360 vs. PS3 vs. Wii - The Designer's Perspective

Gamasutra is running a piece today written by Ernest Adams, a frequent contributor to the site and an amusingly opinionated game designer. He writes to weigh in on the console war debate from the perspective of a game designer. He runs down the usual list of pros and cons for each machine, and then digs into the most creative aspects of each machine. Finally, lays out what he sees as the end result of this hardware generation: "So who, at the end of the day, will be the also-ran in this generation of consoles? On the global scale, I'd say it could well be neither the PS3 or the Wii, but the Xbox 360. The PS3 will win over the hardcore gamers who have to have the fastest, most amazing machine available. The Wii will skim off the younger players and those who don't have as much money to spend. Both have the advantage of being made in Japan, so they'll crowd the Xbox right out of that market. In the US and Europe, it's harder to say, but I see the Xbox's early start as more of a liability than a benefit."

The better quote

[DesertBlade]

From the Article would be:

"So which do I want to design for? From a creativity standpoint, it's the Wii, hands down (or up!). "

Re:Not to say I told you so.. but.. NOT

[Yiliar]

Microsoft took the wrong (quickest) route to hardware buildout to launch. They also went as closed hardware as possible. Those decisions will bite them soom.

Think of this: My new PS3 doubles as my desktop.

Remember all the 'I will switch when all my games run on Linux' folks out there? They can now dual boot their shiny PS3 into Linux. Want to play a great game? Boot into PS3 console mode and play away. Need a larger hard drive? Any good SATA laptop drive will fit and work, and with a bit of cobbling you can hook up a 750GB SATA drive, for the true hobbiest.

Having a more open hardware platform lends itself to a richer and more diverse community. Oh wait. Microsoft has a community that you must pay a monthly fee to belong to! In contrast, Sony Online for PS3 is free, and also, Sony has donated code that has been accepted into the main 2.6.20 and above Linux kernels! That means that all PPC Linux builds from now on will work natively on the PS3.

Is the PS3 perfect? No. (512MB RAM) But it is definitely more than you are seeing.

Most folks look at the PS3 and see an expensive console. The wise look at the PS3 and see a great console, a BlueRay player, a desktop replacement, an amazingly attractive unit, and a HUGE, OPEN community.

Game on!

Re:PS3 vs Wii

[Lehk228]

is that the PS3 release where your review mirror crops out building and shit?

the same PS3 that can't do lighting right in fight night round 3? yea Sony released a real winner with that one

The 360's problems

[Cadallin]

In my opinion, what's hurting/going to hurt the 360 in the race is not specs, and raw hardware capability, because realistically the 360 and the PS3 are pretty much dead even in terms of process power. The 360 is suffering from a horrendous drought of top tier content. Gears of War is the only thing thing out for christmas. Nintendo was able to put together a better line-up for the Wii for their launch window than Microsoft has gotten out for the 360 in a whole year. Microsoft needs more system sellers and they need them 6 months ago. I say this as someone who owns a 360. I'm an Apple fanboy, but I like the 360, I think its probably the best product Microsoft has ever produced. But it needs more top tier content. And for fucks sake, get some more stuff on live arcade. I don't know what's holding up "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" but I've been waiting on it since I bought a system in August. Microsoft needs to be making more agreements (by hook or by crook) to get as many of the PS1/PS2 classics on Live Arcade as they possibly can.

So in summary, Microsoft, I don't care what you have to do, but get lots more top quality games out there. Both original titles, and Live classics. Steal from Sony's back catalog as much as possible.

Pointless anti-360 propaganda

[ConfusedSelfHating]

First, the PS3 is not the most powerful game machine on the planet. Both Nvidia and ATI are releasing a new generation of very powerful video cards. The 8800 is already out. Any computer with a high end next generation PC Video card is going to be able to curb stomp the PS3. A significant performance gap between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 is far from proven.

Second, the Wii is not that cheap. $249 is not that far off from the $339 for an Xbox 360 Core system with a memory unit. I would prefer a Premium myself, but to each their own. Anyone buying a Wii is buying it because that's the console they want, not because they're cheap. Gameplay is important, but I like decent graphics with my gameplay. We don't know whether the current heavy demand for the Wii is in the general gamer populace or from Zelda fanatics. I'm not trying to be derogatory, it's just that Zelda lovers REALLY love Zelda. 75% of Wii purchasers also bought Zelda.

Third, the Xbox 360 is about to pass the 10 million mark in consoles sold. Whether it happens before Christmas (once the sales figures are calculated) or soon after, it will happen. The Dreamcast sold a total of 10.6 million consoles.

