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Tecmo president praises Xbox 2 / slams PS3
- Thread starter Blimblim
- Start date
Do developers working on XBOX 2 development have any actual hardware to work with or test with, or is Xbox 2 development currently pure simulation or blind, platform agnostic coding on a PC with software tools only?
I've heard whispers of possible chip architecture stuff that ATI will be putting into the chipset/graphics core, but I don't think that's been finalized. But do any developers have boards with the multi-core processor boards that will be the processing backbone of the Xbox 2?
Just curious. If not, the Xbox 2 developing teams are basically building games that are designed to simply run on a very powerful PC (attached to a TV/HDTV), and then will port this design to the Xbox 2 hardware when finally available.
Of course, maybe hardware has been delivered.
I've heard whispers of possible chip architecture stuff that ATI will be putting into the chipset/graphics core, but I don't think that's been finalized. But do any developers have boards with the multi-core processor boards that will be the processing backbone of the Xbox 2?
Just curious. If not, the Xbox 2 developing teams are basically building games that are designed to simply run on a very powerful PC (attached to a TV/HDTV), and then will port this design to the Xbox 2 hardware when finally available.
Of course, maybe hardware has been delivered.
They have dual mac G5 with custom software/kernel and a R420 graphics card. I heard the first R500 prototypes have been delivered a few weeks ago for these dev kits.garrickk said:
It's not final hardware of course, but still a good alternative while the specs are being finalized.
Blimblim said:Only Team Ninja is an exclusive Xbox supporter. The rest of Tecmo is still very much PS2 centric. The fact that only TN's games sell well is another matter
Finally, someone with a clue. Gallop Racer sells well in Japan. The next Deception is PS2. Monster Rancher has always been PS2. Rygar is only on PS2. Fatal Frame always starts on PS2. Tecmo as a whole is hardly Xbox-centric.
sonycowboy
Member
kaching said:
EA had some interview about that. That for 4 or 5 years they would be ignored, put over a barrel for concessions, have their titles be second wheels behind first party games, and basically be at the mercy of the big manufacturers. Then when a new generation starts to take shape, they come back like they're their best friends, promising them the moon, begging for their support, etc.
It's an interesting dynamic and with this next generation, the big name publishers with top flight IP's are really in the catbirds' seat.
element
Member
it is kinda shocking that developer are having to 'guess' what the PS3 will be. You would think that Sony at least would be providing documentation on what to work towards, especially if there is a possibility of launching in 1st quarter 2006. Which would give a developer about 15 months (1 month for TCR and manufacturing) to make a game on a new system with no prior knowledge or white papers on.
A lot of people dog MS, but they really know how to promote a developer friendly environment. Their developer support system is unmatched in the industry. I saw a poll recently asking who has the best developer support, and MS had 80%. MS really knows how to help and support their development partners better then anyone else.
A lot of people dog MS, but they really know how to promote a developer friendly environment. Their developer support system is unmatched in the industry. I saw a poll recently asking who has the best developer support, and MS had 80%. MS really knows how to help and support their development partners better then anyone else.
sonycowboy
Member
IJoel said:
Yeah. Sony won again
Seriously, though, this generation the publishers are going to play Sony and Microsoft against each other like we've never seen. I expect publishers to make a killing of those two guys.
krypt0nian
Banned
He'll be changing his tune once the PS3 has more photorealistic tits than the xbox 2!!! :lol :lol :lol
Then it'll be a BAIL OUT!
Then it'll be a BAIL OUT!
Eggo said:
Rygar was crap, we haven't seen the deception yet... as you said Gallop Racer sells well in Japan.. Monster Rancher... hell if I know.. and Fatal Frame seems go generally get good reviews but again is not a top selling product.
Tecmo's premiere products(DOA and NG) are on the Xbox, that's how it has been and will continue to be.
element said:
With a brand new system 1 month for TCR AND manufacturing would be pushing it. You'd probably see a lot of games sent back if the PS3 TCR is any different than the PS2. People need time to become familiar with the hardware.
element said:
Yup. I posted this in another thread, but it applies here. When a third party submits a game to Sony and it has a TCR violation; SCEA sends the game back with a list of what it violated and a very vague idea where the violations can be found in the game. On the other hand, when someone submits a game to MS and it has a TCR violation; MS sends the game back with a list of the violations, screen shots of EXACTLY where they can be found, and suggestions to the developers on how they can best fix the issues.
