A report from Dr. Dobb’s long-running software development journal has confirmed one of the rumours of PS3 development: it’s powerful, but difficult to program for. The article also confirms that ports for the console “can’t expect to exploit this potential by just recompiling your current applications. Applications must be radically redesigned in terms of computation and data transfers.” That might explain some of the less than stellar ports we’ve seen recently for the PS3.

The report's outlook on the porting issue is echoed by Sony's David Karakker, as reported by Game Pro. "The 360 is a different machine with good, but lower powered hardware in a different architecture. Developers have to view them as two different machines not as a common platform," he said.

Sony’s PS3 has gotten off to a rocky start in terms of the games library. While the PS3 packs an impressive amount of power, it’s of no use if it’s prohibitively difficult to develop for. With Sony losing a lot of big exclusives to the Xbox 360, people are less likely to want a PS3 over an Xbox 360. This leads to yet fewer developers wanting to work on the PS3, due to a smaller installed user base. Sony’s got a lot of clout, so if they follow through on their promise to support the console for a long period, then we might start seeing games coming out that really use the power of the cell.

via Game Pro

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