Fourth, the demand for the PS3 has plummeted. Look on eBay right now and look at PS3s for sale. It has dropped down to $100 above MSRP. That's with a crippling shortage. Sony has placed an incredible burden on companies that develop games exclusively for the PS3. Every month, more games drop their exclusivity and are brought over to the Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 may come in third. Japanese sales are awful. But Japan is third behind the Europe and the U.S. in console sales (remember only 128 million Japanese). As well, many Japanese may opt for the Nintendo DS this generation and forgoe a console. The Japanese live in tight quarters and have long commute times, making a portable the optimal choice. The Xbox 360 is pricey, but the other consoles are pricey for what your getting. The Wii is based on the Gamecube architecture and really should cost about $199 with a game. And nobody wants to pay $599 for a game console. So Microsoft should drop the price of a Premium Xbox 360 to $299 with a game. It would be a much more appropriate price.

Re:I have to disagree

[king-manic]

Actually, I think the Final Fantasies (post-12) are going back to Nintendo.

No, the Wii is getting a FF: crystal chronicles sequel. !3 if confirmed to be PS3 exclusive. no plans after that so far.

Re:'game designer' AKA former EB sales clerk

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Ernest Adams is very well respected within the industry. He gives keynote lectures at game design conferences, writes best-selling books on game design and development, does consulting work for the gamedev companies too mindless to come up with their own good ideas. Not that I don't think he's full of himself - he's just not your run-of-the-mill tester / code monkey.

Re:I have to disagree

[Lusa]

The whole "ass kicked by foul mouthed 12 year old" factor discourages wide enthusiasm for online gaming

xbox live has a system that is supposed to handle that though I've not played online enough to see it in use. There are two parts to it, reputation and abuse reporting. The latter being obvious. The idea for the former is that each gamer has a reputation that can be influenced by those they play with. The quick match system matches up people of a similar reputation, and I suspect other factors from their profile. So even if the said 12 year is playing online they are unlikely to be matched up against a newb if they've been foul mouthed.

Sorry, a single insider's perspective is flawed.

[kinglink]

First off, my response is in no means authroritve. I only know 10 designers, and know their feelings, I also work at a studio of over 100 people in the game industry. That being said my "research" is more valid then Ernest Adams for a couple reasons. The main one is that most of the people I've discussed this with don't give a simple answer like "PS3 will win because it's more powerful" which is a flat out cop out. Or assumes you believe that buyers are morons who don't notice a 200 dollar price tag differential with out a 200 dollar perfomance differential. Only a few people bought the Neo Geo, and remember that was over "4" times more powerful then the other systems (at 3 times the cost) Hint. The Corvette, isn't oversold by Lamborgini Diablos.... Why?

The prevalant view is that no one is going to lose this round. At least not drop out. If someone does it's Sony, pure and simple. They are not turning a profit, don't have a good starting position, their company is in ruins and looking to cut a lot of budget, and the system is asking for more commitment at both ends then the other two. In addition their "Entertainment center" idea is just flat going to fuck them, because unless people constantly buy games, they would have been better off just selling Blu-ray. That being said, they will sell a LOT of systems, the problem is how many games will the sell. No Xbox Live, and other Microsoft developer helpers hurts them. The motion controller is also difficult to work with and their processor is crap for a developer. It's full potential won't be reached not because it's so powerful but because it's layed out in such a poor style. A 360 can get full potential by any programmer who knows about multithreading, GPU vs. CPU, and simple optimization. You might not get direct control of the hardware but in these days no one really wants it. Why does renderware sell? Because it controlled the hardware, not the programmer.

The 360 does a lot to help the programmer, and that's a big step, from match making, to networking code, to Directx, the programmer is put at ease. Porting a game to the 360 is a lot easier then to the PS3. That being said, what's important is sales and not developer's feelings. The point I'm bringing up here, is that the 360 is developer friendly, and with the big inroads that Blue dragon has made in a certain foreign market, Sony might have some issues. But this only talks about games. So let's look at current system sells.

Ps3s will sell in Japan of course, but the fact I've walked into 3 stores in the last 3 days, and seen PS3s in them isn't speaking highly of what sony has done. The fact that people are returning ps3 mainly because they can't sell them on Ebay speaks of intent to buy versus intent to resell. Yes those systems might not last long, but Wiis are selling out instantly with over four times the quanities already hitting stores.

Again is this important? No, This is just discussing what the trends to today is. So what's the prime goal. Well I'll explain who "Wins" The winner is the one who makes the most money and the most units. Note that this is NOT the same person, but the true winner the one you should care about but don't is the one who makes the most money. They will definatly continue to the next round.

The 360 has almost 10 million units out there right now. That's a shit load of units, but in reality it is far from insurmountable for Sony to come back from. The extra year has given Microsoft a good lead. Great. On the other hand Sony is having trouble breaking 1 million, and Wii is probably going to get 2-4 in the next 3 monthes. The 360 has exclusive titles, as does the Wii. Sony has "announced" certain titles, but dates are getting fuzzy, and exclusiviness is being called into question. Sony has lost a couple. However They still claim to have the big 2 (MGS, and Final Fantasy) and after FFXII's big launch, that's good however looking at the other exclusives they've had one can notice I didn't meantion stuff like Assassin'