone AND is affordable.

[Affordable? Okay, I have no dad, my mother has no job, I work for the lowest payment a teen is allowed in Denmark (the PS3-expensive country). And what do I do? GO BUY A PS3 ON FRICKIN LAUNCH DAY!!!]

****BONUS REASON****

11. Because investors or profitors have to continually produce these stories to maintain their (and everyone else's) continually declining confidence in Sony's hype machine.

[Because of fanboys (Read; YOU) or Microsoft have to continually produce these commments to maintain their (and everyone else's) fate in that PS3 is really not a good console and the Xbox 360 is the best, so you guys don't have to realize that you wasted all your money buying a Xbox 360.]

@ falcontri

1)xbots,we talk about 360 so much that every time their console gets red lights instead of admitting it they will buy a new one driving up sales figures

[Oh is that really so? For that money, I could buy a PS3 AND a bunch of games! :D]

2)halo 3 this should keep the console alive for two years(now that gears is good its a 2 game system)

[Ahhhh... Okay, that would be like PS2 with only God Of War. And that would be a disaster.]

3)we pay $50 a year for better online services so its better take that sony fanboys :P

[In fact, it's not really better, and 50 USD is for the next year. I will in no way pay for playing online.]

4)its cheap er we 360 fans are short term thinkers
360 webcam $40 ps3-most webcams work $5
wifi 360 $100
controller charger 360 $20 ps2 $1 mini usb
ect.

[Short Term Thinkers... So are fanboys. Don't understand the rest.]

5)we wanna be a cheap ps3
were gonna get black
hdmi
large hard drive

[Yes and Microsoft is copying bigtime. And by the way, you miss Cell and RSX among all the other neat things.]

6) games we gonna alot of ps3 exclusives fullfilling our mission of becoming a cheap ps3

[I though you hated PS3, so why do you wanna be a PS3 suddenly? You are arguing against yourself! :P Do you think you're god or something? Your word is not law.]

7) cheap gimmick to anyone thinking of getting a ps3 remember 360 hearts you

[Oh and it's a fact just because you say it?]

8)our bosses constantly cussing ps3 come on peter this can damage their rep

[Microsoft, including you, constantly acting childish/redicioulus.]

9)gamespot we got them converting potential ps3 buyers for us even though it cost us dearly paying them it will pay off

[Because you're so unsure that Xbox will win. Therefore this. Remember all the free TV's Sony gave away?]

10)last but not least publicity buyig a 360 would make you bill gates byatch what teenage boy dosent have that fantasy :)

[...]

[MoonDust]

10 reasons why i can't predict the future. Why even argue, this dumb topic.

[DC RID3R]

things are really heating up now.

Look at whats just around the corner (microsofts response) :]

http://n4g.com/industrynews...

[shikwan]

1&2 no global online community... hmmm home.. is free.. mmmmm frrreeeee
***What's your point? Free to play users in your region-can't play on a global scale. So much for contests and clans.

3. yes because you know ps3 has only been out 4 months.. and i like you r key word.. enhanced.. nice word there
***Yup enhanced..like CoD3 (no voice support) what an enhancement.

4. Yeah spend 5 hours and money to download a movie you will watch only once..and no hard drive to store it on.. unless you pay extra for it.. mmm pay extra
***So I d/l movie w/o a hdd?? Lay off the crack and learn the FAQs.

5. How bout the inclusion of an HDMI port.. you can actually use it.. wow what a concept, i guess the elite sku is covering that though.. so go ahead and buy that if ya want
***With d/l HD movies AND PC Connectivity, HDMI isn't REQUIRED. It's like saying you nead s/pdif or optical audio to play music digitally.

6. So you have all your media on your PC right,or is it an external HDD, cuz I can connect that directly to my ps3 if I wanted to, which I do.. also look up location free player.. its nice, no wires.. what a concept
***So when did Sony make the PS3 capable of streaming VARIOUS media types from the PC? And "since you do" connect to your PC-what features do you get? (Leave the hallucinagenics alone).

7. Yes it will fade, and sony will have copied the best parts, I'm not sure how this is a bad thing
***typical loser's mentality.

8. Yes major CPU advantage, and the programmibility is becomeing easier every day, "Edge" 1st party developer tips, its only going to get better
***They could pull all the stops with programmability-they still will have a memory cap. Can't add more memory to PS3 like MS is adding HDMI. So much for system upgradeability.

9. Yes PS2 is still kicking but.. you actually think those 110 million are going to change over to the 360? when they have a proven quality name brand that has lasted 6 years and still going strong.. you remember red ring of death.. remember?
***It's a funny thing when an outdated system from Sony is selling more than Sony's newer, more advanced system.

10. Afford is a relative term, I'm sure average joe american is still balking at the both price tages, get down to 150 then its for everyone, ie. see PS2, the price drops will come for both.
***Problem is; at this stage in the game, Sony can't AFFORD a price drop. MS can.

****BONUS****

11. Don't be scurred cuz people are saying good things about Sony, if it was such a crap brand and nobody wanted, all the shouting from these so called profiteers wouldnt matter? Right?
***Actually, you seem to be misinformed as the ratio of negative Sony stories to good is about 7:3 IMO. Perhaps you're scared that you've made a mistake by investing in a "future proof" system (with no PC Connectivity) that is LACKING greatly in it's game library and constantly LOSING exclusive titles.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Ahhhh hahahaha ha ha ha ha ha ha OMFG this has got to be the funniest BS I have ever seen here on N4G. I’m going to laminate this I swear, not even politicians BS this much.

[MySwordIsHeavenly]

Insomniac just killed ALL ya'll fanboys!

Nothing on that list is false. It's all what the world will soon come to know and love.

Did someone say Casino Royale was crap? haha...you obviously haven't seen it. It's the best action movie in years.

