The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

re: The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

hage — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:43:01 GMT

Stuff like this is really sobering, and makes it, unfortunately, easy to understand how stuff like the PS3 Guitar Cross Compatibility issues can crop up only after release. Even now there are features that appear in the Rock Band FAQ that are not available or functional on the PS3, which leads one to wonder how thoroughly, if ever, they have ever been tested.

It also reinforces the idea of Microsoft's infuriating bipolar nature, where when they do something right (the well-integrated PC/360 development environment, the comprehensive XBox Live service) they do it very right, but when they do something wrong (360's disastrous hardware reliability, absurdly restrictive downloadable software DRM) they do it very wrong. It makes it really irritating to be a consumer, when the upstream things that Microsoft does right make them the platform of choice for developers (developers developers developers), and the end consumer is forced to either deal with Microsoft's endless downstream headaches ($100 to get on a wireless network! no wireless control pad with a decent d-pad! no dedicated server architecture, even for games that really need it (Team Fortress II)) or play on a platform that many developers clearly can't be bothered with (I attempted to suck it up and gave the Orange Box on PS3 a shot, and I seriously wish I hadn't.).

It is understandable, but the real loser in the mess is the consumer.

re: The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

stephentotilo — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:52:13 GMT

Quality post, N'Gai. I experience the same things quite often. So much so that when the PS3 version of a game is available to check out, I'm surprised. For instance, I recently went to Rockstar to play GTAIV. They had a 360 set up, and that's what I played. I had to ask about the PS3 demo. To my surprise the Rockstar rep overseeing my demo actually was able to comply. He unhooked the 360 version, left the demo room with it, and returned with a PS3 build which played almost identically to the 360 one (I was told it was slightly behind in development, at worst, but the difference wasn't apparent). Why was the PS3 version not out there in the first place? Plenty of reasons, as you detailed above. But, hey, PS3, I didn't forget ya!

re: The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

JJHowarth — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:22:03 GMT

Why not name names? Which 3rd party developers? I'll be sure to avoid their games.

Much like Valve they sound like dinosaurs with two feet already in the tar pits.

re: The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

MrBlu — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:29:35 GMT

Like the days of PS2, Microsoft has been able to convince developers to lead with their system and worry about "the other guy" later.

If nothing else all PS3 owners owe you an extreme thanks for digging and not just accepting screens with green 'A' buttons instead of a green triangle.

I'm about halfway through an article in the expertly written and UK published publication Edge about the 360's travels down the drain (that everyone should read; it's quite good). What's amazing to me is that with all the system's problems (red-ring percentile up to 33% and its recent loss to Blu-ray) that devs are still in Microsoft's corner. Maybe Sony can turn it around by E3 and by this time next year screenshots will be all X's and O's.

re: The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

firen — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:56:17 GMT

I totally agree N'Gai. I have been thinking about that too. Initially I didn't mind it too much but the trend continues to this day. Developers other than Criterion, still wholeheartedly prefer the 360 for various reasons. One of the most obvious being it's bigger install base. It truly is unfortunate. I

Oh and on a side note. Why is the picture quality so bad? Is that how you got them? Because when I compare the 360 shots : http://www.joystiq.com/photos/rock-band-music-store/708728/, these look like its from the PS2 or something.

re: The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

N'Gai Croal — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:12:31 GMT

@hage: Every system has its strengths and weaknesses. I'm in a different situation than the typical gamer because I don't have to buy my consoles, so those strengths and weaknesses are offset. But my advice to anyone who asks me which system to buy is always the same: get the one that has more of the games that you want to play, and try your best to put up with the inevitable flaws.

@stephentotilo: Thanks. You and I were at a Ubisoft event a couple of months ago where a number of games were shown. Everything was on Xbox 360, PC or Wii. It's so commonplace now to go to industry events where all the games are being demonstrated on 360s that we don't even blink. But when I realized that it had gotten to the point where PS3 screenshots weren't even available, I thought it was post-worthy.

@JJHowarth: There are so many third party developers that do this, you'd be better off asking me which third parties don't. Criterion is one; they showed Burnout Paradise on PS3 from the beginning. Capcom did the same for Devil May Cry 4. Infinity Ward initially showed Call of Duty 4 on 360, but as early as E3 2007, it was playable for journalists on PS3. So there are some third party studios who are making PS3 development as much a priority as 360, if not more.

@MrBlu: I was surprised that the Red Ring of Death problem didn't have more of a negative impact on the 360. It's a testament to the strength of last year's 360 lineup and the price advantage as compared to PS3. Also, even though many, many machines broke down, consumers are understandably reluctant to write off the investment they've made in the games they bought. So they suck it up, get back on the horse, and pray he won't throw them

@firen: The picture quality is likely bad because some artifacting was introduced when I resized the photos to fit the column width of my blog posts. But having installed the update and run it on my PS3 at work, I can say that it looks pretty slick.

re: The Accidental Exclusive, Or, Some Not-So-Subtle Ways In Which the Playstation 3 Remains An Afterthought Among Third Party Developers

Furu — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:03:27 GMT

It´s even more apparent when looking at the review copies handed out to the press. Mostly the PS3 version lags behind, so the gaming press reviews the Xbox 360 version instead. PS3 is mentioned in the "available" section, but the MS console gets most of the attention. And look at e.g. Gametrailers multiplatform titles covers. Most of them are from 360 versions and seldomly from the PS3 or even the PC. This small stuff escalates into something that annoys a litlle, but I hope it will change eventually to something equal for everyone.