In gaming circles, the debate over which next gen machine is more powerful has fueled many an argument. But in the real world, those who actually work with the machines are probably the best sources of information for the true answer. The president of Silicon Knights, the developers of Eternal Darkness: Sanity,s Requiem and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, said that as far as he was concerned, the PS3 and Xbox 360 are basically equal in performance.
Denis Dyack told the San Jose Mercury News, "The 360 and the PS3 are equal in power in my eyes. Maybe the PS3 has more processing power. The 360 has more available memory. It’s pretty much a net, net. The public perception of the PS3 was that it was much more powerful. To developers, they look even."
Dyack,s comments go directly against Sony,s campaign to place the PS3 in a class by itself-a powerful game machine/computer that outperforms its rival. He also went on the state that the issue of resolution was a misnomer as well, when it came down to actual viewable quality. "It is questionable if there is a difference between 1080p and 720p. All of our games are likely to be 720p because of the faster refresh rates. There are all kinds of trade-offs. It takes a lot more RAM to do 1080p. You’ll reserve RAM for the textures. 720p is just less pixels. There is definitely a huge difference from 720p and analog."
So if the two machines are equal in quality and performance, which machine will win? According to Dyack, it is still too close to call. "It’s a tough one. Microsoft is looking really good. Everyone is looking pretty good. At the beginning, everyone thought Sony would walk away with it. We won’t know for sure for two years."
If Dyack,s assessment that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are generally looked upon as equals by game developers, another point may be raised as well. All things being equal, if developers have a choice between spending development money on the PS3 or 360, which one would they prefer? If bottom line means anything, the winner in this category seems to be Microsoft.
