PC, XBOX PS3, Cross platform. Why is it bad?

[D007]

I keep hearing about animation limitations and other issues, that cross platform brings to pc.. Are these truly warranted reasons?

Does anyone know of any articles, that prove why cross platform is bad for the pc, from consoles? I am curious..
I have always heard a lot of negativity, is any of it warranted?

 

[erocker]

Current consoles are about 8 years old.

Games become limited to those consoles.

Ports to PC don't take advantage of PC hardware and it angers PC users.

The cycle of this happening will reset at the end of this year with PS4 and new Xbox.

I don't care, I just want good games.

The end.

 

[syeef]

Ports to PC are often not optimized, meaning poorly coded as compared to consoles which can also lead to performance issues.

 

[D007]

So really there are no "Limitations" Just bad instances of cross platform coding?
Everything could be scaled appropriately?

 

[syeef]

So really there are no "Limitations" Just bad instances of cross platform coding?
Everything could be scaled appropriately?

Yes. Developers do this just to save time, resource and effort (who wouldn't).

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So really there are no "Limitations" Just bad instances of cross platform coding?
Everything could be scaled appropriately?

There are. Most ported games use barely more than 1 GiB of RAM because Consoles have around 512 MiB. They don't scale well to the extra resources computers have. Additionally, all game parameters are coded with those console limitations in mind. For example, ambitious projects like Spore and SimCity are few and far between because the big publishers target as many platforms as possible to maximize profits. When they aren't looking at developing for just one platform, they have to code for the least common denominator (usually a console--prior to Wii U launch, it was the Wii).

Publishers also anticipate the least sales so they don't try very hard to squeeze every frame out of the code. They expect you to buy a new computer or upgrade an exisiting one if it is inadequate putting the burden on the end user instead of the developer.

 

[xenocide]

This is soon to be a problem of the past (for the most part). The PS4 was announced and it uses an x86 CPU, which cuts down on the hassle of programming a game for PowerPC-based architecture (optimized for instruction sets exclusive to said architecture) and porting it over to the PC (which is almost exclusively x86 these days). On top of that, the CPU in the PS4 is an "8 Core" AMD CPU, meaning more heavily threaded games, using similar hardware to most PC's, will be made. These new consoles may also usher in the dawn of 64-bit games, as they will all be programmed to take advantage of up to 8GB of RAM--something that isn't possible without the larger address space that accompanies 64-bit--not to mention the fact that the system even has 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, compared to 256MB\256MB of the PS3 and 512MB of the Xbox 360.

Even if you don't want consoles, if the 360 follows rumors as well as the PS4 did, we can expect another AMD x86-based CPU with tons of RAM and a decent GPU, which will mean greatly improved cross platform games. It's a tough time to be the Wii U though, with its dated PowerPC-based design, it has an even lower chance of getting cross platform support. It's almost like Sony and Microsoft did this intentionally...