"I’ve spent some time the past year developing for the PS3. Actually it was a
cinematic demo to be shown at e3 in 2005 at a closed door viewing.
I was one of the few artists selected to work on it for the demo. My job was primarily asset creation. I was creating assets to populate the path where our camera would be flying during the demo. The company I work for is also working on a launch title that I am quite familiar with. In short, I’ve spent some time around the PS3 and or the teams developing for it.
I’ve really had to sit here and think for a long time about what my first comment about the PS3 would be. Will I say, its GREAT or will I give it two thumbs down. Well my immediate impression of the PS3 is…where is it? Seriously, where is it? They have a case, a controller and a dev kit. But the system still doesn’t even exist. So what is there to say? We received one of 5 PS3 dev kits in the United States some time ago. Several companies in the US as well as companies over seas were given the daunting task of creating a demo in less than 9 weeks on a first generation dev kit. Now I’ll be honest with you. What most companies do is fake the entire demo. I mean they come up with some great visuals and neat tricks and scripted events. In the end however, its not a real time demo and its not running ON the actual box. We were the only company to my knowledge that showed something that ran it live on the box. Even then it was a scripted event. You could not pause the camera and fly around the scene. So if you saw the demo once, you saw it again the exact same way the second time. Also this was on a brutally early dev box. You could always tell where the PS3 dev box was because it’s the room that had the f-bomb coming out of it half the day.
Lots of time has passed since that demo and the dev box has gone from a totally jimmy rigged computer and box of parts about the size of a small child, to a much more realistic size. Although its still the size of a normal pc. I have been pretty excited about the whole cell processing thing. I am not a very technical person but my understanding of it was pretty clear. (Multiple processors to handle individual events in parallel). Sounds pretty good to me! To hear people talk, you’d thing that a processor revolution was about to happen. So I’ve been pretty excited to say the least. Now in my opinion it doesn’t matter how good the PS3 is. If the XBOX 360 is better, then it doesn’t really matter how the cell processors work or how good they say it is. Realistically one of them will be better over all. Now I’ve spoken with people who are on the technical side of the PS3. I’ve also talked with people on the technical side of the XBOX 360. The consistent comment I am hearing from people on my end is, “The XBOX 360 is better”. They are saying that it is capable of just doing more. (shrugs) Now take that for what its worth. If you watch all the videos on the PS3 they will say how much more powerful it is than the XBOX and vice versa. Im just telling you what I am hearing. They proceeded to go into a lot of technical info that I don’t understand. So I just nod.
The game that we are creating for a launch title is a “just get it out” title in my opinion. It doesn’t look next generation. I don’t see how anyone could debate otherwise. It looks good. But it looks good for a game that has come out in the last couple years or so. I mean we are talking about a box that will be with us for the next 5+ years! In 5 years will the games we are making today look good? The only way for that to be possible is if the new games coming out for the PS3 are drastically improved. So good that they can stand the test of time until the next system comes out. We’ve all seen Gears of War for the xbox 360. If that even looks half as good when it comes out then I’ll be floored! The game we are making isn’t even in the same league as Gears of War. In fact there are many current games out that look just as good and are using the exact same specs. So, on our end we are either not pushing the bar or were just trying to “get a title out”. To be fair, this is a business. Sometimes you have to treat it as a business and not make the best title you can. The best title you can make usually costs 20-40million dollars/3 start overs and 4 years of your life. You just cant do that every time out. Its impossible. Our game just keeps getting moved back….and back…..and back…..and back. Again, where is the box? Where is the final system? When is it coming out? No one knows and in the mean time people in the industry are starting to get just a little salty. I mean I was at e3 2005 and PS3 was almost no where to be seen." [
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Note the author offers no creditials.
"Josh Robinson, who claims to have developed for the PS3 over the past year using one of five developer kits released in North America, questions why Sony has yet to reveal and deliver the final box to developers. Considering that the console appears to be in a near-complete state, that could be a justified inquiry."
...not only does he fail to note to the readers that the article is a month and a half old, he ties it to "questions why Sony has yet to reveal and deliver the final box to developers," which would be impossible, because Sony had clearly said all along that they would not release the "final box to developers" until sometime in Dec. 2005, which was well before this article was written.
So the whole premise by which this old story was dredged up is in fact totally illegitimate by any reasonable standard.
Your comments about how nobody has ever heard of this site before don't add credence to the story, they simply add more questions as to why Joystiq thought an old story from a source nobody has ever heard of before was newsworthy.
As far as your comment that "eveyrone [sic] wants to *expletive deleted* and tear stuff down. No one wants to simply say "interesting article, thanks for taking the time to give us a little insight into what's happening" goes... Well, that would be great if the story wasn't so old, inaccurate, and from a questionable source. The fact is this article isn't news at all, (news has to be TIMELY, and from a reliable source, this is neither,) and that fact alone precludes it from being really "interesting," and it is certainly not giving us any "insight."
This is Sony's fault, they really should have given us some info to go on at CES as they said they would at least on the uk playstion official website.
The less they say the more these stories will carry weight.
Why have we not heard or seen anything new in months?
Just Like Sony! Big Words No Volume!! Always Was Always Be!! Goahead morons and buy that PS3
I agree with the first post, what the hell is this article doing here thats outdated and untrue, and second to the two posters above mine: Are you retarded? Did you not read the note at the bottom. The person who wrote that article was obviously not a developer if he could say he wasn't "a very techncal person" what is that? How can you not be a technical person especially saying "cell processing thing." If anyone who was into technology too this article seriously you would have to have the brain capacity of a 5 year old.
Just another bs article from another Microsoft fanboy. Show me credentials and the time this article was written and i'll consider it to be true. Now go back and play your 360. At least if your lucky enough to have gotten one.....
So gay...if you've read the articles from the creator of Metal Gear Solid 4 then you'll see that the PS3 is more capable than the Xbox 360. Further you'll see what they are doing with the game and know that it is truely Next-Gen material. That comment above is fake.