Although both Microsoft and Sony would rather forget about the shortcomings of their respected consoles, interviews that zero in on those nasty blemishes are never in short supply. Buried somewhere in the words of developers who recount first-hand experience of working with projects on competing consoles, lies personal opinion, which we hope is equally mixed with truth. Such interviews tend to show the frustrations and joys of developers, as they try to make a game as great as it can be across all platforms — each with its own set of complexities to take into account.
More often than not, you can tell which version is preferred, as the venom spews all too easily when referring to limitations that inevitably lead to delays and complications that only make life that much harder on their end. Having said that, it’s great to see that at least one developer is up to the task of making sure that games released on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are, for better or worse, of equal quality. The developer is Ubisoft, and the game in question is none other than Assassin’s Creed. Speaking with Pro-G, the game’s creative director, Patrice Desilets had this to say about their experience of working on both platforms:
“Both have their own challenges. Right now we have a big challenge on the 360 to make it fit on a DVD, to put five languages, to put all the data on eight gigs. On the Blu-ray side we’re really good, but then the memory is quite different. How we handle memory is really different between the two machines and we’re struggling right now on the PS3. But we have people who are really dedicated and we’re having help from Microsoft on one side and Sony on the other side to have the same quality on both systems. It really depends on the week basically as to who’s best.”
Let this serve as a reminder that contrary to popular opinion, neither Microsoft, Sony, or even Nintendo for that matter, has managed to make a perfect machine. Thank goodness for this interview. Not only did everyone get called out on their faults, but each appears to be willing to go the extra mile to make up for it. Do you think that Ubisoft be able to deliver on its promise that one format won’t be better than the next?
[Thanks Justin]
