In a report supposedly by Jason Kraft and Chris Kwak of Susquehanna Financial Group, they look at the Xbox 360 and the PS3 with respect to their storage formats.

They note that the PSOne won over the N64 partly because its CD format had a 640MB capacity vs the N64 cartridge’s 128MB. In the current generation, the PS2 and Xbox formats were the same (DVD), so other factors were used to differentiate the systems.

The next generation of consoles use Blu-ray and DVD drives, in the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively. For some reason, the article liked to compare the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD, which the Xbox 360 doesn’t have. It also mentioned the Blu-ray media’s higher price as a negative against the PS3. But you know, PS3 games don’t have to come on BD discs! My guess is that if a game fits on a single DVD, they’ll publish the game on a DVD. If multiple DVD’s would be required, they’ll publish on a BD instead.

Then Joystiq goes on to say that the report missed out on discussing the Xbox 360’s HDD. Well, Joystiq missed out on the fact that the PS3 will have an HDD too!

Joystiq - DVD format matters: Xbox 360 VS. PS3

Gamecloud interviews Jeff Yates from Havok, purveyors of physics technology for games.

It’s really more of a general interview about Havok, and the PS3 is only mentioned in passing when Mr. Yates notes that “all Playstation 3 games that ship with Havok technology will utilize our latest 3.2 product version”.

But if you’re interested in this kind of thing, it’s a good read.

Gamecloud - Havok Interview

Also, it seems that you can use a GPU to accelerate physics operations.

GameSpot: Why did you choose to add physics to the GPU rather than develop your own physics chip, like Ageia?

Jeff Yates: Our single focus is to enable developers to create great games. When we look at the history and momentum of the GPU manufacturers, and the persistent interest in general purpose GPU development, it seemed like a no-brainer to leverage the large amounts of time and money GPU manufacturers have invested to win over the hearts and minds of PC gamers.

GS: Is this [Havok FX], a direct response to Ageia’s physics chip?

JY: For us it is a question of demand and hardware economics. We support platforms with strong install bases and platforms that our customers ask us to support. The installed base and momentum of GPUs is a great opportunity for Havok to deliver even more physics without requiring specialized hardware. To date we’ve received no requests from customers to support Ageia hardware.

Jeff Yates also says that “Certainly for next generation consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, there’s no opportunity to plug in a custom hardware card, so I’m really not sure what the customer benefit will be for a proprietary hardware API in the console space.”

I’m not so sure about that. The Cell processor has 7 SPE’s that are well suited to accelerating physics operations. An API tailored to that hardware could be a good thing. Not knowing the details, I may be wrong. I’d like to hear from anyone in the know…

Gamespot - Q&A: Havok says GPUs are fine for physics

Epic Games Vice Pres Mark Rein had a lot to say at the IGN Live event. One of them was that he didn’t like the new Nintendo controller. Or the prototype PS3 one Sony has been showing around (join the club, man).

Most interestingly, he said that the cost of developing a next-gen game isn’t as high as some people claim:

I’ve heard EA and Activision make absolutely ridiculous statements about, ‘Oh, it’s going to take 30 million dollars to make a game and we need 300 people’ - that’s just a bunch of bullsh–.

They’re just covering up for their own management and incompetence. Or mismanagement I should say.

Our team size is only about 50 per cent higher than it was last generation, and we’re making fantastic games. Gears of War [Epic’s forthcoming Xbox 360 title] is only about 25 people, and that’s smaller than most current-generation game teams.

Interesting…

myxbox360.com - Epic VP Gets Mouthy, Slates PS3 and Revolution

Unreal Engine 3 will have some competition in the next-gen graphics engine department from Emergent Technologies. They already have a version of their engine running on the Xbox 360, and plan for a PS3 version as well.

Talking at the Austin Game Conference, the company announced that it has shipped version 2.1 of Gamebryo, and that the new version features Xbox 360 final platform support. It has also confirmed for the first time that a PlayStation 3 version of the engine is currently in development. In addition, Gamebryo 2.1 adds a visual performance tool, a reduced memory footprint, a memory allocation system and support for Max 8 and Maya 7.

Gamasutra - Emergent Announces Plans, PS3 Version Of Engine

For all you crazy PS3 and Xbox 360 fans out there who like the Human Torch’s famous words “Flame on!” then this is for you.

From Software is releasing Armored Core 4 for both the PS3 and Xbox 360, and has released trailers for both games.

I haven’t gotten a chance to download these yet, but I will be soon and will be posting an update to this article with my thoughts.

But I thought I’d put it out there for you all to look at and post your opinions.

IGN - PS3 vs X360

Kagan Research is predicting that the Xbox 360 will have the lead over the PS3 in installed base at the end of 2006. (Assuming that the PS3 will launch in the 2nd half of 2006.) Kinda makes sense because the Xbox 360 will have almost a year lead in that case. Kagan thinks that in 2008 the PS3 will have pulled ahead in cumulative sales, and thinks that the 2008 sales will break down like this: PS3 - 54%, Xbox 360 - 24%, Revolution - 22%.

Other interesting estimates revealed by the report overview include suggestions that total video game console sales over all generations are expected to climb to $6.4 bil. in 2007, though projected to slip to $5.9 bil. in 2008. In addition, total video game industry revenue – hardware, software and accessories for all platforms – is forecast to peak at $16 bil. in 2007. Kagan also expects Nintendo to retain a dominant presence in the handheld market with the DS, although the company did not publically release estimates on the margin of this success.

Gamasutra - Kagan Forecasts Xbox 360 Sales Win In 2006

It should come as no surprise that there was another expo at which Sony didn’t reveal anything new about the PS3. Well, Mr. Ken Kutaragi was a speaker at WPC Expo in Tokyo, but he didn’t really say much.

Today’s new buzzword, introduced by Kutaragi during his speech, is “Reality Synthesis.” Kutaragi used this term (he said it in English) to describe what he feels is the core of the PS3: “creating a real time world in real time.”

Kutaragi also tossed out many of the concepts Sony’s been using in tandem with the PS3 since the start, from home servers to interconnected CELL processors. The CELL will allow for multiple streams of noise-free high definition video with a wide dynamic range and high frame rate. Using a home server featuring multiple CELL processors, you’ll be able to download contents from the internet using high speed connections and up convert it in real time before playing on the PS3. And so on….

Yeah I know, all stuff we’ve heard before.

IGN: PS3: Reality Synthesizer