PS2 vs. Xbox development time

It's interesting that GT4 is taking 3 years to develop versus only 2 years for PGR 2. Same goes for MGS3 (3.5 years) vs. Halo 2 (2.5 years). That's one advantage to having easy to program hardware. I'm surprised we haven't heard any news on Oddworld yet though...
 
While its probably more than 90% certain the average Xbox games takes less time to develop for than PS2....your usage of game titles to support your point is not very convincing at all.

MGS2 came out the same time as Halo (roughly) and both upcoming titles are scheduled for release in the same year. However, on top of that, development time is more than just programming...its the scope of the planning and design that really matters.

GT4's creators are aiming to put hundreds of cars into the game as well as numerous tracks...that takes time for an artist to render no matter what system it goes to.

Development times are never a true indicator on much at all since you have to consider so many factors from both developer side as ell as the publishing side.
 
Johnny Awesome said:
It's interesting that GT4 is taking 3 years to develop versus only 2 years for PGR 2. Same goes for MGS3 (3.5 years) vs. Halo 2 (2.5 years). That's one advantage to having easy to program hardware. I'm surprised we haven't heard any news on Oddworld yet though...
Where are those numbers from? Are there fixed release dates yet?
 
Johnny Awesome said:
It's interesting that GT4 is taking 3 years to develop versus only 2 years for PGR 2. Same goes for MGS3 (3.5 years) vs. Halo 2 (2.5 years). That's one advantage to having easy to program hardware. I'm surprised we haven't heard any news on Oddworld yet though...

Brute Force???

BTW how did you find out these durations???

It is not as if they began working on GT4/PGR2/MGS3/H2, very next day after the launch of previous installments!!!
 
It's interesting that GT4 is taking 3 years to develop versus only 2 years for PGR 2. Same goes for MGS3 (3.5 years) vs. Halo 2 (2.5 years). That's one advantage to having easy to program hardware.
Wow. Just wow...

:oops:
 
Sure, but MGS2 shipped in Japan before Halo did in the US and GT3 shipped in Japan long before PGR did in the US. I'm talking about first releases of the games, not translation time and so forth.

My point still stands. You can rationalize it away, but PGR 2 has more track data, whereas GT4 has more car data. They both have network code, comparable AI, and comparable physics models. I'm willing to bet that they are similar efforts in that regard.

The point: An Xbox blockbuster can be produced faster than a PS2 blockbuster. That's pretty obvious, don't you think.
 
You are taking programming as everything, disregarding the time needed by the 3d modellers, artists, directors and the producers.

The work from them cannot be generated by programming. Spending more time on them are definitely needed than programming (see the ugly "Brute Force").

edit: Your point doesn't stand unless you can prove that programming is taking most of the time in the quoted projects.
 
My point still stands. You can rationalize it away, but PGR 2 has more track data, whereas GT4 has more car data. They both have network code, comparable AI, and comparable physics models. I'm willing to bet that they are similar efforts in that regard.
GT4 will have more than 100 tracks and more than 500 cars. I think it's fairly safe to say PGR2 would be happy if it had half of that. Creating those assets is extremely painful and long process. WAY more than any programming difficulty can possibly be (especially considering they have GT3 game engine up and running already)

I will not go too much into your MGS3 vs Halo 2 comparision, but if MGS2 vs Halo is any indicator, comparing those two games production-wise is complete nonsense. If you can't see how much more demanding MGS2 was in that regard, I guess it's pointless if I try and explain it.

That, AND we have no frickin' clue as to when MGS3 or Halo 2 are going to be released, except that it's 2004. Considering MGS2 and Halo were released at about the same time (US version of MGS2 was released *first* at nov.13, two days before Halo, then Japanese version of MGS2 followed at nov.29) I really see no logical basis to your assumption (aside that *programming* difficulties are the least of the problems when you are dealing with the massive games like ones you mentioned). Consider also that Bungie basically worked on nothing except for Halo 2 after they finished Halo, where Kojima's team did MGS2:S Xbox, MGS2:S PS2, MGS2:S PC, MGS2: Document.

