The next generation of consoles is coming in 2013, according to several anonymous developer surveys undertaken by IGN. ” In an anonymous questionnaire,” says the site, “multiple industry professionals said that they plan to release games for the next Microsoft and Sony consoles before January 1, 2014.”
Some stats, then:
- 60% of respondents said they have no plans to release games for the current generation (PS3, 360, Wii) after 2013.
- 80% of respondents said the next Microsoft console is the easiest to work with.
- 63% of developers said the Wii U would be the most challenging platform to develop for.
- The “overwhelming majority” suspect the next Xbox will be the sales leader over the next five years.
IGN claim they surveyed 35 developers – they don’t say whether those developers all represent different studios, or they’re individuals at a single developer (for example, they could have spoken to ten people at Epic, giving wildly skewed results) but everyone loves statistics and a little bit of Saturday morning next-gen gossip, right?
Right?
Erroneus
I wonder how many of those devs was from the US, considering IGN is from US, this will also skew the results.
rossthebassist
Likes for you and this comment. Spot on point.
Erroneus
Also:
—
80% of respondents said the next Microsoft console is the easiest to work with.
63% of developers said the Wii U would be the most challenging platform to develop for.
—
These two numbers kinda conflict with each other, as the Wii U should be pretty much like an Xbox 360 and therefore be pretty easy to code for.
I wonder how many of these devs has actually played with next-gen hardware..
Gamoc
I would guess they were referring to the difficulties of the controller.
Uhyve
Just because a console is similarly powered doesn’t mean that the architecture or APIs are in anyway similar. Hell, PS3/360 is a perfect example.
Erroneus
The Wii U has an architecture that are VERY similar to the Xbox 360. The CPU is an IBM powerpc CPU, with eDram and on top of that also uses an ATI based GPU. Now that is very similar to the Xbox 360. Off course it doesn’t means that you can run a Xbox 360 game in a Wii U with the click of two buttons, but having similar architecture based around the same principles, makes it a lot easier, when you have to interact with the hardware.
But Gamoc is properly right, it’s properly because of the controller.
Kaminari
It’s always the same tired old song with third-party developers.
The Xbox runs under Windows. The PS doesn’t. Hence.
ThoughtPolice
Excetly, this tripe may as well have been titled:
American blog witten by American fanboys ask American developers which American console is easiest to code for, and what American console do they think will stimulate the American economy.
Sometimes the stupidity of the gaming press astounds me, now is one of those times….
ThoughtPolice
“Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN’s Xbox 360 team”
Nuff said….
wirralsman
This is exactly what I was thinking
stage1
“80% of respondents said the next Microsoft console is the easiest to work with.”
That isn’t so great for the next Playstation. Hopefully it will still be very dev-friendly and only be slightly less effort to code for.
Steviepunk
I don’t see why, is the PS4 is going with the AMD CPU/GPU combo, then essentially it is going to be similar to the next xbox (assuming that rumours are true) – a traditional multi-core CPU with the same family of GPU that will be in the xbox.
Given that the Wii U is also very similar in terms of architecture to the next xbox, then the reason for developers thinking the xbox is easier to developer for would be down to 2 possible options:
1. Microsoft provider better developer tools and APIs to work with (and MS are very good in that department)
or
2. the xbox is more powerful than the others, either more memory, faster CPU, more cores, etc
I would say that option 1 is very likely. option 2 is possible, but I see it as unlikely that the xbox will be much more powerful than the PS4, would expect both companies to come with kit in the same ball park – though Microsoft are probably better positioned to spend a little more on the build, so maybe a little more memory.
ThoughtPolice
Easy to code for is not good news. All it means is your console is maxed out sooner.
Look at the tripe Xbox360 has put up with for the last 3 years. How is that good?
colmshan1990
Maxing out sooner is only bad if your max is lower than your competition. If it’s the same level or higher, than you will be putting out the best games for longer than your competition.
That’s definitely good news.
