EA dev: Get the 360 and/or Wii

Over at FreeRepublic.com, one of the recent discussions is centered on helping a poster figure out which of the three major consoles in the market he should purchase. It’s actually all quite mundane enough, that is, until Electronic Arts game dev Andrew Garett voices out what he really thinks would be a good and a not-so-good choice.

For those who may not be familiar with Garett, he joined the EA ranks back in 2003 and has been working on various titles such as the latest Command & Conquer game. He is also known for his work at his previous studio, Dragonstone Software, where he “developed scientific engines for moving hair and clothes on game characters, and artificial intelligence routines for more than 35 creatures” in the 2002 PS2, PC, GC, and Xbox title, Dragon’s Lair 3D: Return to the Lair.

Anyway, according to Garett,

Last year, the prediction was that Sony would win the next-gen war, that the PS3 would be the dominant console, just like the PS2 was.

That is no longer the case. The extremely strong performance of the Wii, combined with the miserable performance of Sony has revised pretty much everyone’s expectations. Right now, most of us here think the 360 will be on top for this generation, with the battle for second place between Sony and Nintendo (and that’s a major shock, as we’d nearly written Nintendo off for the non-handheld market.) Most of us still think Sony will beat off Nintendo, simply due to the older graphics on the Wii, but it’s not a sure thing.

My opinion – get the 360 and/or the Wii. Skip the PS3 unless there’s a big change in the near future.

Well, EA staff or not, he IS entitled to his own opinion. However, what may be disturbing from another point of view is the fact that a developer – an insider, one who probably knows all the nitty-gritty bits of the consoles better than the rest of us combined – seems to be disappointed with a particular system. For whichever company such a comment may be directed at, many would have already found this to be an alarming signal. However, there may still be hope that comments like this from members of the industry would finally be able to prompt the relevant people to start noticing the proverbial turd in the proverbial punch bowl. Better products also means happier consumers, after all.

Over at FreeRepublic.com, one of the recent discussions is centered on helping a poster figure out which of the three major consoles in the market he should purchase. It’s actually all quite mundane enough, that is, until Electronic Arts game dev Andrew Garett voices out what he really thinks would be a good and a not-so-good choice.

For those who may not be familiar with Garett, he joined the EA ranks back in 2003 and has been working on various titles such as the latest Command & Conquer game. He is also known for his work at his previous studio, Dragonstone Software, where he “developed scientific engines for moving hair and clothes on game characters, and artificial intelligence routines for more than 35 creatures” in the 2002 PS2, PC, GC, and Xbox title, Dragon’s Lair 3D: Return to the Lair.

Anyway, according to Garett,

Last year, the prediction was that Sony would win the next-gen war, that the PS3 would be the dominant console, just like the PS2 was.

That is no longer the case. The extremely strong performance of the Wii, combined with the miserable performance of Sony has revised pretty much everyone’s expectations. Right now, most of us here think the 360 will be on top for this generation, with the battle for second place between Sony and Nintendo (and that’s a major shock, as we’d nearly written Nintendo off for the non-handheld market.) Most of us still think Sony will beat off Nintendo, simply due to the older graphics on the Wii, but it’s not a sure thing.

My opinion – get the 360 and/or the Wii. Skip the PS3 unless there’s a big change in the near future.

Well, EA staff or not, he IS entitled to his own opinion. However, what may be disturbing from another point of view is the fact that a developer – an insider, one who probably knows all the nitty-gritty bits of the consoles better than the rest of us combined – seems to be disappointed with a particular system. For whichever company such a comment may be directed at, many would have already found this to be an alarming signal. However, there may still be hope that comments like this from members of the industry would finally be able to prompt the relevant people to start noticing the proverbial turd in the proverbial punch bowl. Better products also means happier consumers, after all.