Dave Karraker would not take a Ferrari to Home Depot
Analogy alert! Dave Karraker recently slapped a new post on the official PlayStation blog regarding developers' complaints that the PS3 is hard to develop for. His stance on the issue is thus: "Since PS3's Cell processor allows MORE features -- better physics, more complex graphical processing, lighting or sound, etc. -- there is inevitably going to be more cost in supporting those extra features. It's not that PS3 is harder to write for, it's just that you can do more with it." You know what? That sounds like a valid claim. We're seeing some very amazing things come out of the PS3 as of late.
Going further down the post, Karraker talks more about the SPU's in the PS3's Cell. These are generally considered the most challenging point in a developer's learning curve and Karraker responds by giving us some Confucius-laden wisdom: "SPUs are not 'normal' processors like the PPU. There is a trade-off between performance and versatility. A Ferrari is not the best car for a visit to Home Depot." We know we'd never roll into Home Depot with our Ferrari. You can't fit anything in those cars! But what does Karraker mean? Is the SPU worthless for ports, at least making them far more difficult to program, or games that take place in big, empty warehouse stores? No matter the case, we're glad Sony's got a blog to support their baby. We know we've needed the reinforcements.
[via Gamasutra]