Oh, and who compared LBP to Viva Pinaita? Can we NOT? LBP is original...VP is...just...lame

Monchichi...wow

Yes, the wii will fade. I've said it before...and I'll say it again...IT WILL FADE OUT!

[Optimus Prime]

it is a movie. we are talking about GAMING consoles. the ones that you use to play games with. usually you want to focus on the gaming aspect of a console.

[MEGANE]

He is rigth CASINO ITS A MOVIE(very nice movie!!!)
By the way alesix i bet u like that picture of mine.

[kewlkat007]

PLAYSTATION:
Disruptor
Spyro the Dragon
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
Spyro: Year of the Dragon

PLAYSTATION 2:
Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
Ratchet: Deadlocked

PLAYSTATION 3:
Resistance: Fall of Man PlayStation 3
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Resistance 2: Rise of Man

So who is really paying for his Mortgage?

I rest my Case...I would rather hear from a developer that is currently working on both Platforms, instead of the one that currently has the top game for for its Money Maker SONY. While he has the right to his opinions , but I can't take someone like that serious.

Most un-biased Developers working on both platforms just wanna make money and talk about the stregths and weaknesses of Both.(Ask CAPCOM)

Ya know Cliffy B wouldn't talk BS like this, and working on both platforms.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Lol not biased, let me point out something
"Are your games available on PC or other consoles?
Sony Computer Entertainment publishes for us exclusively, so there are no Insomniac Games video games for the PC or consoles other than the PlayStation One or PS2."

When listing first party titles: "Add to this Sony’s new line up of first-party titles, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man..."

I think that says enough, he sounds like a fan boy to me, oh wait no he just paid alot of money to quote "work very closely with Sony." lol.
He has more interest in Sony doing well than alot of investors, with probably huge bonus incentives. NDA's (non-disclosure agreements) surely won't let him reveal how much.

[Ps3007]

SINCE THE WRITER WONT OR CANT SAY IT SOME OF YOU CAN *** OFF... GET A LIFE PS3 AINT GOING NO WHERE. CHOOSE 360 IS YOU WILL BUT LEAVE THE PS3 FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY OWN IT!

[Ravenator529]

Even though I totally disagree, its about time a first party PS3 developer started standing up for the system they develop for.

I mean, you really have to take his comments with a grain of salt considering Insomniac doesn't creat ANY games that are on the 360 platform. Nor will they probably ever.

Its as biased of an article as they come. His total income is related to the Sony platform. So there is no reason he would even think about bashing the PS3 on any level.

But its about time he started speaking up.

But don't fret Xbot's, M$ has been on the ball with their retaliation to anything that Sony dishes out. They have been notorious for letting Sony show their hand first.

Oh and anyone who discredits the Wii is a complete moron. Its pretty outrageous when a system still creates lines at retail stores months after its initial release. Even without more than a couple of worthwhile games!! The Wii is for the "casual" gamer and I hate to let everyone here know but, there are more casual than hardcore gamers out there. Nintendo has hit back with a vegence this generation.

But all in all, these three gaming giants are here to stay. I really believe that no one is going to have the balls to jump in this game with M$, Sony, and Nintendo.

But having 3 choices is a great thing! Always remember that! One console to rule them all would not be good for us gamers!

[Xi]

NO one should take this seriously, IT FROM INSOMNIAC you know the company beging paid to make SONY exclusives. This is the same rhetoric that sony's been spitting out, and look where it got them.

[VirtualGamer]

How Insomniac is not a independent Studio that happens to choose only to design games for Sony when it really is. Not to mention Insomniac has done very well by making awesome games for the Playstation over time and its nice to see a independent studio decide to stay loyal to a company that has treated them well. The humorous thing about this is that if Insomniac decided to make a game for the 360, the 360 camp would be crowing about it. The other interesting thing is that even Mark Reins of Epic who created the exclusive Gears of War and so far the best game for the 360 has gone on record as saying he believes Sony will come out on top this time around.

This guys thoughts and opinions are his and you can agree or disagree but none of us including him have a crystal ball to tell what will happen in the future. However at least he was able to articulate in a intellegent way why he feels Sony will win rather then nost of the dribble in this thread from over heated fanboys. For me I am glad he went on record and he does a bang up job of articualting why I bought a PS3 and why I feel it will come out on top.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

Listen to this guy from insomniac.
He is not a fanboy. he`s a gamer.
He doesn`t slam the 360 (even gives it credit).
This Gen Sony has already won.
If ya can see it your blind.

Sony Is Genius.

[tethered]

I knew this would get under the skin of the 360 fanboys!
This whole thread made me laugh.

It's unbelievable how pissed these fanboys get when there is positive news about the PS3 when the guy doesn't even slam any other system.

Haha! Good times, good times!

[lilwingman]

Really good read. I am a big fan of Insomniac, one of my favourite developers. I wouldn't say they are reasons that the PS3 will win the 'console war', but they are certainly good reasons to own one. Good enough reasons for me at least :). And as a developer, he seems very down to Earth, admitting that the 360 has better online and a better GPU, and that Gears is better than their game. I have respect for this guy.

Except I disagree that Casino Royale is a system seller. The fact it's selling so well simply shows that HD discs are slowly becoming more dominant.

[FeralPhoenix]

Actually I have no problem with what he said, after all Sony does pay the bills and he's entitled to his opinion.....in my humble opinion I think his best reason was the standard HDD, because I believe the Core was a mistake on M$'s part, but honestly it can be phased out and also I believe dev's have made games with a HDD in mind on other consoles even though it was only optional....not sure so maybe I'm wrong about that. I guess most of it depends on your point of view, IMO 360 just has the majority of the best games now and coming in the "near" future, games that I can't miss out on, I'm a GAMER and thats why I own a 360...actually I just brought a PS3 too, I was waiting to get it later but I have my reasons for buying it now even though I had planned holding off for awhile,(its a long story) -however I won't comment on my thoughts about what I like and don't like so far, since I haven't fully explored it for myself. oldschoolgamer I thought you "debunked" most of his reasons, again it doesn't prove him wrong but it does show his logic is definitely based on his own best interests, so in the end I think this gen we will end up with games on both systems that will "shine" more than others.....and a tight race, -Imagine that.

