Square Enix: ‘PS3 Has Advantage in Performance over Xbox 360′

Square Enix Worldwide Technical Director, Julien Merceron, went on the record to proclaim the PlayStation 3 hardware as technically superior in a recent interview. The game director believes that over the progression of the console life cycle, the PlayStation 3 games have become more advanced than the competition.

Square Enix: 'PS3 Has Advantage in Performance Over Xbox 360'

Square Enix Worldwide Technical Director, Julien Merceron, went on the record to proclaim the PlayStation 3 hardware as technically superior in a recent interview. The game director believes that over the progression of the console life cycle, the PlayStation 3 games have become more advanced than the competition.

Merceron had this to say:

"Some consumers could have gotten the feeling in 2006/2007 that graphically, Xbox 360 games were more advanced, but today it is quite different in fact," Merceron said. "Personally I'd say that on PS3 I believe there are some major improvements that can still be done, taking advantage of parallelisation and using more of the CPU for graphics tasks. At the end of current home console life cycle, it is very possible consumers might get the feeling PS3 is slightly ahead of Xbox 360 in terms of graphic, but it will only happen if developers dedicate time to really push things on PS3."

Merceron's theory could explain why PlayStation 3 exclusives mop the floor with third party titles when it comes to visual fidelity, and Sony faithful need only point to a handful of games to iterate that point (God of War 3, Uncharted 2&3, etc.)

By Al McCarthy on November 4, 2011

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73 COMMENTS

josh
REPLY

props
AKA Zzz
REPLY

That’s an interesting theory.
Titan
REPLY

Interesting, but I think most of us knew this back in 09 when uncharted 2 came out.
- Allen
  
  Actually it was June 2008. Metal Gear Solid 4 – still better looking than any Xbox 360 game – especially their exclusives.
- Cool dude
  
  I beg to differ.
- Silenthawx
  
  Graphically MGS4 raped many games over and over
Cool dude
REPLY

Rage, Skyrim, Call of Duty, Gears of War, DOOM devs says that the 360 is better.

Assassin’s creed, BF3, UC devs say that the Ps3 is better.

Can someone say the truth???

Not you allen -_-

Jokes
- piñeraconchetumare
  
  the devs that say the xbox is better is because its easier to develop for….now i really doubt ubisoft says the ps3 is better since all of their games look better on the 360 …but the ones that say the ps3 is better is because thye know if they take their time they can make more stuff and nicer graphics on the ps3
Waldo
REPLY

The 360 breaks so much so how can it ever be “better”.
- Cool dude
  
  not the 360 slim.
- AMir
  
  You’re right Cool Dude, it doesn’t break, it just eats your games.
- Allen
  
  Wow cool dude keeps defending the slim like it’s the holy grail.
  
  Too bad the slim does indeed get the Red Dot of Death, not RROD (they took the lights out) then of course disk scratching and swapping disks like it’s 1995.
  
  Add paying online and paying for online passes ha ha, then add that all of Xbox’s best games are on PC (Fable, Gears, Halo, Mass Effect, Left 4 Dead, Battlestations etc.)
  
  OH YEAH I FORGOT!!!!!!!
  
  Square Enix does Battlestations, an Xbox 360 exclusive, hum funny how the publisher that released exclusives on xbox is saying PS3 is way better.
  
  ha ha ha! Oh and cool dude I think you asked where our extra power was the other day.
  
  LOL
- Allen
  
  Awe I was wrong, it’s Eidos
- Cool dude
  
  YOU MEAN THOSE GAMES ARE ON WINDOWS???
  
  Which microsoft owns :P
- A113n
  
  Ha! Fk anyone that thumbed you up for that.
  
  DO NOT EVEN THINK THAT MICRO$NOT can take credit for my beloved PC gaming experiences. The operating system being windows does not mean it’s a M$ gaming platform.
  
  PC gaming is epic, the best of the best on so many levels, with FREE TO PLAY online play.
  
  Micro$oft only provides the operating system, that’s it. Not the hardware
- Stanley
  
  it’s true. the difference between the PC and XBOX is that microsoft only provides the operating system for the PC (if you’re going with a Windows PC). The whole XBOX is designed by Microsoft (even though some of its parts such as the disc drive are supplied by third parties). That really is a big difference, and if people can’t see this they don’t know jack about computers. For all intents and purposes, Microsoft does not design computers anymore.
- Cool dude
  
  Well, i guess Allen “Don’t know jack about computers” then lol.
  
