An industry analyst claims that PS3 development is lagging because of performance and optimization issues compared to the Xbox 360.
Gamepro Staff, GamePro
Industry analyst Evan Wilson believes PS3 development difficulties are to blame for inferior quality when releasing games on schedule with the Xbox 360. The analyst also believes development challenges heighten the number of PS3 game delays.
The statement comes as Madden NFL 08 for PS3 is widely seen as inferior to the Xbox 360 version due to sluggish visuals.
Wilson believes the added difficulty for developing on PS3 is directly to blame for the game's slower speed despite Electronic Arts comment earlier this week that it simply takes time to get things right for each individual console. The Xbox 360 has been available for a full year longer than the PS3.
"If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3. This means additional effort," Sony's development team told us back in June. Assuming Madden first started development on 360, the above issue could have easily resulted in slower moving frame rates.
The analyst also believes PS3 difficulties are causing some publishers to unnecessarily delay their games after the 360 versions in an effort to bring the titles up to par.
Medal of Honor, for example, is slated on Aug. 28th for the 360 but in November for the PS3. EA's Skate is scheduled for release on Sept. 12 for the 360, and two weeks later for the PS3. And Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter II from Ubisoft came out in March for the 360 and is scheduled for an Aug. 21 release on PS3.
Some speculated that PS3 development challenges forced Rockstar to delay the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 4 on both the PS3 and 360.
source:pcworld.com