[quote name='BattleChicken']As odd as it feels to disagree with you, your conclusion is the one that is false.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common-cause.html
Just because the quality of
some ports are equal does NOT mean that the architecture isn't difficult to work with, and that seems to be what you are asserting. This argument then ignores the common cause for ALL quality titles -- the work of the development team.
From a gamer's perspective, good games = good platform, however using the games as an indication of the quality of the platform in terms of DEVELOPMENT just doesn't work.
If a dev has to put, lets say 10%, more effort into the PS3 version of a title to make it equal to the PC or Xbox 360 version, then the platform HAS a detrimental impact on the quality, as money, time, and efforts are a tangible, finite resouce. The delays for many of the PS3 version of cross platform titles lends evidence to the idea that that platform IS more difficult to work with. Using that criteria, it could then be said that the PS3 is inferior to comparible platforms from a development perspective.
If platform A and platform B can generate quality Q in X time (time equating to effort, money, and human resources), and platform C requires some substancial (not near zero) value greater than X to equal Q in quality, then logically A or B would be more desirable than C. This is without factoring in market share or potential gains, which would be additionally detrimental to C currently.
The additional time and effort that a developer determined to deliver a quality product pours into the development cycle shouldn't be ignored. Saying "if they only worked harder...' misses the point. Just because some developers are willing to put in the extra effort to have equal quality multi platform titles does not mean that ALL are willing to.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-popularity.html.
edit: edited to fix my second link.[/QUOTE]
:lol: Been reading up on your logical fallacies today, eh?
There are two things being argued here (here being this thread, not your post exclusively):
1) The PS3 is an inferior console
2) The PS3 is more difficult to take advantage of in terms of development
I wholly disagree with #1, and can see some evidence of #2 (given the delays of, at least, Stranglehold and Orange Box - are there others as well that are at least 4 weeks separated?).
Nevertheless, the "unwillingness," as you speculate it, of programmers to optimize code may very well exist. Newell did not mince words with his disdain for the PS3 as a console to develop for. Now the problem becomes one of a self-fulfilling prophecy. His treatment of the PS3 Orange Box as a bastard child makes me uncertain about its quality - irrespective of the reviews - and wonder if I'd want to play it/buy it. So, if people don't buy it because they're skeptical of it, and the 360 version outsells it tenfold, the PS3's shortcomings become, at least in part, a developer-created reality.
But that's neither here nor there, I suppose.
What I will say is that, to the best of my knowledge, developers have had their hands on 360 development tools for far longer than PS3 development tools. We also know that the PS3 is a far more complex system to develop for. So your hypothetical 10% is not cut-and-dry as you think (just like "development costs" for a multiplatform title can rarely be understood or partitioned into claims of "this version cost this much"). If that 10% now makes next year's model (and let's be honest, as gamers we're going in the direction that games are almost like automobiles at this point :lol

far easier to develop, then it's worth it, no?
Going to Madden again, if they could have optimized the code this year, then making Madden 09 will likely require fewer manhours. And we all know the improvements to Madden from year to year can't be *that* bloody involved.
And you're quite right about developers not being willing to. That's what makes me sick - moreso quality developers halfassing very good games than shitty developers halfassing shovelware. I can at least spot the latter when it's still on the shelf at the store.