If this keeps up, something massive is going to boil over in waves between the world's biggest video game publisher and Sony. Electronic Arts have had their issues developing titles for the PS3 (Madden NFL 08 was certainly inferior on Sony's next-gen system), and they've made plenty of excuses. But the latest isn't an excuse; it's an all-out accusation.
Check out what a NASCAR developer from EA Tiburon said to Xbox Evolved, in regards to a PS3/Xbox 360 comparison:
“The truth is the PS3’s tools and the way it works just sucks. The truth is they are both virtually the same in terms of hardware when it comes to how powerful they are, maybe the PS3 has a few different things that makes it a bit more advance, and Sony has this idea that it is designed for optimal development but that’s a load of crap. In the last generation we would make the game for PS2 and then port it over to Xbox, but because Xbox was easier to develop for, we could actually enhance the title a little if we wanted to. The case with this generation is different, now we make the game for 360 first and then port it over to PS3, but we really don’t have the time to mess with how the PS3 works to really add to much more. It will change in the future, but for now it sucks.”
Well, this is bound to set the sparks flying. There are several parts of this statement that make it sound as if EA is completely incompetent, and others that actually sound viable. But in general, we can only compare to what we've seen from other developers on the PS3...and we have to conclude that EA, quite simply, is lagging behind. There are plenty of great-looking PS3 games on the way, and 2K Sports has already said one of their titles, NBA 2K8, would run at 60fps on the PS3, very much unlike Madden 08.
We're not really sure what EA's problem is, but they had best figure it out. Fast. Most every other developer seems to get it just fine, and these sour grapes aren't only borderline-fanboyish, they also seem to misrepresent the PS3 development process. Crytek is excited about their PS3 project, Epic is preparing a very pretty Unreal Tournament 3, and Killzone 2 looks pretty damn amazing. Ain't Sony's fault EA can't deliver the goods, is it?
http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/1767.html
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Here's where i smell bullshit, aside from other companies not having a problem with ps3 hardware. EA and sony arein bed for multi million dollar advertisement deal. Peter moore. And more importantly opposing comments made by the GRAW game designers. EA said they dont have the time to play with the ps3's system, Ubisoft people need to take the time.
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PlayStation 3 harder to develop for? Nonsense, says GRAW team
"It's wrong to say it's harder to code on the PS3" - Le Tensorer
The team responsible for one of Ubisoft's most acclaimed videogames – Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter – has told GamesIndustry.biz that developing titles for the PlayStation 3 is no harder than working on Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Despite analyst reports and internet chatter, the BAFTA-award winning team says it's just a case of developers getting up to speed with the new hardware, as Sony's console is earlier in it's lifecycle than Microsoft's Xbox 360.
"It's wrong to say it's harder to code on the PlayStation 3, it's just something that needs to be learned," said Yann Le Tensorer, co-founder of Ubisoft's Tiwak studio and co-creator of the Yeti engine powering GRAW and the upcoming Beowulf game.
"It's not harder to develop on the PS3 than it is on the 360, it's just a different console. Developers might says it's harder because it just takes time to understand the technology, we're still early in the lifecycle."
As more studios learn the intricacies of developing for the PS3, so the entire development community will benefit says Le Tensorer. "We need all developers to learn from the console, it was the same with the PlayStation 2. Our team are more than happy with the PlayStation 3."
Earlier this week a review in USA Today labelled Electronic Arts' PS3 version of Madden NFL 08 as "sluggish" compared to the Xbox 360 version.
And industry analyst Michael Pachter has gone on record saying that the delay of Grand Theft Auto IV from November until next year was due to Rockstar struggling to port the Xbox 360 version of the game – a problem that would be down to the developers themselves, not the hardware.
Adrian Lacey, international brand manager for Ubisoft, is confident that the success of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is due to forward planning on the developers part, and has meant that the sequel due on PS3 next month will match the standard set by the franchise.
"Because we built the engine for this generation of hardware we've been very well placed – Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter hit that level of quality early in the cycle when the 360 first came out because we had our engine in mind for PS3, 360 and PC from the very beginning," he commented.
As the studio continues work on the game based on upcoming movie Beowulf, due for PS3 and Xbox 360, Lacey admits there's still plenty to learn about both home consoles.
"For us it's been a learning curve and technology changes very quickly. We're learning step-by-step to use the PS3 to its fullest capacity," he said.
"If you take the PS2 for example, when God of War come out people saw it was tremendous. But it wasn't until the end of the PS2 cycle that we've seen the machine being pushed to its fullest," added Lacey.
A full interview with the Adrian Lacey and Yann Le Tensorer, where they discuss Beowulf and the challenges of working with movie studios, will be published later this month.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=27782
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