  :D
- Heard it here first
  
  The games are for PC. that means having an Xbox 360 is pretty much pointless if you have a PC powerful enough to run all the games anyways. why would you put up with RROD and other stuff, when your PC is 10 times better, and has all the exclusives 360 does. not to mention, PC outlasts all consoles. as sad as that is. I don’t like PC gaming, I’m clarifying what somebody said.
- Cool dude
  
  Funny how you said that 360 is useless when you have a Powerful PC…. well what about PS3?
  
  Id just sell both of them if i have a good PC
- Heard it here first
  
  @Cool dude You don’t get PS3 exclusives for PC like you can for 360. that’s why I would keep my PS3 and get rid of the 360.
- Cool dude
  
  Get a Ps3 and get out dated graphics of BF3? lol yeah, if I had a PC I wouldnt get consoles anyway. Id rather enjoy 64 players of fun thank you very much. Plus Ps3 exclusives dont appeal to me cuz no one plays them online because of “lower that expected sales”. Except for UC3 ofcource. Lol :D
Jon may
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Both are old ,wait for next gen or get a pc
Titan
REPLY

I tried to say something nice and Allen has to come through and correct me with that metal gear comment.
- bozmanbeyond
  
  What else is new? He still likes to throw the old disk scratching theory. Still to this day I ask who the hell moves their system while playing a game?!?!
- A113n
  
  Hey, I wasn’t thumbing you down or anything. Just note that Metal Gear Solid 4 is still one of the best looking games of this generation.
  
  Sorry if I offended you.
- Cool dude
  
  Don’t forget the “Disk Tray theory” and the “External Power Brick theory”. LOL haahhahaaa
  
  I don’t even know why they matter.
- A113n
  
  Disk scratching is not a theory, there’s been complete studies and everything, come to find out Micro$not is too cheap to put in a plastic buffer that keeps the disk from moving, lawsuit and all.
  
  Also there’s many youtube videos.
  
  The thing is, PEACE OF MIND. You want to know what peace of mind is? We’ll it’s priceless. It means that just about anything can happen to a blu ray disk and I’ll still be able to clean it up, take it down to software ect. and get $8 for it. Like the 8 games I took from a rental clean up, 6 PS3 disks fused together with soda. Just some soaking in warm water, scrubbing down and guess what? No scratch.
  
  So PS3 has the highest capacity, highest quality, no disk scratching and peace of mind that your disk won’t scratch.
  
  Xbox – swapping disks like it’s 1995 on all major games, lowest quality, disk scratching and ruining $60 games if the console is slightly bumped , moved or picked up.
- Cool dude
  
  Here we go again… just like in 1995.
  
  Lol :D
- Heard it here first
  
  I thought the textures on MGS 4 were too smooth IMO. I never saw/didn’t see a graphical difference from 360 to PS3 until Uncharted 2 came out. then I knew the BIG difference.
Raven
REPLY

Best part of the article, “need only point to a handful of games,” almost 6 years of bragging about graphics and only a handful to prove it.
IHATEHIPSTERS
REPLY

the guy who wrote the code for doom and for rage said that the xbox 360 is superior to the ps3. looks like everyone has contradicting opinions?
Adam
REPLY

In the end, the two are so close it doesn’t really matter. Both consoles are inferior to PC’s at this point anyways. Games look great on both consoles. In terms of pure hardware, I’d give the edge to the PS3 actually. But no one plays games just for graphics anyways.

What’s more important than hardware is the talent of the developers creating the games. The Sega Dreamcast was leaps and bounds more powerful than a lot of the competition, but in the end it just never got the steam it needed.
DGTonny
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Devs have stated before that they are just now figuring out the unique architecture for the PS3.

They said it just took a lot of time to figure out, but since they have found new ways to place memory, it’s essentially leap frogged the 360.