Online is a another issue. Fanboys love to praise Sony's free and open online plan, but for third parties it's such a pain in the ass that some would rather not even bother with it. There are some smaller developers who are releasing the same game on both the PS2 and Xbox and only the Xbox version will have online multiplayer (there's a FPS coming up like this) because not only is Sony's network code a "shoddy joke", but Sony will not provide assistance with it. There's a joke going around that the only coders who know how to handle it well enough work for SCEA First Party, Neversoft, and EA. On the other hand, MS is very helpful with getting Xbox Live support in a game if a developer wants it.
open_mouth_
insert_foot_
So it begins... the exodus of developers from the cocky leader's side to the up-and-coming challenger's side.
Will history repeat itself yet again?
Will history repeat itself yet again?
m0dus said:
Do you have both versions ?
I've said "From words of mouth", some effects are gone in X-BOX version. (e.g. rain drop splashing in Kurosawa middle stairs)
From what I've seen with my PS2 and X-BOX versions, they are identical, except 480p, DD 5.1 and the FMV on X-BOX has worse compression (blocky in dark shades) comparing to PS2 version (native MPEG-2 since PS2 is virtually free, financial and feature-wise, for using MPEG-2).
edit: Oh and BTW, I had also noticed some slow downs on X-BOX version but not on PS2 version.
shock?
Tecmo is a third tier developer for Playstation and first rate developer for Xbox. Hearing this from Tecmo is hardly suprising.
If Tecmo's Xbox2 games don't match graphically with PS3 I expect the DOA series to return to the Sony camp. Consumers are drawn to its pretty graphics, not the gameplay.
Tecmo is a third tier developer for Playstation and first rate developer for Xbox. Hearing this from Tecmo is hardly suprising.
If Tecmo's Xbox2 games don't match graphically with PS3 I expect the DOA series to return to the Sony camp. Consumers are drawn to its pretty graphics, not the gameplay.
shpankey
not an idiot
ManaByte said:
This is exactly why I hope Microsoft succeeds and sticks around. I hate this Sony attitude and in my mind, this is what holds gaming back to where it can go. Microsoft is showing and leading the way by doing all the right things in helping the little developers be the most they can be. By the ways you mentioned but by also having a developer friendly environment with excellent documentation, excellent support services and the right attitude. Sometimes I think Sony has just gotten to big and arrogant for their own good. They can dictate everything to everyone and everyone has to suck Sony's cock because of their dominance in the industry. Basically, Sony has become a Despot Dictator. If there wasn't a challenger like Microsoft I doubt they'd have done anything online. Certainly old fart senile Nintendo is not going to push the boundaries. We have to drag them along like dead weight.
seismologist
Banned
open_mouth_ said:
It'll be just like that great exodus that followed once developers learned the PS2 was "difficult to program for".
Mr_Furious
Member
The number of games released for PS2 vs Xbox says differently.Elios83 said:
We'll see how PS3 turns out, but my experience with PSP so far has been pretty much like that.
And compared to other experiences, language support has been pretty outstanding (actually this is the area where MS could learn a few things as well, if they offered the same quality of support in Japanese and Korean as they do in English they would no doubt win local developers over a lot easier).
Granted, they are the challenger in the portable market, so putting extra effort to developer support makes sense
Spike Spiegel
Member
...I'm okay with that. Madden '06 only on PS3, Rugby '06 only for XBox Next!DarienA said:
Mr_Furious
Member
So you're asking if EA released one AAA title exclusively on one platform and the rest of their projects on another, which platform would be getting more "support"? I'd argue that the "other" platform is getting better support because of the wider range of titles covering multiple demographics in the hopes to earn more revenue than their PS2 exclusive title.DarienA said:
Tecmo has only released 4 exclusive titles (all from Team Ninja) and 2 ports on the Xbox versus the 20 (or so) PS2 titles so I'd say they've offered up pretty strong "support" for Sony's platform.
Mr_Furious said:
And if those second and third tier products generally sold poorly?
Sorry I don't subscribe to the theory that just because Tecmo has thrown a number of average titles at the PS2 that shows that they are more strongly supporting it. Just MO.
kaching said:
Adjunct: it's also fun to watch gamers go off the deep end as promise of a new cycle beckons
shpankey said:
Of course, a lot of the same arguments peppered with the same colorful language are similarly hurled at MS in the OS, browser and business software sectors...