[tethered]

[quote]so in the end I think this gen we will end up with games on both systems that will "shine" more than others.....and a tight race, -Imagine that.[/quote]

I love when someone gets the big picture. I agree, they both are good systems. They both will make it to the "next" generation.

We will end up going through this all over again when that time comes.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

10. Blu ray(Storage is Crucial in this Gen)
9. Little Big Planet (Watch the Vids.)
8.Home (Use it or not you know it`s a great idea)
7.1080p/Hdmi (3 years from now you`ll understand)
6.Diversity (platformers,FPS,RPG,Action/ad venture,Shooters,Sims Etc.)
5.Solid.Solid.franchises (GOW,Socom,Ratchet,Sly,Jak,Tea m Ico,MGS,FF)
4.Socom (If you don`t think this game will sell system your DUMB)
3.360`s Break easily(Me and everyone i know who bought one it broke you`ll get sick of it. mine broke for good 2 week after warranty)
2.Cell (every console switch devolpers complain about devolping for something new, from 2d to 3d it was the same thing, people complain then figure out how to use it and love it, every cycle)
1.It WILL drop it`s price once they stop ps2(Exactly to 360`s)

The Game Convention Streak Starts soon and Sony love`s too overwhelm w/ info.

GET READY

[Bonsai1214]

he is very down to earth, which is why i'm confused as to why people are still bashing the heck out of him and his comments...

But the one thing that sticks out at me the most is "wait a year or two" because honestly, when i bought this console, i bought it for potential. some of you might disagree with me for doing that, but i bought a ps2 at launch and see what happened to it?

I believe that credit is due where credit is due, and Brian Hastings deserves credit for not only telling the truth in a near unbiased light, but for giving complements and credit even when it goes against his own work.

[MissAubrey]

all 3 consoles are here to stay this gen and thats great! the competition only benefits the gamers. and fanboys only miss out.

[DaTrooF]

bladestar says: I would try better, but you see. But it's kind of dificult not judging information comming from them and not rated as bias. Take the fact as an example that he does not openly mentions any areas where Sony is not doing great. As far as he is concern the PS3 and Sony are doing everything perfectly fine. Now we all know that nothing is perfect in this industry. All consoles have their streght and weakness. Even if everything is as this guy says is true, that the PS3 is more powerful that the 360 in all aspecs, it's kind of stupid to say that it will guarantee the console domination. If so, why is the DS killing the PSP, and why did the PS2 dominated last gen when the orignal xbox had a HHD and was way more powerful than the PS2? Yeah, the one things that no body seems to take under consideration: The Games. That's whats going to mark the winner. So while Sony's developers and PRs continue to scream, "The PS3 is more poweful than 8 computer", "The Cell thinks of its own", "The PS3 hardware is a $h!t" most PS exclusives are being brought to the 360 and new IP suchs as Gears, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Lost Oddesy are being develop

Bladestar:the one things that no body seems to take under consideration: The Games. That's whats going to mark the winner. So while Sony's developers and PRs continue to scream, "The PS3 is more poweful than 8 computer",

while i do agree with that statement...i got something else to say.yes the ps2 won and yet the xbox was more powerful.i think the reason sony keeps mentioning the cell is because many people keeps talking about the 360 being more powerful and they want they like to take every chance they get to say they get to say theirs is more powerful then the 360(wat do you expect they are competitors after all).about the games being the key to winning i totally agree on that...but when you start saying that all the ps3...well just look at it this way.....

i dont kno if any of you guys have thought of this but right now imagine this....

imagine that every 3rd party dev out there cancelled their projects,and only the 1st and 2nd devs were left..which system so far has the best line up...i would give the edge to the ps3 since it has more games that interest me then both the wii and the 360 combine,the truth is mass effect,gears and halo are the only reason i own a 360.as for the wii(wich many of ya seem to be counting out of the game)i bought one because of SSB,zelda and Metroid.as the ps3 i have at least 10 that interests me.

[JoeCH]

Man, you XBOX360 fans have coniptions everytime someone says something posistive about the PS3. Some of you are even delusional, lets see -- M$ has plenty of francises? What franchises, lets see there is HALO, Halo 2, Halo 3 this fall. Forza Motorsport, Forza Motor Sport 2? (did I spell that right). Ummmm, oh yeah what is that title every one races on Project Gotham Racing. Anymore, Gears of War will be their the next title. That's it. No other francises here that are only on the XBOX360. In fact, M$ has been throwing money around to get 3rd party titles that used to be only on the PS3 ported over the the XBOX360. Please, M$ has along way to go to catch up to Sony on franchises.

M$ promised you an HDMI upgrade. That upgrade is a new XBOX360 Elite system for $479. Those of you with the current XBOX360s will never see the light of day on an HDMI upgrade. But you can plunk down another $479 to get a larger hard drive and HDMI. With a PS3 you don't have to buy another system -- just another Hard Drive.

See what M$ has sold you is a PC in a box. Uses a PC cpu, can only upgrade hard drive with M$ hard drive. Any game on the 360 will eventually come out on the PC. Gee, and even now M$ wants to charge PC users for what they have been doing for free for the last 20 years, play games online. And you M$ fanboys just love giving up your money to M$.

