Phew, a busy week of news for the next generation of consoles.
HERE is an article on Gamespot. It's a good read, and features remarks from many game developers in Japan talking about each of the next genreation consoles, PS3, Revolution and X360.
SUMMARY
Overall the remarks pretty much summarize as follows;
Playstation 3 : Very impressive hardware capabilities. Still something of an unknown quantity. The connectivity options may be more than most people need.
Revolution : Very much an unknown. Considered a potential surprise. Playing old Nintendo games will be big.
Xbox 360 : Impressive hardware. An evolution from the present Xbox. Builds on Xbox netorking. Networking is a good thing.
Opinion
When I read this article I had to go back through it a review it a couple of times as there were so many comments in it. Some things stood out like sore thumbs to me.
1. They likely haven't seend a Playstation 3 dev kit yet. They were all talking about what was seen at E3. All the talk about the machine's capabilities sounded like they were in awe of it, perhaps even a little scared (which is weird). One of them talked about the PS3 like it was a child requiring to be nurtured....OK, whatever.
2. Apparently Japan is so in love with Nintendo that they really think that the ability to purchase and play downloadable versions of old Nintendo classics will be a 'killer application' for the Revolution. In fact a recent survey in Japan of gamers ranked the systems in terms of expectations, the Revolution topped the poll with Playstation 3 coming close behind and then Xbox 360.
3. Almost universal positive comments regarding networking and the Xbox 360. In fact that seemed to be the focus with regard to Xbox 360. There were some positive comments about hardware specifications, but mostly it was networking.
What struck me is that the developers seem un-phased by all the networking built into the Playstation 3, and not very impressed with the degree of upgrade that the Xbox 360 represents, seeing it as evolutionary not revolutionary. Which brings me to my final comment, what in hell is wrong with Japanese game players that the designers there think that Nintendo can sell a Nest Gen game console on the basis of games from the 80's and 90's. Whatever they're smoking, I want some!
~Highlander
HERE is an article on Gamespot. It's a good read, and features remarks from many game developers in Japan talking about each of the next genreation consoles, PS3, Revolution and X360.
SUMMARY
Overall the remarks pretty much summarize as follows;
Playstation 3 : Very impressive hardware capabilities. Still something of an unknown quantity. The connectivity options may be more than most people need.
Revolution : Very much an unknown. Considered a potential surprise. Playing old Nintendo games will be big.
Xbox 360 : Impressive hardware. An evolution from the present Xbox. Builds on Xbox netorking. Networking is a good thing.
Opinion
When I read this article I had to go back through it a review it a couple of times as there were so many comments in it. Some things stood out like sore thumbs to me.
1. They likely haven't seend a Playstation 3 dev kit yet. They were all talking about what was seen at E3. All the talk about the machine's capabilities sounded like they were in awe of it, perhaps even a little scared (which is weird). One of them talked about the PS3 like it was a child requiring to be nurtured....OK, whatever.
2. Apparently Japan is so in love with Nintendo that they really think that the ability to purchase and play downloadable versions of old Nintendo classics will be a 'killer application' for the Revolution. In fact a recent survey in Japan of gamers ranked the systems in terms of expectations, the Revolution topped the poll with Playstation 3 coming close behind and then Xbox 360.
3. Almost universal positive comments regarding networking and the Xbox 360. In fact that seemed to be the focus with regard to Xbox 360. There were some positive comments about hardware specifications, but mostly it was networking.
What struck me is that the developers seem un-phased by all the networking built into the Playstation 3, and not very impressed with the degree of upgrade that the Xbox 360 represents, seeing it as evolutionary not revolutionary. Which brings me to my final comment, what in hell is wrong with Japanese game players that the designers there think that Nintendo can sell a Nest Gen game console on the basis of games from the 80's and 90's. Whatever they're smoking, I want some!
~Highlander
