Ex-Guitar Hero programmer: PS3 harder to develop for than Xbox 360
By Dave Parrack
Jason Booth, a former employee at Harmonix, makers of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, has roundly laid in to both Sony and the PS3 on his personal blog. He reveals that the PS3 is much harder to develop for than the Xbox 360, and the he thinks Sony will lose this round of the console war quite spectacularly.
Writing on his blog ‘Blog Of Booth‘, Jason has tried to debunk some of the preconceptions and Sony spin about the power and capabilities of the PS3. Seemingly frustrated by the never ending complaints of lazy developers and even lazier ports to the Sony console, he has tried to tell the truth about what he calls Sony’s marketing spin.
Addressing the usual fanboy sentiment (fuelled by Sony’s spin doctors) of the PS3 being graphically superior to the Xbox 360 he writes:
“Fill rate is one of the primary ways to measure graphics performance - in essence, it’s a number describing how many pixel operations you can perform. The fill rate on the PS3 is significantly slower than on the 360, meaning that games either have to run at lower resolution or use simpler shader effects to achieve the same performance.”
“Additionally, the shader processing on the ps3 is significantly slower than on the 360, which means that a normal map takes more fill rate to draw on the ps3 than it does on the 360. And I’m not talking about small differences here, we’re talking roughly half the pixel pushing power.”
But hang on, every news release and opinion piece I’ve seen written over the last year has stated quite categorically that the PS3 does beat the Xbox 360 on graphics, yet here is a bona fide game developer who has worked with both formats saying that’s not so.
He then gives his opinion on the usual fanboy cry of ‘Uh, Blu-ray!” saying:
“Great for watching movies, but not so great for games. Getting data off the blu ray drive takes about twice as long as it does to get the same data off the 360’s DVD drive. That translates into longer load times, or god forbid if your streaming from disk, tighter constraints on the amount of data you can stream.”
So Blu-ray may not be the thing which saves the PS3 from ‘Dreamcast hell’ as I like to call it, after all. No-one can deny the DVD format is great for films, and the PS3 being the cheapest Blu-ray player currently available gives it a certain edge, but it’s second best when it comes to games? That’s huge news.
He concludes by telling the truth on the harsh reality that is the current PS3 position in the marketplace.
“As outlined above, getting equivalent performance out of the PS3 requires a lot of work unique to the platform, and in many cases, even with all these tricks, you still won’t see equivalent performance. Thus, many ps3 games have simplified shaders and run at lower native resolutions than the 360 versions. On top of this, there is shrinking incentive to do this work; the PS3 isn’t selling.”
And so begins the vicious cycle. The console isn’t selling, which in turn makes less developers want to devote resources to it, which in turn again, makes people less likely to buy it. I’m probably less sure that the PS3 will truly fail than Booth seems to think, but his explanation of why he thinks this way makes perfect sense.
I think I’ll leave the finals words to him:
“Sony let their hardware be designed by a commodity of business interests rather than a well thought out design that would serve the game development community. They are going to lose hard this round because of it, and I hope that in the next round they take lessons from this round and produce a more balanced and usable machine.”
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October 27th, 2007
The PS2 had exactly the same arguments levelled against it as the PS3 is getting. People were absolutely right to point out that the Xbox was easier todevelop for and that learning to develop for the PS2 involved learning code that wouldn’t help on any other system. At the end of the day it made no difference at all because the PS2 had a huge fanbase from its last console and huge exclusives like Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy & Metal Gear Solid while the Xbox only had Halo.
Sound familier?
October 27th, 2007
The problem is the PS2 fanbase are staying exactly that, they’re sticking with the PS2 and continuing to buy games on that console rather than adopting the PS3.
The next year is ultra important for Sony, as that’s when the huge exclusives you list are being released. If that doesn’t shift some units then nothing will.
October 27th, 2007
MGS4 doesn’t impress me at all. It plays like the other ones. It doesn’t seem next gen…it’s just a new story. I think fans are going to be disappointed. I know for sure, it’s not going to be a system seller. True fans will buy it, but after playing games like Assassin’s Creed, they’re gonna be let down.
October 27th, 2007
Yeah i think it’s a mistake for them to still sell the PS2,heck they are introducing a new model for christmas.I have and Love my 360,It’s all about games and the 360 has em in abundance.Also have a wii wich is fun but no games to speak of.The Wii is great for classiscs though,kicks live arcade into the dirt.But it is collecting dust cause i’ve already played zelda:P
I am sure the PS3 is a fine machine.I do keep hearing that dev’s don’t like it.I think MS puposefully tried to make game dev simple.With the amount of great games out and about to be released it looks like it worked.