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Yet they ditch those small developers they supported, as soon as they don't like them for whatever reason. How many games and how many teams they just ditched in the past year or so? Every company wants to look shiny and great from the outside, every one 'wants to lead', but to think that they don't make their shady moves behind the scene is stupid. As a matter of fact there's whole bunch of confirmed things that you could read here for all threee companies that would make scratch your head and ask 'how can they do this and not feel guilty about it'?
If you read one of the game developer magazines that is available here, you'd know that Sony's technology and developer support department gets a LOT of praise by developers, and quite often. Same goes for Microsoft, if course, but by reading some of the online impressions from disgrunted people, one could think that Sony is the devil of the dev support, which is simply not true, at least not in most cases.
element
Member
Sony get praise for their production support, as in project managment. They have awesome producers at Sony, which are very easy to work with and understand the market. MS is still learning this external producer role, while MS is by far the best on technical support. Considering groups at MS like ATG will visit developers to help them with their games.
Well, the live thing actually only hurts big developers who see online games as another source of sales ? Why would EA care about my identity if not to try to sell me something in return ? I was really pissed to allow MS to send my identity to EA so I could play Burnout 3 (well, try playing, but that's another story).Gek54 said:
I'm pretty a lot of smallers developers/publishers are very happy to let MS do all the big server hosting for "free".
As for force feedback, yeah MS has been really annoying about this. I understand why they couldn't include this in the first XDKs (the whole patent thing), but why not add it when they paid so much to buy the rights for the technology ?
Mr_Furious
Member
It's not as though Temco's knowingly releasing poor selling titles on the PS2 assuring low revenue. They expect all of their games to be profitable. Games like Rygar, Monster Rancher and the Fatal Frame series (prior to getting Xbox ports a year later) are certainly quality titles that deserved to sell more than they did, imo. Their Gallop Racer franchise, although different, isn't necessarily a poor game either.DarienA said:
Sales figures are not the gauge of support by any given company but rather the number of resources invested to make the games. If Team Ninja equaled 50 employees and the rest of development equaled 150 employees working on PS2 games, support is measured by investment.
You make it sound like Tecmo's throwing scraps at the PS2 resulting in voluntary profit loss while they're putting all their efforts into AAA content onto one platform in the hopes to recoup the losses incurred by supporting the PS2. Believe it or not, 99.9% of the games released on any given platform are expected to do well, saleswise. Temco's PS2 releases are no different.
open_mouth_
insert_foot_
Marconelly said:
That's unfair, man, and you know it. The developers that they "ditched" have all had nothing but nice things to say about Microsoft and they've continued to support the Xbox platform with the games they were working on (Psychonauts, Tork, Stranger). Microsoft has every right to let these developers find other publishers in a perfectly amicable manner once those developers fail to meet Microsoft's desired deadlines, quality, or product line. Microsoft still honors it's end of the contract.
shpankey
not an idiot
well i guess you're all right. it all goes both ways. i think fafa is right, it has more to do with who is the challenger, as he mentioned Sony is great when it comes to the PSP and they are challenging Nintendo.
oh and i completely agree with MS stance on a pay for closed network gaming service. absolutely. one only has to compare sony's online to XBL to see that microsoft's decision is obviously the right one. although i will agree that MS stance on the whole force feedback wheel API does suck, but i hardly find that relavant to this discussion.
oh and i completely agree with MS stance on a pay for closed network gaming service. absolutely. one only has to compare sony's online to XBL to see that microsoft's decision is obviously the right one. although i will agree that MS stance on the whole force feedback wheel API does suck, but i hardly find that relavant to this discussion.
shpankey said:
But it is more relevant to us consumers who make up 99% of this board.
If a Console company is shitty to its developers in whatever way and they still bring us quality games, should we really care what goes on behind the scenes? Are you going to stop playing Halo2 or GTA becuase of industry polotics?
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Fair enough, but they for example let the whole sports team go, seemingly because they finally got the EA XBL contract to go through. Or how some (most?) of the Xbox leads let the company under various circumstances.
I'm by no means saying that Sony doesn't have their share of unfair practices, and Nintendo was probably the worst offender in the past, btw.