In my business I deal with repairing equipment for some very large companies. They ask the same question, do I really have to spend that much to do this job. No you don't. Here is how it works, you can spend a little up front for your tool and alot when you need it fixed or you can spend alot up front for your tool and a little when it is time to fix it. Same goes in the electronics industry. Spend alot for your electronics up front and you will get better electronics with fewer problems or spend less and have less features and usually more problems. Gee -- any of you XBOX360 fans had to replace your 360 lately?

[GameJunkieJim]

"JoeCH- Gee -- any of you XBOX360 fans had to replace your 360 lately? "

No, but I'm on my 5th PS2...

And my 2nd PSP.

To be fair I'm on my 2nd XBox, but considering how many LAN parties I lugged the first one to, that was somewhat expected.

Any more smart-aleck remarks? Sony has a reputation for cheap hardware. Fun games, but cheap hardware.

[artman]

well he get the point guys, it's true what he is saying... common grow up. I have 360, I'm not sure I can use in another 3 years for sure... they even release elite version (which I'm sure they want to revise the console) I don't think they are thinking in long term investment... M$ confuse the concept between PC & Console. we can upgrade out PC anytime (i was upgrade my PC almost every year for the sake of game)
but after my 360 explode, it just make me realized that M$ r not good with hardware though, and I wonder why they don't fit the hd-dvd & wifi build-in as well, I wonder if M$ also doubt about HD-DVD.

what happen to the porn? I don't really see US porn anyway, I prefer Japanese Porn. but why we bother? there is more other entertainment than porn.

other dev who think PS3 is a pain in the @ss, is they really got problem to solve & time to invest... it's hard to develop ... yes, PS2 was also hard at first. but they haven't done it best yes. are they american dev?

I have both console, I like 360 softs, but I just don't see far future for this console, surely they will release xbox 4 soon.
for sure I'll not buy another one... I rather spent another $500 for other, I'm getting wii this june anyway.

[Legionaire2005]

Nintendo been in the game business for a long time like since the 80s, so they pretty much know what their doing. How long has Sony and Microsoft been in the game business? 13 years for Sony and 6 years for Microsoft, so who has more experience? Nintendo. No!!! Nintendo Wii is not like Tickle Me Elmo and Furbies that got boring later. No the Wii is more than that, think about Super Smash Bros. Brawl online and Zelda. Sorry but there are too much loyal fans for Nintendo so quit that B.S. about that Wii fad crap. Just wait until Wii online with the Opera browser comes out. Then you will change your mind an actually develop games for the Wii.

[MissAubrey]

thats a retarded looking car in the vid lol

[Bhai]

"Hey Ho Have To Say
DC RID3R Owns The Day"...!

...Well I have to admit this is one of the BEST ever stories ever published on board for the last whole 1 year. Very reasonable, researched, logical, arguing and straight-in-the-face words by Mr. Hastings. One has to kill the Sony-bashing fashion, there is just no denying of Sony's innovative edge. We all knowSony IS the reason for the whole innovative thing in the industry. The existance of EyeToy, SingStar, GameTrak, dynamic-loading based games, the upcoming HOME and Little Big Planet etc. are all acclaimed games-industry standards not to mention lots of industry standard-defining franchises !!! A great, great article that I don't have words to praise.

I'm off to finding the 'Snow Crash' novel, you know we all love 'dystopian' science fiction of the likes of Equilibrium, Matrix, Gattaca or (indirectly)Solaris ! The very first look at HOME spoke of its such dystopian sci-fi appeal. The above article has pumped me even more to anticipate HOME and get my hands on it. While Sony takes over the industry, I'll make sure to have as much understanding of concepts to drive unique creativity. Thanks DC RID3R, I'm going HOME !!!

[FeralPhoenix]

Yeah, I do see the big picture.....and thats exactly WHY I own both consoles now. Like I said I planned to wait for awhile before I bought my PS3 but I have a friend who made me a "offer I couldn't refuse" on a brand new 60 gig PS3, being the gamer that Iam....I took his offer since he bought two PS3's and the other was still brand new in the box, he's been begging me to buy it for 2 months, of course he could have sold it a long time ago, but he's been holding out until "I come to my senses"[the darkside]....honestly, I could have bought it anytime I wanted because the price is not really a concern for me, but I fully understand for some its definitely a hurdle to overcome.....No, honestly I just like what 360 has to offer more at this point (he's a diehard PS fan, I'm in the middle but I "lean" 360....hell I don't even know how why we even bother talking to each other -lol, well we talk sh!t about him behind his back on XBL, so it has its benefits) but I fully understand that eventually the PS3 games I want to play will eventually arrive and that was the "big" reason why I've been waiting.

I'm hoping he will decide to get a 360, but honestly he's more closed minded than me (he would say otherwise) and he doesn't follow the industry like I do, he just plays what he likes....and for him its PS (I have some friends who only like 360) he doesn't get info online, he doesn't care what others think, he likes PS stuff, I think its good and bad because I admire his loyalty(not really) but sometimes I tell him "you don't know what you're missing", I could understand if it was about money, but both of us have "enough" for this hobby, but hell they guy knows what he likes and like I said I have friends on both sides of the fence....but I say: "The hell with loyalty....I'm going to play the best games on both consoles!" -Thats why I laugh at him and he hates it because I make him feel like "less" of a gamer. -he's a big boy, he can take it. -damm, OK sorry for the long post...I told you it was a long story, but now I'm just rambling...I tend to do that alot. THE END.

[Edit]vvvvvv lilwingman...yeah, actually I did already mention above that he could also afford both if thats what he wanted....as far as me making fun of him, well we're good friends so thats just what we do, but I completely understand for some gamers its NOT affordable to buy both, so if you "choose" PS3 then I personally don't have a problem with that. I also understand for some they just don't want a 360 and vice versa, thats fine....but if its just because you are loyal then I think it means you are limiting yourself....either way its YOUR money.