Actually, the amount of research (or better say the lack of) you did before you made your conclusion, almost makes me think you posted this thread for the sake of trolling :\
 
I didn't, but you guys make some valid points. I thought that MGS2 shipped in Japan a few months before the US. I stand corrected. Halo 2 is scheduled for Q1 2004, whereas MGS3 is scheduled for Q4 2004.

I doesn't matter. It just crossed my mind as interesting that Halo 2 and PGR 2 will ship before MGS3 and GT4. I initially attibuted this to differences in ease of programming between the two platforms, but perhaps I was a little hasty in that regard.

Maybe M$ is throwing more resources at PGR 2 and Halo 2 as well.
 
whereas MGS3 is scheduled for Q4 2004.
Is it? I honestly have no clue even what quarter it's supposed to be released. At least I've never seen that being officially mentioned.

Now that I think about it, I haven't even heard anything more speciffic than '2004' even for Halo 2...
 
Well, I hope for Bungie and Microsoft's sake that Halo 2 gets finished before that and is released in time for the holiday season. This probably won't happen, but the game will still be a blockbuster nonetheless.

I think that the ease of programming for Xbox games may allow smaller devs to spend more resources on things such as art, physics, AI, and the like. Devs don't have to work as hard to get everything just right as they do with the PS2, so they have more funds to throw at other things essential in the game. I believe Johnny makes a valid point with regards to ease of development on Xbox compared to PS2, especially when it comes to a small developer. But how often does a small developer make a blockbuster over a large one? It's not many and when it does, the small dev receives great amounts of praise.

I'm not so sure if the point is valid when the developer is large and has enough funds to throw at the project. Regardless of that, I'm sure the devs will do everything possible to make sure they have it right, and that always means extra time no matter what if you truly want to get the gameplay, graphics, and end user experience down to AAA quality.

It can be argued both ways, and all points are valid. If you have the money I do believe the point may become moot.
 
I heard march from the bungie person doing the demo when I saw it at E3. Someone asked on the way out and he just said "march". So that's about as firm a date as I'd expect.
 
XB games are easier to develop in the sense that developers have been working with XB type hardware since ages!!!

BTW, development time depends on the scale of projects....bigger the project, more time it is likely to take to complete...
 
I would like to add an other point: Adaptation/learning curve, I am sure doing a first gen title for PS2 is/was harder on PS2, since it is a new and unique platform, that requires to build experience from scratch. IMHO, so even more credit should be paid to dev teams, which were able to create first gen games like MGS2/GT3/TTT/J&D/Dropship(respect to Jason).
 
marconelly! said:
whereas MGS3 is scheduled for Q4 2004.
Is it? I honestly have no clue even what quarter it's supposed to be released. At least I've never seen that being officially mentioned.

On your table in 2004...


PS. After just watching the full trailer under 5 minutes ago for the first time, did anyone else find it odd the voices in the MGS3 trailer were in Japanese and not... say... Russian w/subtitles? Something seems odd, almost if this is a BS trailor, or I wish it's a sidestory like MGS:Snake Eater with a full Metal Gear Solid3: The Patriots to follow in 2005 for the PS3.
 
On your table in 2004...
Yeah, but that can mean Q1 to Q4. That's what I meant - the release date hasn't been announced beyond the most vague - 2004.

PS. After just watching the full trailer under 5 minutes ago for the first time, did anyone else find it odd the voices in the MGS3 trailer were in Japanese and not... say... Russian w/subtitles?
Consider that MGS2 was all voiced over in Japanese language for Japanese market (although it's obvious most characters there shouldn't speak a word of Japanese), and it also had trailers with Japanese voices, etc. Nothing weird, nothing new, they just didn't have time to schedule David Hayter and others to do voices for E3 trailer.

Btw, back then I thought it would be cool if soldiers in MGS2 would spoke Russian with subtitles, instead of English with Russian accent. Well, I guess they all had to communicate with Ocelot, so English could have been the 'official' language for their mission.
 
Back
Top