I forget what other companies have stated what this article said, but search around if you don’t believe me.
- DGTonny
  
  Of course, some devs have stated the same for the 360, but those are the ones who have been traditionally more MS than Sony, (see Bethesda, for example.) And haven’t made very many games for the PS3.
Jimmer
REPLY

Carmack didn’t say it was superior as in power. He just prefers to develop for it. He’s been primarily a PC developer, of course he’s going to like the 360. Who could blame him? He’s used to the same style of development. There is no denying that the PS3 can do more. All you have to do is look at the first party titles, which there are a lot of. I just finished Gears 3 Sunday. I just finished Uncharted 3 last night. Gears 3 is an awesome game! It is one title that truly shows the 360s immense power. Uncharted 3 just had the polish. The shine. It is hands down the best game on the market right now. When Sony was talking of the “potential” of the PS3, this is what they were talking about. You cannot deny that if a developer put forth the extra effort they can get more out of the PS3 than the 360. Totally unbiased. I love both my systems. I am a gamer. I do not discriminate against that which I love. There are experiences on the 360 I can’t get on the PS3 and vice versa. It’s just a lot of the times, the experiences are better on the PS3.
- Cool dude
  
  2011 was the year of the PS3 exclusives, 2012 is MS’s turn. Let the games begin.
IHATEHIPSTERS
REPLY

ok but is it worth waiting 5 years for studios to start optimizing the ps3 i mean cmon?
Jimmer
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Games on both systems were being optimized to run better. We didn’t wait 5 years for polished games. Uncharted 1 landed in ’07. MGS4 in ’08. Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2 in ’09. For those years those games blew past what was on the table. It took Epic up until this year to optimize the Unreal Engine 3 for Gears 3. It’s been a waiting process for everyone, not just PS3 owners. PS3 first party titles have always topped what the 360 offered.
- IHATEHIPSTERS
  
  now your just trolling, gears 1 was an amazing looking game that set the benchmark for next generation titles and it was released in 06. before you just stated that only now ps3 is showing to be more powerful because they are pushing the ps3 further than the xbox. i stated that this is 5 years after the ps3 has come out and not really worth the wait as xbox has had amazing games from day one. you then stated that ps3 has been optimizing games since uncharted 1. get your facts straight.
- Jimmer
  
  Where exactly did I state that only now the PS3 is showing to be more powerful? You are the one that said we had to wait five years. I’m telling you that we haven’t. I was showing you that as early as ’07 they were figuring out how to squeeze more juice out of it. You seem to think that there has been no need for improvement on the 360s end. Have you seen the amount of polish they have put on Gears from 1-3. On Halo from 3 to Reach? My point was to tell you that both consoles have undergone the same maturity cycle. Wise up. My facts are straight fella.
Jubay
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Well it all depends on the game makers…… that makes sense .. If they where to take thier time we would have better looking games but would they be better??
Raven
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Great that Sony released a game or two each year that topped most out there, too bad that just meant the majority of multiplats ended up better on Xbox.
Swinginest Dick in Tamriel
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This is just a debate article with no real point or entertainment value. Who cares?
Gman
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“but it will only happen if developers dedicate time to really push things on PS3.”

QFT, that’s the problem, too many developers just go for the lazy way and do a port job and calls it a day.
- Cool dude
  
  No its the economic dip. Developers are trying to save money and they can;t dedicate their money on further optimizing the PS3 cuz it costs money.
- IHATEHIPSTERS
  
  also they dont see the point, because xbox 360 versions of the game always sell better. and as for exclusives. if you put together all the xbox exclusives and compared them to sales to the ps3 exclusives. the xbox has more sales. so you might get more exclusives but in the end i guess its quality versus quantity.
- abc
  
  @IHATEHIPSTERS
  
  that is a very wrong argument that just proves youre still a kid.
  
  only people who played both games on the ps3 and xbox360 can say who has the better exclusives which in your case couldnt be the case.and
  
  ive had xbox360 and i played gears of war and it was great. but the uncharted series is the reason i sold my xbox and bought a ps3. if youre saying quality is better than quantity then the uncharted series alone would beat any xbox exclusive in terms of quality. and of course a lot of xbox360 exclusives will sell more because the xbox doesnt have a lot of exclusives thus limiting its fanbase from choosing.
  
  youre worse than allen because you utter sh!t you cant even comprehend. you ride the xbox360′s dick so hard that you have blind idolism to the product.
  
  but ive got to admit
  
  forza 3 and 4 are better than gran turismo 5
  halo is way better than killzone and resistance combined
  
  but uncharted sh!ts all over gears of war and only a fanboy would contradict so otherwise.
- Cool dude
  
  UC3 could probably be the best exclusive in this generation and gears is a great game too. I just use gears more cuz of its multiplayer.
- Heard it here first
  