[lilwingman]

Does your friend have enough money to afford two consoles? I can only get one, and it's the PS3, because like your friend, the PS provides the games that I like. This is not a bash on the 360 at all, because for the Western audience I think it has amazing appeal. I would get one for Lost Odyssey, Fable 2, Blue Dragon, and Ninja Gaiden 2 - but that's not really what it specializes in, and I think I can get more bang-for-my-buck with a PS3. If you look at what the 360 favours, shooters in first or third-person, than if your friend is a PS fan I don't think it would appeal to him as much. That's how I feel anyway.

Of course, I think it is phenomenal for gamers that the 360 is expanding it's library, starting with picking up DMC. I can only afford one console, so it's the PS3 copy of the game for me, but the fact that Microsoft is branching out, and broadening their appeal away from the strictly Western audience, means a bright future for the company on a worldwide scale. The Wii is in its own game, but the battle for high-def supremacy between the PS3 and the 360 means that gamers will have a lot to look forward to.

[NextGen24Gamer]

I knew he was not only full of it....but he...who ever he is....knows very little about the cell or processors at all.

A cpu is the central processing unit. There is ONLY ONE in both the ps3 and the 360.

A PPU is the power pc unit. The 360 has 3 and the ps3 has 1.

You don't have to be a developer, to use common sense.

8 cpu's and 8 spe's are two totally different terms. And for him to mistakingly use the term cpu, shows a lot about what he is attempting to do. Fool "gamers" who don't understand simple computer termanology. Look up the terms and realize how off he is. The ps3 does not have 8 central processing units.

[lilwingman]

And you think you know more about the Cell than a PS3 developer? Right.

[Maddens Raiders]

...this article rattles Xbots to the core of their being. Just look at the responses. top gamr...looks like you have a new recruit in "Old School Gamer"...whatever the hell that means.lol -- more Kool-Aid drinkers for your cause. Great, great article Hastings, and a damn good find DC Rid3r. See you at the finish line Microsoft -- it's just too bad second place is the first LOSER, but that's familiar territory for you and your legion of "fumes". Lest we all forget:

Winner of Console Wars I -- PS1
Winner of Console Wars II -- PS2
Winner of Console Wars III -- PS?

What have ya got after Halo comes out 'ol friend? What's your next big project? Alan Wake the mysterious and nebulous title for your vanilla or Elite black system? Forza 2 which will always be a bastard of Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator? Viva Pinata 2?lol

Sorry top gamer. Can't spin those facts BUDDY. Say, how's that add on HD-DVD player workin' for ya? You still working for NINTENDO? If you work for Nintendo, then I take notes for Billy G. every morning before tee time; and there's a red, 500 gig 360 coming out on Valentines Day 2008. If you do work for Nintendo then your a$$ needs to be fired, cause your product sux. But you don't work for Nintendo do you? Just more lies to fill the spaces of your egotistical, maniacal grey matter. =]

W3LCOM3 CHANG3

[GameJunkieJim]

----------------
"Great, great article Hastings,"

Low standards?

"and a damn good find DC Rid3r. See you at the finish line Microsoft -- it's just too bad second place is the first LOSER, but that's familiar territory for you and your legion of "fumes"."

Fanboys are funny.

"Lest we all forget:

Winner of Console Wars I -- PS1
Winner of Console Wars II -- PS2
Winner of Console Wars III -- PS? "

Shouldn't that be more like:

Winner of Console Wars I -- Atari 2600
Winner of Console Wars II -- Colecovision
Winner of Console Wars III -- Nintendo Entertainment System
Winner of Console Wars IV -- Sega Genesis
Winner of Console Wars V -- PS
Winner of Console Wars VI -- PS2
Winner of Console Wars VII - TBD

??

"What have ya got after Halo comes out 'ol friend? What's your next big project?"

Shadowrun? Mass Effect?

"Alan Wake the mysterious and nebulous title for your vanilla or Elite black system? Forza 2 which will always be a bastard of Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator?"

Heh, yeah, just like the PS3's motion sensing controller is a bastardized rip-off of Wii? Or HOME? You know what the argument is from the PS3 camp usually? That it's OK if the end product is improved? Forza is quite a bit improved over Gran Turismo. It's expected, it came out later and had plenty of time to improve on it. I'm not saying Gran Turismo is bad though, far from it. (although I was pissed when they took out the used cars in GT3)

"Viva Pinata 2?lol"

Viva Pinata. Quite the addictive game.

"Sorry top gamer. Can't spin those facts BUDDY."

What facts? The only real point he makes is the storage on the Blu Ray media.

"Say, how's that add on HD-DVD player workin' for ya?"

I like mine, in fact, I'm watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on it.

Fanboys make me giggle.

[deathtok]

I'm glad that more and more people are standing up against the Wii. While it's controls are a nice feature for a console to have as an option, it grows tiring as standard gameplay. Even my brother who rushed out and bought one is planning on selling his.

If you have to decide between who will "win" and it's XBox 360 vs. PS3, my money is on Sony (that's not to say I won't get both). The sales are doing well considering the game library and Sony's first party games are just better than Microsoft's, partly because of sheer numbers but the IP's stand on their own.

What do I know though... I'm from Boston and I'm used to losing.

[GameJunkieJim]

Pure poppycock.

A story about innovation coming from a developer that made, what? 3 versions of Spyro and 4 (soon to be 5) of Ratchet and Clank?

Resistance is a good game, but compare it's online stats with Halo 2 and it quickly falls to the wayside. And I'm not talking overall, I mean first three months to first three months. The reason is because the Xbox Live system is standardized. What happens when I'm playing Fight Night and a friend online wants to play me in Resistance? I have to get off of fight Night to even see if he's online. Unless he has my phone number and doesn't mind potentially paying for long distance.