Steviepunk
that argument is about as valid as saying that Ferrari should produce a faster car than Porsche but restrict it to make it slower just so they can release an ECU remap in 3 years that will make it faster…
Easy to code for is good. Under powered hardware is not.
Sony just came out with that as an excuse when it emerged that the PS3 was complicated to develop for. If Sony could have had the chance for Uncharted 2 quality graphs for launch titles, they would have taken it.
gazzagb
80% saying Xbox is the easier console to code for means we can pretty much assume to get the same current framerate issues etc from PS3 ports. :\
Kivi95
That it will be easier say nothing. I mean it could be 0.00001% easier to work with then the ps4.
bunimomike
Agreed. Sony may well have closed the gap with regards to the difficulty of coding for the PS3 (when compared to the 360). I doubt Sony have kept it the same or made it worse for the next generation.
gazzagb
True, but 80% of Devs in favour of the Xbox is pretty overwhelming. I really hope Sony have learned from the PS3, Naughty Dog seem to be able to squeeze every bit of power from the PS3 and it looks incredible, so we know it can perform well but only when the Devs have the time and money to put the effort in.
ThoughtPolice
Yay for gamers that know nothing about coding talking about how it’s suddenly fact that PS3 is harder to code for.
The fact is PS3 is DIFFERENT to code for. It’s not harder, it’s just you can’t do things the lazy and inefficient way of old.
The PS2 wasn’t easy to code for, and look at what that achieved. If you want the best from your games, you have to write with a platform in mind. YOu can just expect a cross-compile multiple platform “hack” to work on all your platforms to anywhere near their full potential.
Many sloppy PS3 ports don’t even use the Cell BBE’s 7 SPUs (each core being about the power of a typical desktop PC), they just do all the processing on the main PPE (which is a PowerPC core, the same as the Xbox) and then shove it to the RSX and let it render it. This was never how it was supposed to work….
You only have to look at the difference between a PS3 exclusive and a multiplatform title to see that PS3 owners are getting screwed over because of the way the Xbox is holding everything back, like Austin Maxi in the fast lane….
colmshan1990
Umm…
If it’s different to everything else, than it IS harder to code for that one than the others.
Plus, you obviously wouldn’t know it as well as the others.
This is the weirdest thing I’ve seen somebody go on a fanboy crusade about in a long time- we all know it can make good games, and nobody has disputed that.
Nearly every developer under the sun has mentioned PS3 is hard to write for, although it can do a lot of stuff once you figure out how to do it.
Sympozium
Its still hard though Thought Police.
psychobudgie
It is the easiest to develop for as it will still use DirectX where as the PS4 and WU will likely use their own proprietary system based on OpenGL unless they license DirectX from MS which is as likely as Apple merging with Google.
SilverCider
Too right!
TSBonyman
This is what i’m also thinking. Xbox is more like a PC and it can use the industry standard libraries, thus making it easier to program for. It doesn’t necessarily mean that PS4 will be particularly difficult to program for, just that it’s more difficult than xbox. I have no doubt Sony will have a more straightforward design in place this time around.
ThoughtPolice
ERRM, DirectX is as proprietary as they come. It ONLY works on Microsoft products.
OpenGL is the industry standard and works on everything from a cellphone to a console to regular PC, to a graphics powerhouse workstation.
However this is just the graphics engine, the real coding is in the CPU, but lots of time is saved by using libraries like Renderware, Havok and such. Guess what…. Contrary to what Microsoft shills would have you believe. The PS3 uses the same CPU instruction set as the Xbox360 (and the Wii). They are all PowerPC based instruction sets. (don’t believe me? Google for “PowerPC Cell” and “PowerPC Xbox”)
Game bloggers really shouldn’t write about things they really know nothing about. All they end up doing is confusing fanboys who then go off and spread that same tripe as fact on 100x other internet forums. Before you know it, it’s suddenly fact because every website says the same thing.
