
If you look at the central processor in Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox 360 you will see something that can trace its ancestry right back to the Intel 8086 of 1978. Over its evolution this has forced endless fudges and compromises. An analogy might be trying to build a working supertanker on the plans of a model rowing boat. And the 360 itself owes its architecture to the IBM PC of 1981 and so carries with it the accommodations that this architecture imposes. These factors, ultimately, must impinge on the working of the console.
Compare that to Sony (SNE), who were able to design the processor and the console it is in with a clean sheet of paper. The Cell processor, designed jointly with IBM and Toshiba at a cost of $400 million is the state of the art in processor dessign. It is scalable, highly flexible and excellent at distributed processing.
So it is little surprise that the PS3 now holds the Guiness world record for the most powerful distributed computing network. Or that an astrophysicist has replaced a supercomputer with eight PS3s. This is one very special and very powerful machine and when game programmers eventually work out how to get the best from it we are going to see some spectacular results.
But there has been a price to pay. Whilst the 360 was cheap to develop and cheap to make, the PS3 has cost a fortune. Sony has absorbed some of this cost in losses and passed some of it on to end users in the form of higher prices, which has hit sales. Sony has bet its computer entertainment division and maybe the whole company on this device.

Nintendo announced Friday that several of its long-time partners, including DeNA, will sell off some ¥300 billion in company shares.

Digital intelligence and analytics firm Sensor Tower has released its State of Gaming 2026 report, revealing flat growth in mobile game revenue, double-digit growth for PC and console gaming, and another record year for PC, with more games sold on Steam than ever before.

Kotaku writes: "A Resident Evil Requiem review published by long-standing UK gaming news site Videogamer has been removed from Metacritic after readers pointed out it was written by a fake AI journalist who doesn’t actually exist. Videogamer‘s human masthead was gutted last week, sources tell Kotaku, and the site has been publishing apparent genAI slop ever since."
Genuinely well done on metacritic for taking such an immediate hard stance. Not often, if at all, you see that these days. Credit where it’s due.
This is really sad on so many levels. Not least of all the fact that all the human lost their jobs to a language model. Can we block all content coming from Videogamer site. Can we make a rule that content sumitted to N4G must be greated by a human being.
I'm gonna report every Videogamer article I see on N4G from now on so just putting it out there.
It is amazing but I'm starting to slightly miss the moron gaming press we had in the 2010s because at least they were human.
well this is something we all know even xboys.if u dont believe heres an example.Its call uncharted drakes fortune.its alive its alive i tell u
Or that an astrophysicist has replaced a supercomputer with eight PS3s. Sony did not make Cell for games. I don't care about that article, Xbox outsell almost 4 time the PS3 in USA (PS3 2.6m Xbox 8.3m), and they dare to launch the rumbble more than a year after, and give it to Japan first.
"and when game programmers eventually work out how to get the best from it we are going to see some spectacular results. "
Ok let's wait again.
By the way 1st Xbox and Sega Saturn where the strongest and did not win over PS1 and PS2.
the cells not fr gaming an xboy say.please kid go drink sum koolaid the play heavenly sword r n c and uncharted then come back with the cell aint fr gaming theory
Flamewar in 5. ..4. ..3. ..2. ..
We know it's powerful, but it's just starting to show now that devs are getting over the learning curve and Sony is ponying up the tools. Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Game Republic, and Ninja Theory (for the games that are out currently) pulled off some sweetness on the system which makes me wonder what they're doing different that a lot of 3rd parties aren't doing Epic and IW aside. Nevermind I already know, developing on the system from the ground up instead of porting from other stuff seems to do the trick.
personally im a sony fan but if sony within 2008 dont showcase games that have that have that 'couldnt be done on xbox' wow factor its going to be a disaster, but the good news is uncharted is hopefully starting that early trend to say ps3 might just be as powerful as we all hoped.
sony has to get its 1st party tools in as many developers hands as possible, finally wake up and realise thier early arrogance was a role in the negative aura and that games sells consoles and not the other way round,ps2 was a global phenomenon due to the fact of ITS games (remember original xbox was more powerful but ps2 trounced it due to its exclusives)but i genuinly believe it made sonys head swell due to thier dominance and in some twisted way thought people were buying ps2 because of the console,yeh the console was great but the games were greater and this is what made the system.
xbox owners have to agree that 360 is a poorly designed piece of kit with a mind boggling failure rate,but it still sells why? games simple.aint bashing xbox i prefer ps3 but im just keeping it real
2008 is gonna be interesting and i persnally believe sony are waking up fom their arrogant slumber and are slowly realising microsoft are no pushover (they seem to be blueprinting the ps2 way forward meaning games sells)and gamers demand games not PROMISES!xbox outsold ps3 in JAPAN its sonys hometown,for one week because of what? ace combat a GAME!i never thought id see that day and i hope it never happens again playstation is a strong brand ps3 is now more affordable,and sony have that as their advantage to make a succesful comeback.