Multi-platform FFXIII release announced.

[Orius]

My interest in FFXIII is still lukewarm, at best. That said, I'm having a field day at the expense of all those idiot PS3 fanbois acting like it's the end of the world.

Yeah, there's been lots of the web equivalent of screaming going on at the more videogame oriented sites from what I can tell. Sony fanboys screaming about how SE lied and stabbed Sony users in the back and so on because they went multi-platform. Even though it'll still be on the PS3, they're acting like it's a repeat of FFVII hopping over to a Sony console exclusive from Nintendo (of course in their minds THAT was ok...).

Really, any genre that's even moderately workable on consoles has been moving that way since the PS2 launch. It's a lot more profitable.

More profitable isn't surprising given that a console only costs about 10% or even less of what a good gaming PC costs. Now that consoles like the Xbox, Xbox 360 and PS3 have enough power to actually rival a gaming PC, it's not surprising that's going to have a larger audience.

That and the consoles are a more stable platform than PCs. Developers don't have to worry about things like compatibility problems with sound cards, video cards, available memory because consoles are more uniform. Probably makes things easier to develop and test.

 

[Oni]

Mostly I'm just curious how the two versions will stack up against each other.

If one's better than the other there will be lots of shouting I'm sure.

As far as the console wars are concerned, I wonder if multiplatform developement is holding the PS3 back. Even if it is more powerful a lot of developers aren't going to make something they can't run on the 360.

 

[drothgery]

As far as the console wars are concerned, I wonder if multiplatform developement is holding the PS3 back. Even if it is more powerful a lot of developers aren't going to make something they can't run on the 360.

It's not significantly more powerful (the 360 has a slightly more powerful graphics card; the PS3 a slightly more powerful but significantly harder to code for CPU). The only time in the history of consoles where there were two systems where one was signficantly more powerful than the other and games were routinely ported between them was the original Xbox vs. the PS2. With very few exceptions (all of which carried telltale signs of a rushed/slipshod porting effort), multiplatform games always looked noticeably better on Xbox from the get-go.

In this generation, early Xbox 360/PS3 games always looked better on 360. On many newer games it's pretty much a wash, but it clearly takes more development effort to get the same video quality out of the PS3 (PS3 versions of multiplatform titles are routinely delayed; the PS3 is often cited as the reason why all versions of a multiplatform title are delayed).

Blu-Ray is an advantage, but not really a big one for games except when you've got a very long game that doesn't break into sections that are convenient for disc swapping.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Not surprising at all. Honestly, I'm surprised it took this long.

Platform exclusivity only hurts game companies, and only helps the big three. The only real reason not to release a game on a platform is if it will cost more to port it than will be made in sales on that platform. Okay, or if it can't be done, a la porting a large game to the Wii. Game companies (mostly) only care if the players buy the game, not what console they play it on.

 

[Ranger REG]

Really, any genre that's even moderately workable on consoles has been moving that way since the PS2 launch. It's a lot more profitable.

True. But I will never yield to consoles.

 

[Arnwyn]

I wonder how many discs the 360 version will have?

In any case, there's already talk by SE as to significant compression for the 360 version (as reported by IGN).