The PS3 has power. However, it's going to be a hard battle to try and take the online gaming crown from Microsoft. the first and second gen PS3 titles will not be able to take advantage of a standardized online system without extensive patching, and if Sony decides to incur the expense to standardize their online services, then the PS3 owners may end up seeing fees as a result.

And the Wii has nothing to fear from either the PS3 -or- the 360. It's outsold both systems by plenty. And it's quite fun, even the thirtieth time around, as anyone could find out if they came to my house on any Saturday. Wii Bowling tournaments are legion in my house, as well as Halo matches and MotorStorm races.

Final point: to put such a biased and reckless point of view out as a 'neutral' take from an 'unbiased' developer (Who's company has only developed for Sony since 1996) is ludicrous.

[deathtok]

No opinion is completely bias free, including your own. However his list brings up some decent arguments. Mostly it comes down to opinion.

You can't knock the developer for the games they have done especially when they are popular and well made. I can easily take a stab at Bungie by saying: a story about innovation coming from a developer that made, what? 3 versions of Myth and 2 versions of Halo (soon to be 3).

My point is before you throw around a "biased and reckless point of view" please check your own. Also, the Wii has NOT outsold the XBox 360.

[GameJunkieJim]

Certainly you are correct that no opinion is bias free (By the way Bungie made only 2 versions of Myth, the third was handled by Take 2, and handled poorly)

What I knock him for is that he claims innovation on one hand, but the same gameplay dominates the titles for which his company is known. Certainly the games are great, however innovative they are anything but. Even Halo 2 added gameplay elements that one could not claim for Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage or Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando.

And the Wii had 54% of the market last month, I'd say that mathematically speaking it outsold both the XBox 360 -AND- the PS3.

I don't think I said anything that needed to be 'checked' now did I?

[deathtok]

I can take your meaning with the games Spyro and Ratchet & Clank as they are both platformers and not exactly recreating the genre.

You've now mentioned Halo 2 a few times though. I'd say the Halo series hasn't done much to further the FPS genre at all. It's pretty standard run and gun fanfare with a bad story. I'd much rather run through... say 'Chronicles of Riddick'. I'll take Halo for what it is but that's hardly a pinnacle of innovation.

Back on the Wii argument, the XBox 360 still has nearly twice the install base. So mathematically the Wii has not outsold the XBox 360, though it may have topped sales last month.

[GameJunkieJim]

I can take your meaning with the games Spyro and "Ratchet & Clank as they are both platformers and not exactly recreating the genre.

You've now mentioned Halo 2 a few times though. I'd say the Halo series hasn't done much to further the FPS genre at all. It's pretty standard run and gun fanfare with a bad story. I'd much rather run through... say 'Chronicles of Riddick'. I'll take Halo for what it is but that's hardly a pinnacle of innovation."

Innovation? Possibly not, but evolution in it's finest form? Possibly. Halo took elements from many other shooters and combined them better than anything else had, or arguably could, do at the time. Halo 2 added vehicular destruction, a new weilding option, and put the game online, and the sales figures alone tell Halo's story. The XBox has plenty of shooters to choose from, and Halo still wails on the charts for a reason. The backstory has spawned 4 novels, a graphic novel, a viral marketing campaign that adds even more backstory (although not canon) and a plethora of theory and speculation on the game. The story is most certainly not a weak point for the game, your opinion aside. It's a much more robust story than Half Life, Resistance or Unreal, Doom or Riddick for example.

"Back on the Wii argument, the XBox 360 still has nearly twice the install base. So mathematically the Wii has not outsold the XBox 360, though it may have topped sales last month."

That's like painting an apple and calling it an orange. The 360 is going to obviously have a larger install base, it's been out a year longer. The Wii has been out for a few months and is creaming the competition in terms of raw sales, that's what's relevant here.

[Whoooop]

Most of his statements and comments are true even if he is biased and even if you hate reading good things about the PS3, most of his comments are true..

If somebody from the xbox camp said some of the most arrogant statements about the 360 accomplishments and are true!!.. Like having the best library right now and a great one coming.. something like GOW is the best visually game right now.. another thing like microsoft is doing a great job this time around giving PS3 a run for its money.. even if i hated the article cause of the arrogance, i will have no choice but to shut my mouth and accept the facts..

My point being, some people need to accept the fact that the PS3 is a great machine well worth the money with some great games and ideas coming...

Pardon ma English

[Bullseye]

Obviously a very biased article and i feel a little embarassed that any respectful developer would sell their soul to make a few cheap shots.This kind of thing should be left to the PR drones of MS and Sony,not to any serious developer.That said, he does have a couple of valid points, such as the standard hdd and hdmi 1.3 However, overall this is blatantly one sided and i find it interesting that he sites streaming textures as the main reason GOW looks better than RFOM.So, why didn't they use streaming textures? Did i miss that or didn't he say? PS3 is a worthy machine,more worthy that some of its developers,it seems.

[hongthay]

He made some valid comments. I agree with lots, and kudos to Mr. Hastings for recognizing when other games/consoles are better in some areas. I agree with most of them. I will be getting a PS3 in 6 weeks, hopefully. I had an Xbox 360 when I lived in the US and had a lot of fun. Now I am in Thailand. Xbox Live is great, if you live in the US, Hong Kong, Japan, or Europe.

I enjoy playing online games, means I have to buy a PS3 to play online if I live in Thailand. Nice thing is, I can create separate accounts for downloads from Hong Kong, the US, Japan, and Europe to get all of the special downloads from each region. PSN works great here in Thailand. Wish i could say the same for Live. But here, trying to find Xbox 360 games is nigh impossible, unless I want to pay hefty premiums. And most of my friends play PlayStation anyway. I am looking forward to Home, though. I enjoy MySpace and Sims, which this seems to be an excellent way to mix. Looks like a lot of fun. And I am really looking forward to the next R&C game and those incredible graphics from the magazine scans, hoping it has some excellent online matches also.

