More details leak about Playstation 3
Last month, Sony shipped Playstation 3 development kits to a select group of third party game companies. Despite a tight veil of secrecy courtesy of signed non-disclosure agreements, some tidbits have leaked out from various anonymous sources.
The first, not-so-surprising revelation is that the development kits do not look anything like the proposed PS3 hardware. Rather, they are contained in largish towers, similar in size to typical desktop PCs. This was the same for the early PS2 dev kits, and the first Xbox 360 development kits were actually re-branded Apple G5 towers, so this is not a huge surprise. More interesting is the fact that the sleek, curved PS3 models that have been demonstrated at various trade shows are actually empty shells, and it is not clear how Sony will manage to squeeze all the required components into the advertised case. Some developers have concluded that the existing case does not even have room for a 2.5 inch hard drive, suggesting that Sony will be forced to bump the dimensions of the box somewhat before release.
The controller on the dev kits is apparently a standard USB gamepad, and developers are writing games with the assumption that the control scheme will remain unchanged from the PS2's DualShock configuration. The word is that Sony is changing the look of the controller after receiving massive negative feedback over their original "boomerang" concept design.
As far as the hardware itself, developers are suggesting that it is on par or slightly more powerful than the Xbox 360. This does not come as a huge surprise to those of us who have studied the released hardware specifications of both consoles, but it does put a slight damper on the enthusiasm generated by Sony PR. One thing that has been lost, perhaps not forever but at least from the first generation of PS3 games, is the boast that developers would be able to generate killer visuals at higher resolutions than the Xbox 360 was able to handle:
"Sony wanted 1080p, but we're working at 720p
and 1080i, same as on the Xbox 360. Even with
[final hardware] in mind, reaching good frame
rates at 1080p with next-gen graphics is almost
impossible. Instead many developers, ourselves
included, are reworking so they run at 720p.
PS3's output takes care of upscaling it - so no
native 1080p, but it still looks killer."
The hardware does appear to handle slightly more objects and special effects simultaneously than the Xbox 360, but the advantages are not overwhelming, and depend largely on the quality of the developer:
"Unlike Xbox and PS2, where Xbox had a host of
built-in effects that were a generation ahead
of PS2, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are
same-generation machines. One doesn't have
additional effects over the other - 360 can do
the same effects, just not as many of them
simultaneously and with less geometry [because
of the speed difference], but memory
bottlenecks can kill part of the PS3 speed
advantage anyway... the overall visual
difference it makes will depend a lot on the
developer's skill, and how much time and money
the publisher spends on a game."
That last sentence may end up being the most important, if my predictions are correct. Overall, the PS3 is shaping up to be a solid piece of gaming hardware, but not significantly more powerful than the Xbox 360. The differences may end up being masked by the desire by game publishers to ship cross-platform code. In the end, the battle for next-gen console supremacy may come down to a fight between Sony and Microsoft to ship the best exclusive titles. And maybe, if we're really lucky, a knock-down, drag-out price war.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060212-6162.htm