Bogus facts like Blu-Ray is slower than DVD, PS3’s GPU is slower than the Xbox’s, Xbox single speed unified memory is better than PS3’s dual speed split memory and so forth. These myths all originated from Redmond, passed around by clueless gaming press writers and passed on as fact by clueless 16yr olds who have never written a line of code, and think a pointer is something you prod people with.
Next time you read something on the internet, and in particular a gaming website, remember this post….
TSBonyman
You clearly know more than i do on the subject ToughtPolice and i can’t argue with you. But, as proprietary as Direct X may be, the fact that it’s Microsoft-only belies the other fact – that it also runs on 90% of pcs worldwide and PCs are where it’s at for the real advances in gaming technology so that pretty much qualifies it as an industry standard in my book… my ignorant, blissful book ;-)
Sympozium
Don’t worry it won’t be so bad so turn that sad frown from being upside down into upside…erm up. I really don’t want a repeat of that but I’m sure the next PS could be much easier to code if Sony sort that out.
Really want I really want is too see cheaper development and more freedom for developers, to me doing the same thing or being ordered to make something that is either rushed or basic would feel like slavery or a neglect of the customer; a lack of care.
Yes… from what I’ve read on many gaming sites. It give me the idea that publishers tend to be the bad guy. It just worries from my point of view as a fan of gaming that its all going wrong. Coding doesn’t bother me as I’m simply a common costumer if a dev releases a rubbish game or port simply I shouldn’t support it. The thing is… its just the business practices that’s going on, its bringing gaming into chaos.
An-dz
Too soon for me darn it, how about the year after that Sony/Microsoft
Kivi95
Well then you can buy them after their first price drop :D.
sparkyscrum
But all the good games wont be on current gen hardware if this is all to be believed.
Yersal
Well if the next gen Xbox will be easier to code for then I’ll shall be switching over to it, getting a little tired of having the lesser version of the same game on what should be the the more capable console.
Sympozium
You know now I guess it would be better investing in a gaming PC rather than the next Xbox or Playstation, they really need things that excite and not some gimmicks like what killed the Wii.
colmshan1990
If the source of the stats aren’t clear and unbiased, it’s not scientific, and therefore not stats.
That’s what they teach me in the most boring module I do in college anyway.
IAmJacksMedullaOblongata
Your lecturer sounds like a puritan fool.
Statistics: A branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters.
Is there quantitative data? Yes.
Is the data likely based on personal opinion/speculation (I doubt many of these developers have access to the Orbis SDK for example)? In my opinion, yes.
Ergo: Alex’s statement, that the percentages are proffered as stats, is correct.
Whether these stats are based on empirical data is definitely questionable, of course.
JBoo
Oh god not this cr*p again LoL:D Whatever SONY’s PS4 will be the gaming internet media will slag it off for some reason, YAWN, Zzzz
+
“The “overwhelming majority” suspect the next Xbox will be the sales leader over the next five years” Well the Xbox last Gen wasn’t a sales leader & this Gen the Xbox 360 is close to falling into 3rd place in Worldwide sales soon LoL:D
Sympozium
Can this idiot be banned from every gaming site now? Deserves it more than ever.
ThoughtPolice
I find your fanboy attitude more offensive. Perhaps they should ban you
The Lone Steven
@thoughtpolice, Jboo has shown a lot of fanboy comments during his time here, plus Symp is really crap at being a fanboy as i’ve yet to see him post fanboy comment or he’s not a fanboy.
@jboo, i doubt it as there may be some problems with the PS4 that could cause everyone to complain about. ;)
sparkyscrum
After making the Vita easy to develop for, can’t seem them following the PS3 example over the Vita example. I bet Sony will be working hard to ensure the PS4 isn’t just powerful but allows developers to create quickly.
Nickboss1
Oh
wirralsman
if we take what IGN are saying, and change those stats to numbers…
21 respondents said they have to plans to release games for the current generation after 2013, vs 14 that do
21 respondents think Microsofts console will be easier to develop for
22 developers said the Wii U would be the most challenging platform to develop for.
More than 18 suspect the next Xbox will be the sales leader over the next five years.
How many games studios in the world?