  @IHATEHIPSTERS Um, PS3 sells better in other countries then 360, so no, it is not because they don’t sell as much. The problem is that they want to release games faster, and its cheaper to port. People that own a PS3 only, wouldn’t just buy a 360 to have the best version of the game. they would buy the game anyways, so the developers don’t care.
Truth Be Told
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There’s no reason for this article because everyone should know PS3 brings in better quality, and it lasts longer.
Brevs
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I am an xbox 360 gamer and I agree that ps3 has an advantage if the hardware is utilized properly. Most games that are ported to the ps3 look bad because it doesn’t utilize all of the hardware to its maximum ability. But, PS3 exclusive games look absolutely amazing (for console) because it uses all of the hardware to its maximum ability (I.E. Uncharted 2 & 3, MGS4). But All3n, some of your statements about the xbox are just pointless and shows great arrogance from you. If you are to lazy to swap a disk, then you have some major issues. Also, i don’t recall the xbox slim having a high rate of it eating disks or getting the red dot of death. If you cant pay 5 or so dollars a month to play online, then you shouldn’t own a gaming console. You need to stop trolling on everything you dislike or at least deliver some constructive criticism if you are going to troll.
- A113n
  
  It’s $5 a month only if you pay yearly, so it’s really $60 at one time.
  
  So basically out these games that are about to release: Battlefield 3, MW3, Batman Arkham City, Assasssins Creed Revelations, Skyrim
  
  how many do you own? Did you get to buy one?
  
  WELL GUESS WHAT?
  
  Everyone else in the world gets to buy a second game on release day instead of pissing out hard earned cash to xbox for no reason.
- A113n
  
  Study shows that Xbox still has a 10% failure rate, industry standard is 3%.
- Cool dude
  
  I love paying for Xbox Live because of services it provides me, I love how it pisses Allen so much.
  
  :D
IHATEHIPSTERS
REPLY

I LIKE TO SUCK DICK!! THUMB ME DOWN IF YOU DONT LIKE TO BE SUCKED BY ME!!
- IHATEHIPSTERS
  
  this is just another example of how immature ps3 owners are. its probably abc or something. they are so desperate to try and prove something that isnt true that they create false account on here and troll. its pathetic. the same thing happend to cool dude. i guess this proves that xbox 360 owners are more mature and dont mind paying 5$ a month for an awesome gaming service.
- abc
  
  for someone who is supposed to be “mature” you sure act like a d!ck.
- ragglefraggle1
  
  ahh, hypocrisy at its best :)
  
  Can’t tell you how many times ive seen Live kids threatening to “rape” people when they lose.
  Well done “mature” xbots, lol
drake
REPLY

And not a single fuck was given in the comments section.
truth be told who gives a flying fuck which looks better.
- Truth Be Told
  
  @drake I said it is quality gaming I said nothing about which console looks better so fuck off you damn troll.
- drake
  
  im not talking about you moron i said truth be told as in the term TRUTH BE TOLD who gives a shit about u or your username
Brevs
REPLY

@ All3n

If you have a job you can buy your gold and get a second game on release day. Anyway, its not like your buying gold every time a new game comes out… Nice try though.
- Allen
  
  Oh great thanks! I had no idea that my budget would allow for that.
  
  Lets’ see.
  
  Mortagage; power bill; gas bill; garbage bill; water bill; Preschool; 2nd mortgage, 3rd mortgage, discover card; JC Penny; Gasoline; insurance; personal line of credit
  
  I’m sure I forgot something but BUDGET is something a person with a job and a house and a family have to do.
  
  Also this is a recession, WHY THE HELL DO YOU KIDS THINK we should just piss out our hard earned money? i don’t fking understand.
  
  Xbox gives NOTHING for their free. Why would I just pay it? And how the hell do you not understand that it’s a brand new game on release day. I never get to do that, maybe 2-4 times a year I get a brand new game on release day and I really have to care because I have a small “budget” for video games. For some reason i got to make sure I got enough $ to pay my bills before I buy more video games.
  
  Xbox is not worth it, not even close, not in a million years would I support xbox live. Piece of $hit overpriced hardware
- Cool dude
  
  Its common sense Allen, Don’t buy what you can’t afford.
- Allen
  
  Actually it is common sense.
  
  Hum – do I pay $60 for something that is Free on all other gaming platforms or do I just piss it out.
  
  Do I pay $300 for a gaming console that can’t browse the internet, play blu ray movies, and is the only one pay to play? Also this console makes you “pay” for the “right” to “pay” for a sub to netflix or hulu.
  
  Exclusives are supposed to entice you to buy one particular console over another. Xbox has no true exclusives. Sure yes, Gears 2&3, Halo 3, ODST & Reach aren’t on PC. But Gears 1 is, Halo CE and 2 is and all the other good games xbox has are on PC. That means Xbox has no exclusives.
  
