Complicated PS3 platform discouraging second-tier game developers

[BrewCityUpstart]

Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) platform is, in comparison with that of Microsoft's Xbox 360, technologically too complicated to facilitate development of supporting games by second-tier developers, according to Taiwan games developers.

The PS3 platform imposes a technological barrier for second-tier game developers because these developers, including those in Taiwan, do not have as sufficient financial and technological capabilities as leading international developers, the sources pointed out. This partly accounts for the relatively limited availability of PS3-specific games, the sources said.

In contrast with the PS3, the Xbox 360 platform is easier for second-tier developers to produce games on, the sources indicated. In addition, the Xbox platform makes it easier for them to develop console-PC cross-platform games, the sources noted.

PS3 could have potentially stronger hardware functionality than Xbox 360, but many users feel that, for the same game, PS3 video quality is no better than or even inferior to Xbox 360's, the sources indicated. The reason for this is possibly that game developers are willing to invest more effort to achieve optimized performance from the Xbox 360 because these games are a more important source of profitability, the sources pointed out.
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[Peench]

This is interesting and brings home a point many of us raised back in the days. If it is too difficult to develop for the platform, what advantages will it have?

Many gamers are clamoring for something innovative. Well major players innovate every once in a while, but 2nd tier developers who don't have huge budgets and want to create something new may be the source of the "next best thing." If they can more easily create titles for the 360, then the 360 will offer the chance of innovative titles more than the PS3. That will certainly make things interesting.

[Tetsuwan Atomu]

Interesting article. It's clear that most multi-platform games for the PS3 have been ported over, and currently there is little graphical difference between the two. More polished games like Oblivion are showing some of the PS3 hardware advantages for the developers that have the resources and time to polish their games. I definitely think there are many more unique IPs coming to XBOX 360 due to its relative ease for developers. MSFT also went to great lengths to provide and encourage developer support.

If I recall correctly though, PS2 was originally said to be a beast to develop for as well, but eventually everyone caught up. The same could happen with PS3.

I'm going to show my age here, but this reminds me of the old Master System and NES hardware. Few people knew that the SEGA Master System was actually a superior system. At a time when there were few games on the NES that would break the 1 MB barrier, SEGA had cartridges that went as high as 4 MB (massive! reminds of the Blu-Ray / DVD storages comparisons between the XBOX and PS3). But they just lacked the fun library of games like Super Mario and Zelda.