Nice of Mr. Hastings to state his opinions on the PS3. I just hope the user base and game base increases more quickly, which will benefit the PS3 games in the long run.

[Hayabusa 117]

Microsft did standard HDD last gen. Not that many games took full advantage of the XBox's HDD, and what's more, I don't see it being a problem. Simply put "Hard Drive needed" on the front of the case. Just like online only games. Same thing with disc space. So what if games exceed 9 gigs? Just put it on more discs: that's what the PSone did.

"At Insomniac, we were filling up DVDs on the PS2, as were most of the developers in the industry."

From what I read, there were hardly any games last gen, on the XBox, that filled up DVD9 discs.

[url] http://www.gamesfirst.com/?...

I have no doubt that Little Big Planet and Home are going to be incredible, and have a wide impact, but not on the level he's talking about. Getting job offers from devs in the middle of the night? Maybe from Insomniac. As a data compressor. And he doesn't get praise for thinking up ideas like Home and LBP. I mean c'mon, I've been thinking about user created game worlds since I was ten.

And somehow, I don't think the Wii is going to just a passing fab, because it's a game console, not a teddy bear you put on the shelf. when a new game comes out, people will pick it up and play it again, and reggie will host a new Wii party, and everyone will come over to see this new game, then everyone will buy the game, and so on, and so worth.

It's very simple. Wii sells more because it's a good, and it has a low price. PS3 sells less because it's good, but costs more. The 360 is in the middle and oh, look at the price...

And I'm quite happy to pay £150 for a 5 year experience of Live. Which, by the way, rougly works out at 0.11p a day.

I would like to argue his views properly, but I've got an Oblivion realm to visit...

[BBsin]

HUGE COMMENTS TO READ!!... so i'm not going to read any of them. This guy made alot of valid points that i happen to agree with. Most of the points this guy made shouldn't be new to the people that got a PS3 already. I dont have one yet, b/c i dont see a reason for one now, but i don't like the horrible criticism that sony has been getting. No matter how you look at it, only giving a console a 5 month (or less than a year) window to succeed is not right. and thats exactly how people has been treating the PS3.

[hulk_bash1987]

I agree with you on that, the PS3 has been getting some unnesesary bashing. But you have to admit that they did kind of set themselves up for it, cuz they boasted early on about the PS3 being the most next-gen of the next-gen consoles. Im not a 36o fanboy either, i own both systems and i dont like one over the other. I just want something that will truely justify my $600 invesment from Sony. Even with the 360 aside from Halo 3, Blue Dragon, Fable 2 and Mass Effect nothin else is got me interested.

[Bathyj]

He doesn't like Sony because he works for them. He works for them because he likes Sony.

They're just his opinions, and he's entitled to them, just like the rest of you. At least his are well thought out and expressed without slagging off his competitors. Disagree all you like but he has alot of good points. They were all debatable but still valid. You call him biased but what are you xbox-only fans? If he says devs welcome more space I'm more likely to trust his word than yours.

Besides, he gave credit to GeoW. I would have thought you'se would be partying in the streets over that.

[Bigmac573]

Sorry

[rowdy 1]

about it is he is right. M$ has made some criticle mistakes and they are going to pay for it in the future. Actually it seems that they will really start to pay for it in the next year. PS network is pretty damn good I enjoy it. The graphics in GOW was amazing, but the game was way shorter than RFOM which had more characters bigger levels. I can feel it calling in the air tonight....... hold on. Don't be a fanboy just look at what's going on.

[THE TERMINATOR]

"The price will have come down, the game library will be broad, and the top PS3 titles will probably have the edge in both graphics and sound"

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[ALItheWISE]

Winner of Console Wars I -- Atari 2600
Winner of Console Wars II -- Colecovision
Winner of Console Wars III -- Nintendo Entertainment System
Winner of Console Wars IV -- Sega Genesis
Winner of Console Wars V -- PS
Winner of Console Wars VI -- PS2
Winner of Console Wars VII - TBD

For me its
Winner of Console Wars I -- Atari 2600
Winner of Console Wars II -- Colecovision
Winner of Console Wars III -- Nintendo Entertainment System
Winner of Console Wars IV -- Super Nintendo
Winner of Console Wars V -- N64 has way more classics then PS1 although sony sold more, any one agree? Or is everything always have to be sales?
Winner of Console Wars VI -- PS2
Winner of Console Wars VII - TBD

I argue with Maddens Raiders about this all the time but he is a Sony Fanboy so they can never do anything wrong.

[Xanxo]

PS3 today, tomorrow and beyond. Nice job.

[RAM MAGNUMS]

Brian Hastings is talking in his sleep again... This guy still manages to say that the xbox is slightly more powerful and it will take 2 years to be everything xbox is. The year 2009. I dont think xbox will be the same by then. I should be flying cars by then. Sony forces blu-ray down everyones throat and expect for us to ask for more. With the xbox you have a choice. If for some strange reason blu-ray is the winner in the format war, Im sure we would all have a optional blu ray drive. We got the new xbox elite coming thats black and has more memory. the fact that it has a hdmi port is just helpful, but im keeping my old box and my hdmi wires are just fine. I might get a optional 120 gig HD, but guess what? Thats only if I need it. Brian Hastings is the only dev right now making money and this announcement sounds like his last moral speech to his employees. Its desperate and pathetic. Screw sony and Screw Brian Hastings for his Hope and Hype about an expensive machine. Next time sony should try to sell it first intead of saying we need this stuff.

[Twerp]

I love the Sony hate, very funny. The best part about this article is where he talks about the Wii. It's nice to see that people in the biz recognize the fact that Wii is a fad, albeit a very fun one. The hype will die down and people will be left saying "now what?"