The lifecycle for the 360 is only 5-7 years(something like that).I am sure that even if the Ps3 hits it’s stride it will be last gen’d by the realease of the Next Xbox
October 27th, 2007
great to hear from the developers mouth… i guess the only argument fanboys will have is he cant program… right?
October 27th, 2007
Inty2525: Ex-Developer, not current developer, there’s probably a reason, and as you say, lack of talent would be my guess. I mean…come on, it’s Guitar Hero and Rock Band…we’re not talking DX10 graphics, or even any kind of physics calculating involved… The guys obviously not functioning with a full set of brain cells…probably best for everyone involved (PS3/360) that he doesn’t code anymore…who knows what other conflicts would have him running home to mama.
October 27th, 2007
As soon as we see killer titles on PS3, it will start gaining positions. Yes, it’s true. It’s relatively easy to develop for XBox. Further, XNA opens doors to hobby programmers and small game dev studios.
Technologically, PS3 is superior. Neither Xbox 360 nor Wii comes close. Period. The fact that a former employee of Harmonix say PS3 is inferior in graphics, it need not be close to reality. Is Booth an expert in console game dev? I don’t think so and completely agree with Brian Murphy’s remark.
October 27th, 2007
@ inty2525.
The guy is a nobody. He ‘left’ the developers of Rock Band and is saying all of this crap to get publicity for his new social networking website. Without this attack on the PS3 nobody would have heard of him or his website.
On the other hand Insomniac games who are a completely independent and highly respected studio say that the PS3 is fine to develop for and have made fantastic games for it like Resistance and Ratchet & Clank.
Sony said:
“MGS4 doesn’t impress me at all….I know for sure, it’s not going to be a system seller.”
You are an idiot. Metal Gear is one of the most eagerly awaited games of next year. MGS4 is currently at #4 on Famitsu’s list of most wanted games according to Japanese gamers above any Wii title. It will sell consoles, indeed its even going to be packaged in a set with the PS3 and Dualshock 3 controller.
October 27th, 2007
The PS2 may have had the same arguments leveled against it……
…..but…..
1). It had DVD, and this generation, people dont care about format.
2). It was released first and had the larger install base, this gen the 360 does.
3). It had the better games, this gen, the 360 has better by a long margin.
…..so, I agree with this Jason Booth dude.
October 27th, 2007
[...] Source: Gamer.Blorge.com [...]
October 27th, 2007
@ aya ueto
actually it sounds really familiar. sony fanboys always point to how well the ps2 did as a rebuttal to the ps3 failing. if anything the 360 this generation is like the ps2 from last generation. it has the bigger install base, and developers are more willing to work on it.
the other argument is always how great the games are for the playstation2. well, the 360 has way better games than the ps3 so by that logic shouldn’t the 360 win on the strength of gears, halo, bioshock, mass effect?
the reason why ps2 won was exactly because of the install base. it’s the cycle talked about in the article. the more people bought into it, the more developers devoted resources, the more killer titles were released and it just rolled into a huge success for the ps2. this is the exact situation the 360 finds itself in.
if you look at history, nintendo fans didn’t exactly wait for the 64 to win the console war. they flocked out and god playstation1 as it was more developer friendly and had a bigger library of games. now ps fanboys are using the same bullshit loyalty argument? yes square was super loyal with its final fantasy series when they ditched nintendo for playstation when they realized more people would buy their game and it would be easier to develop.
all this proves is that ps fans are living in the past and ignoring history. as soon as konami and square realize they can’t make as much money on the ps3 they’ll jump ship and make ff and mgs on the xbox, its’ that simple. it’s all about the money they can make. there’s none of this bs loyalty thing. ps3 fans are just trying to justify spending 650 bucks on a system that isn’t living up to its hype.
October 27th, 2007
The PS2 sold as many consoles as it did because of the PS1 being so popular and the exclusives that were on it like Final Fantasy, Metal gear and Gran Turismo only being on the PS2. The PS3 is going to do exactly the same for the same reasons. I know a lot of people dont want it to for some reason but that doesn’t change anything. Its sold as well as the 360 had at the same point after launch yet there isn’t even a reason to buy one yet. Next year however there are lots of reasons to buy one because there is an amazing lineup of exclusives due to be released on it:
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
LittleBigPlanet
Gran Turismo 5
Final Fantasy 13
LA Noire
The Getaway 3
Killzone 2
Tekken 6
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
MotorStorm 2
Red Dead Revolver 2
Heavy Rain
Free Realms
Infamous
Think about that for a second. It selling as fast as the 360 did without any of those games I just listed so just imagine what effect they are going to have.
