Hirai says: six years until PS3 games use full system potential
It seems like Kaz Hirai is making his interview rounds today, as this next bit comes from the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM if you're acronymically inclined). It's been said before that the PS3 isn't going to let developers squeeze all of the power from it for a while, but Hirai finally put a fairly specific (we mean generally vague) date on this optimization of the PS3's potential. "The power that we've packed into PS3 will really manifest itself in software titles that come up four, five or six years down the line."
That's a long time! But looking at the most recent PS2 releases, we can't say Hirai is really straying far from what history tells us. Games now look oodles and boodles better than when the PS2 launched, so the same should be true for the PS3.
In fact, keeping the parallel with the PS2 alive, Hirai mentioned the difficulty developers are having coding for the PS3: "If you look back at the commentary we received when we launched PS2, there was a lot of talk to the effect that 'It's very difficult to program for' and 'It's easier on a Dreamcast'. It's happened before." He goes on to say that if people said it was easy to program the PS3, he'd be worried. That wouldn't be pushing the envelope for technological development, he explains. What do you guys think? Is Sony showing a bit of their trademark arrogance, or are they totally right in saying these things, because as Hirai said, it has all happened before?