Case and point take a gander at the main page where it says "Hottest Games". How many Wii titles are up there?

The REAL console war is between 360 and PS3, and despite what most people think, the jury is still out on this one. And we might not see a clear cut winner for a few years. That is, if the margin becomes so big that we can actually declare a real "winner".

I'm crossing my fingers for Sony though.

[benny o klaatt]

i feel like my eyes and brain have been raped. anyways his points are good. i for one will be getting a ps3 a few years down the line, home and LBP appeal to me, love the customization side of things.
why the need for all this flaming? its unreal.
each console has its advantages and disadvantages, and neither of them are gonna be vanishing. it would kill sonys gaming division if the ps3 failed and it would kill microsofts console division if the 360 failed.

anyway, talking of customization. amazing what a marker pen, spare face plate and a little imagination can do

[DirtySyko]

I thought this article was a good, unbiased article. I do not think it was written just because of his close ties with Sony. I think he wrote what he honestly believes. I own an Xbox360 and a Wii, I don't own a PS3 yet. I was skeptical of them before they released, and kept close watch on them afterwards. As time passes I am starting to believe the PS3 wasn't as bad as it seemed to begin with. I was very critical on it's rough start, but things are already starting to change and it's still very early. At first I supported HD-DVD, but now it is becoming apparent that blu-ray is going to succeed. Some people say that doesn't directly affect gaming, which is ironic, because when HD-DVD was looking victorious a lot of 360 fans were rubbing that into the faces of PS3 fans. Now the tides have turned and suddenly 360 fans no longer care about blu-ray vs. HD.

As a fan of all consoles, and have been since I started gaming back in the late 80s, I think this article is telling the truth. I still enjoy my 360 and don't have any plans on giving it up, but my past opinions on the PS3 are changing. The only thing I disagree with on this article is what is said about the Wii. It's too early to say whether or not the Wii was just fun little gimmick that's novelty has worn off. Maybe the novelty of Wii Sports has worn off, but what else is there? Zelda? Zelda is not a multiplayer game and therefore cannot be held as an example of Wii novelty. Besides Wii Sports, there isn't really a fun multiplayer game. You may not come over to your friends house to play bowling anymore, but what happens with Smash Brothers is released? There will be countless nights of Wii playing with friends. Until more solid games are released for the Wii, it's impossible to say if it's going to last. Of course, I doubt it beats either the 360 or PS3, but I don't think it will vanish into oblivion either. Look at the success of the DS. It's novelty certainly hasn't worn off.

[truebego]

you must upgrade your 360 to elite if you want be same level with ps3
don't you know 360 is on second level right now
hehehehehhe

[00]

Who the hell said that?

[QuackPot]

It's gr8 to see a wii/xbox user who hasn't got something up his ass about Ps3. Ur point about the wii issue is true. Wii will establish a niche for itself unless the major two consoles develop/port similar types of games and controllers for their systems. To the truly OBJECTIVE all other points in this article are valid - except to the xbots fanboys with delusions that they know more about games development and hardware than a guy who works for a company that has just sold over 1 million copies of Resistance on a next gen console. Fools can only be fools.

I am a Sony supporter as it has opened up its system for a Linux OS to be installed. In doing this Sony is now showing the future of consoles - a PC alternative(media centre, gaming, internet, productivity). This is another reason why PS will win - A one off h/w purchase around US$600 that will comfortably last 5 years(as programs r optimized for the h/w). Compare that with buying a PC and upgrading/$$$ every two years. U just need a Laptop(a mobile workplace) and next gen Console(ie Ps3, Ps4...). Micro$oft won't allow u to use Xbox 360 as a PC - not for now that is & we all know whose OS they will ONLY allow if they did M$$$$$.

Because of my support of Linux, I know of the monopolistic practises of Micro$oft in the OS market for PC and the lies they spread to prevent the growth of Linux. They r clearly trying to drive out Sony and monopolized the gaming industry as the have with OS on PCs(try buying a computer without Winblow$ preinstalled. U pay for it in the price). If Xbox had been developed by any other company than Micro$oft I would buy it in a jiff but only because of the gr8 titles, eg Halo, GoW, Forza 2, Viva etc.

So to those idiotic fanboys who worship their consoles - PORT ALL GAMES TO ALL CONSOLES USING THEIR FULL H/W POTENTIAL THEN YOU WILL SEE WHICH IS THE BEST CONSOLE. It's obvious and it doesn't start with a X. Halo, Forza, GoW on Ps3...wow! But Micro$oft won't allow this as it's not part of their master plan.

Now if Apple were to ever enter the console market, xbox and PS r dead. They won't stand a chance - have u seen the iphone? It'll pawn all. But they r more likely to take on sony's PSP in the handheld gaming.

So PS will eventually win because the PC Console is the future. And if Sony sees the trend of Open Source Software, will move from GameOS to it's own optimized distribution of Linux in future Playstations, eliminating the dual boot and making available a huge range of FOSS. U can still buy ur great game but also get for free programmes such as Firefox, thunderbird, OpenOffice, NVU, The Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus, Blender 3D worth $1000s if bought commercially. Microsoft won't stand for this and u won't see it with xbox. So come on fanboys, jump the fence. Playstation is the future. Stop feeding the monster that is Micro$$$$$$$oft.

[mayberry]

I read earlier that xbox fbs bash ps3 relentlessly but ps3 fbs state facts! some more biased than others,but not very easily disputed! It makes me wonder if some ps3 fan wrote that every aspect and function including size and weight and color...whatever, of the ps3 was not only a major let-down but technically flawed, poorly thought out and damages the environment, m$ fbs would probably agree w/every word!! They seem to flame very unjustly and severly! why? I've played xbl and play online on ps3 every day and psn to me gets the job done! especially w/ no lag!!