A lot of ignorant 360 fanboys are going to be pissed and a lot less vocal by the end of next year.
October 27th, 2007
Here is another developer who has just given his 2-cent on the problem of working on PS3. Joe Halper is the senior producer of “Frontline: Fuel of War”. He has been working on BOTH Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game that will come out next year.
http://www.xboxtoday.ca/10272007/11/halper_xbox_360_easier_than_ps3_to_work_on
October 27th, 2007
@ whatever@whereever.com:
Are you actually retarded? Did you miss the bit where he says:
“Our primary SKU is the 360, we use the actual piece on development,”
They normally develop on the 360 you idiot so of course the PS3 is going to be harder. Its like a BMW mechanic working on a Mercedes. He will say its trickier because ITS A DIFFERENT FUCKING SYSTEM TO WHAT HE NORMALLY WORKS ON!
October 28th, 2007
The fact that this guy was a developer means that he does know what he’s talking about, regardless of how shitty the games look from harmonix. He has much more knowledge about developing a game than we all do. I would have to agree with his statements, though they do seem a bit biased.
October 28th, 2007
It’s the UE3 that is the issue, very little else
October 28th, 2007
Oh geez.. you sad people. Did anyone bother to check the story? Jason Booth ISNT A PROGRAMMER!!! HAHAHA fools!! Hes an artist, and game designer. Hes never written a single line of code on the PS3, and you guys all take his comments as gospel!! HAHAHAHA
October 28th, 2007
I’m trying to work out where he got his info from regarding the system not selling.
Amazon has just recently sold out of 40gig sku’s!
I get the feeling he is either
A. in someones pocket
B.Really dosn’y understand what he’s on about.
C. Trying to create more traffic for his blog/website.
lock in C please.
October 29th, 2007
Of course it’s hard to work on, IT’S NEW TECHNOLOGY!!!!. Anyone can tell the ps3 is more powerful than the 360 (there’s no point denying it just look at the specs). But it comes down to games and despite the whole “360 has much better games” argument I think that after a year the ps3 has done well great variety tiltles like RFOM, HS, Motorstorm, R&C (better than anything on the 360 aprt from Bioshock) and Warhawk(better than anything on the 360) and with so much out before the year ends including Haze, Singstar and Uncharted and next year including MGS4, FF13 and Killzone 2 I believe the ps3 will takeover the 360 in quality games soon enough.
Also even if the 360 was as powerful as the ps3 it wouldn’t matter all the 360 does is push DVD (only 8.5) to it’s limits which wasn’t needed. The ps3 use’s blu-ray (50gb) so as developers get used to it the games will start to improve rapidly. I don’t like developers that complain when they have been just handed an opportunity to advance gaming rapidly but complain about getting used to it. Really proud of Insomniac,whilst some developers complain Insomniac saw the potential of ps3 and blu-ray got used to it without any moaning and did a great job with RFOM AND R&C, Insomniac are real professinals and deserve some recognition.
October 30th, 2007
It being new technology is no excuse, you waiting on better tech to make your current car run better?.
October 31st, 2007
Cars are differnent there’s new one’s out all the time, when it comes to games consoles steps forward have to be made as there is alot of room for improvement for games. The 360 is just a more powerful xbox which wasn’t needed, the Wii despite using DVD’s has at least decided to be innovative and appeal to a wider audience and for that I aplaud them. The PS3 has made a huge jump forwarded and pioneered a new format which is good for gaming, just like when the ps1 pioneered dvd because those weird cassette things had there limits. Games consoles have a long life span and steps forwrd have to be taken with technology in order to improve gaming, the 360 has tiptoed forward, the Wii has taken a good step in a different direction and the ps3 has taken a giant leap forward.
February 4th, 2008
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February 5th, 2008
[...] if your streaming from disk, tighter constraints on the amount of data you can stream.” Ex-Guitar Hero programmer: PS3 harder to develop for than Xbox 360 - GAMER.BLORGE.com Keep Focus.. Kota Durian.. ^My [...]
February 14th, 2008
So was he fired for being a “lazy” developer? Or did he quit because he couldnt figure out how to program? maybe hes just not sharp enough to figure out how to utilize the technology. Probably just writes apps for windows so this is too much for him. Guitar hero is a fairly simple piece of software, so its hard to believe that he had a hard time writing it to anything…
July 31st, 2008
[...] Ubisoft Montreal complained of difficulties in development. Ex-Guitar Hero programmer Jason Booth also stuck the knife in, explaining that while the PS3 may indeed be very powerful, it takes much more effort to produce [...]