When the PS2 came out, developers bitched and moaned about how difficult it was to program for and it took a while before truly impressive games were out on the system.  Fast forward to November, 2006 with the release of the PS3.

Developers bitched and moaned about how difficult it was to program for.  It launched with Resistance and shortly after had MotorStorm and then… then… well, nothing much really.  It took quite a while for games to come out.  Then people started to realize multiplatform games were being released on the 360 on schedule but the PS3 versions were almost always delayed (sometime by many months).

This problem is still somewhat of a concern with the PS3 but shows signs of relief.  There have been a few notable day and date releases of multiplatform titles and there are several theories about what the problem is and how best to handle it.

Read more after the jump…

There are some developers, such as Infinity Ward and Criterion that don’t understand what all the fuss is.  You develop your PS3 version for the PS3 and your 360 version for the 360 and at the end of the day, your product is virtually indistinguishable across the two platforms.  Then you get developers like Valve that despise the PS3 so much they’ll farm out their PS3 versions to EA and are then surprised when it gets slammed by the gaming press and (I’m willing to go out on a limb here) doesn’t sell well.

Sony of America’s Jack Tretton, Factor 5’s Julian Eggebrecht and others have surmised that one reason some developers are experiencing delays and subpar performance on their PS3 ports is that they lead development on the 360 and then attempt to port code written for a very different architecture over to the PS3’s Cell processor and they have trouble matching the performance they get on the 360.  They believe that the answer is to lead development on the PS3 and then port to the 360 for a more uniform experience.  Infinity Ward has even said they didn’t have a lead platform and were developing both at the same time.

Keen observers will notice that some developers deliver complaints and excuses while other developers deliver the goods.  Hopefully some of the whiners will take a look at what the other guys are doing and we’ll start seeing this current generation take off and blow us away instead of struggling to meet our expectations.

That’s why PS3 Game Delays clocks in at #49 on the Sarcastic Gamer Top 100 Gaming Moments of 2007.

Click here for the rest of Sarcastic Gamer’s Top 100 Gaming Moments from 2007 all in one place!

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