Why “the PS3 is a huge pain in the ass” to develop for compared to Xbox 360, according to Wheelman developer

26 February 2009

Posted by:Josh

It has been said that the PlayStation 3 is a tough-system to develop for, much less when you compare it to the Xbox 360 which is more similar to a PC.

The above sentiment is how Shuan Himmerick, Executive Producer of the Vin Diesel-starring game “Wheelman” feels, although he was a bit more harsh in his assessment.

When asked by ThisXboxLife what it had been like to develop a game simultaneously for Xbox 360 and PS3, Himmerick replied:

“The politically incorrect answer is that the PS3 is a huge pain in the ass. Anyone making a game, if you’re going to make it for both Xbox 360 and PS3, just lead on the PS3 because if it works on the PS3 it’ll work on 360. The easiest way to look at it is, the 360 has one big chunk of memory, but the PS3 has two chunks of memory that in total are the same size as the Xbox, but because they’re split you can’t share memory the same way. That will bite you in the ass, and it bit us in the ass bad.

“We had to play catch up on the PS3 because of the memory constraints and how it renders, how it processes is just different. And it’s harder on the PS3. The Xbox is just like a dumb PC, which is great because it’s easier to build a game on a PC.”

Wheelman starring Vin Diesal ships on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on March 24th 2009 in America and on March 27th in Europe.

To read the rest of Himmerick’s thoughts in an hour long interview check out the ThisXboxLife The Wheelman interview.