Next Generation Console wars
I've been reading some interesting things about the Wii vs PS3 vs XB360 the last few days at Xbit. Not trying to sponsor them, but they seem to have all the news on the subject right now.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multime...117123243.html
The PS3 appears to be readily available in many stores already, suggesting that demand is fairly low. After reading that, I pity those that spent $1000-2000 for a PS3 less than a month ago. It appears that you can get one for retail today if you shop around a bit.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multime...116154134.html
Quote:
Gabe Newell, the chief of Valve Software – the company that developed such popular game series as Counter Strike and Half-Life, has called the PlayStation 3 game console a “disaster” in an interview and called Sony to remake it. Mr. Newell believes that Nintendo Wii will win the battle of new-gen consoles, though, it is unclear whether games for Wii will ever emerge from Valve.
“The PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels, I think. It’s really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted. I’d say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a ‘do over’. Just say, ‘This was a horrible disaster and we’re sorry and we’re going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it’,” Mr. Newell is reported to have said in an interview with Game Informer Magazine.
Ouch. Those are very harsh comments coming from Valve. It's one thing to say it's hard to develop for, but to say it's a disaster is pretty bold. Valve is a fairly large player in gaming, so I wonder how much of an impact this will have on other developers? I find it very interesting how they like Wii the most, especially considering their plans to make their gaming engines multithreaded.
Carmack seems to have good things to say about the XB360, though:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/d...115233110.html
Quote:
This is not the first time when Mr. Carmack takes Microsoft Xbox 360 side, as it is easier to develop new games for the consoles....The lead programmer of id Software called Xbox 360’s more direct approach “refreshing” and even praised Microsoft’s development environment “as easily the best of any of the consoles, thanks to the company's background as a software provider”.
“I especially like the work I’m doing on the [Xbox] 360, and it’s probably the best graphics API as far as a sensibly designed thing that I’ve worked with,” he said.
Definitely interesting to see how this round of consoles is playing out. Nintendo and MS seem to be doing okay, but Sony can't really catch a break. They've even used the sluggish American economy as their reasoning for not sending more PS3s over at launch! That really makes no sense to me, since people were almost killing each other for them last November.
Comments?
