Why is the PS3 so much more popular in Europe?...

[JamesD]

Well that's good news. I'm just really disappointed with the lack of exclusives on the PS3, compared to the 360, particularly with regards to RPG's-they aren't even getting Star Ocean 4!! And how in the world did they not manage to keep FF XIII as an exclusive??

 

And there are still some who just don't want to work with the cell processor, John Carmak being one of them-so the PS3 won't get Rage, either.

 

I'm not saying that there aren't great games out for it, I love Ridge Racer 7, for example, but at this point I really question whether or not they can make it 10 years in this country.

Well, exclusives require some $$$ from the manufacturer to keep them that way.

The 360 has higher game sales. It takes a lot of money to make up for that.

 

And there is developer appeal.

 

The 360 has 3 cores that run 2 threads at a time each. They are all general purpose and designed to do whatever. The 360 also has more memory bandwidth though I haven't seen that brought up in some time. You just write code and run it. You can also run or develop code on Windows boxes making development and testing pretty easy.

 

The PS3 has a lot of CPU cores but only one is general purpose. At peak performance it theoretically kicks butt. In practice you have to keep all those cores going from one single core and you are bound to spend a lot more time tweaking the game engine to do so. Do you want to spend time coding your game or the game engine?

 

In time the PS3 may very well kick butt... but optimizations are still coming to the 360 game engines and the memory bandwidth may eventually be a show stopper on maximum performance with the PS3.

 

It's one thing to claim you have the biggest and the baddest and use theoretical peak performance to do show it... it's another thing entirely when it comes to real world performance. And if you have to jump through hoops to get that performance it doesn't exactly give developers a warm fuzzy feeling.

Sony should have learned their lesson from the initial developer complaints about the PS2.

 

Now, don't get me wrong... the Cell processor can do some amazing things, I just think SONY could have done more to appeal to developers as far as making their lives easier.

<edit>

I should also point out that Microsoft must have thrown money at FF so it wouldn't be a SONY exclusive.

Edited August 30, 2008 by JamesD

[liquid_sky]

I think it has to do with being region-free, since alot of games in the past have been released stateside or in japan but never made it to the EU.

[Tickled_Pink]

With the recent price drops, watch the 360 leave the PS3 standing - in the UK at least. We're not quite the gadget whores some like to think we are. Sure, the Blu-ray is a big pull but, like the Wii, I know a lot of people who have bought the PS3 only to get rid of it a short time later. The Wii is seen by many people as a fad toy (great for 5 minutes but gets boring) while the PS3 hasn't lived up to its potential (I know one guy who's had the same feelings as the OP towards loading times and has hardly touched his PS3 in the 12 months he's had it just because of that issue). The 360 seems to be the one that people want to keep hold of ... despite its reliability issues.

 

This is certainly not a 'my console is better than yours' argument. The PS3 is streets ahead of the other two in terms of capabilities but price, the loading issues and possibly the lack of killer exclusive games for the thing is certainly holding it back. If you really want a Blu-Ray player, you may as well save a few bucks and get one for the PC.

[Seob]

What loading issues?

I do feel the same about the Wii. It was fun the first 2 weeks after i got one, after that it has been collecting dust,until i bought lost winds.

After i finished that game it has been collecting dust. I don't like those Mii figures.

Think game developers are concentrating to much on the wii-mote and forget to make a decent game.

My ps3 has got a lot more playtime, all tough since we have a 3 months old son, time is something i don't have much.

I'm going to buy a 360 60gb version before the end of this year, since i get a 50 euro refund on it, so it would cost me 200 euro.

Think my ps3 and 360 will get a lot of playtime, and the Wii, will be collecting dust till christmas.

[Reaperman]

I'm jumping in a little late, but maybe it's a late adoption issue, rather than an early adoption issue.

 

I'm not in europe, but I thought ps3 was going to be the last of the 3 systems I bought. I was sure of it back in 2005-06 timeframe. The more I waited though, the more ps3 seemed the obvious choice for my first 'next gen' console. perceived durability, blu ray's success, free online, improved pricing, improved controller, and a perception that it will stick around later (being the last of the three released). These factors have all become greater influences than they were at ps3's launch. Not to mention the perception that it's more powerful.

 

maybe europe (like me) waits. It's easy enough to see, I suppose, if there are monthly sony sales figures that show a recent jump in sales over the last 6 months. 360's upcomming price drop and pack-ins are too little too late, and just make me think its replacement is already well on the way. If anything they just pushed me right into ps3--and yes, I am aware how silly that sounds.