  Xbox singles it’s self out as the ass hole of the group.
  
  Xbox – refuses to lower costs, no exclusives, pissed on original xbox users, pissed on PC users, pissed on 360 users (RROD & expensive proprietary upgrades)
  
  Xbox doesn’t do anything unless you pay them first. They also have done scam after scam and they are the only gaming platform without any true exclusives.
- Cool dude
  
  “no exclusives”?
  
  Xbox 360= Exclusives: Gears of War 3 9.5, Halo: Reach 9.5, Halo 3 9.5, Fable 3 8.1, Allan Wake 8.5, Viva Pinata 8.5, Saints Row2: 8.2, Mass Effect 9.3, Forza motorsport 4 9.2, Braid 9.3, Bastion 8.7, Tom Clancy’s: Splinter Cell Conviction 8.6, CastleCrushers 8.5, Left 4 Dead 2 9.0, Project Gotham Racing 4 8.7, Gaiden 2 8.2, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts 8.3, The GunStringer 8.5, Dance Central 2 8.6, Toy Soldiers 8.3, Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars: 8.5, Dead Rising: 8.5.
  
  “pissed on original xbox”
  
  We have backwards compatibility on the original xbox while your precious ps3 don’t have back wards compatibility on ps2.
  
  Allen MS owns Windows, thats why they make it on the WINDOWS as well. NOT ON THE PS3
- Cool dude
  
  Plus I don’t want to play on a service with a recent horrible history.
  
  -Leap Year bug-2010
  -Ps Home day one server failures-2009
  -PSN 93,000 accounts compromised-2011
  -PSN outage for 3 weeks (I suffered)-2011
  -2nd Largest Data Breach in history-2011
  
  Id rather play on a service that provides so much more features, better security, reliable servers and better connection.
  
  Yeah Xbox Live was hacked 4 years ago and the hundreds of players are accidentally banned this year (MS owned up to the banned people and compensated $70). But none of their players had their personal info stolen.
Brevs
REPLY

@allen “Xbox – refuses to lower costs, no exclusives, pissed on original xbox users, pissed on PC users, pissed on 360 users (RROD & expensive proprietary upgrades)”

Why would microsoft lower their prices when they are doing just fine from where they are at? They do have exclusives (you named them all in your post derp) . All of the games you names that ARE xbox exclusive are on PC because they were ported after the game was released for Xbox. They didn’t piss on PC gamers. They have games for windows. They even have a page on their website for pc gamers. I like how you still talk about the xbox RROD when only the first two versions of xbox had that problem for the majority of users and that was back when the xbox was just released so obviously new technology is going to have issues.. You honestly do not need a blue ray player and an internet browser if you already have them. But then again, you always talk about free like its some sort of common occurrence around the world. Like every company should have their things for free instead of making money to improve the console so they dont have security breaches (cough cough).
- A113n
  
  (1) Ha ha ha, that you think only the first two xbox’s had the RROD problem. 10% are still failures from a study recently done. It wasn’t until the slim came out that the 33-55% failures started to pan out.
  
  (2) Of course M$ wouldn’t lower their price “money whores” exactly. And they are actually being beat by PS3 and occasionally Wii. PS3 has actually been beating them “world wide” since 2008.
  
  (3) Xbox pissed on PC gamers by making Halo 2 for PC, Vista only – a scam to push their new at the time OS.
  
  (4) Just go ahead and overlook the 2 separate hacks and 3 separate occasions of accidental bannings xbox live has suffered in 2011. Hell I was just watching a youtube video about xbox being hacked, people’s account are being hacked and hackers are stealing their M$ points. Just like what I said, in the hacks on xbox live they took gamer tags and personal sensative pay pal information.
  
  And PS3 is a cost saver, why pay $300 for an xbox; $60 for live then $90-$150 for a blu ray player?
  
  Also browsing the internet wirelessly, on my big screen TV from my couch is simply awesome. Which brings me to another point – any other PS3 gamers use the browser lately? Mine has all of a sudden got really fast on PS3. Typically it was slower, I bookmarked things to speed stuff up but I was on just yesterday and it was as fast as my PC.
  
  Anyways – Brevs, take care – just know that I don’t needlessly rag on Xbox, they have earned that right.
- Cool dude
  
  i love it how you find Xbox live laggy because you played Gears of war 2 on release date :P
- A113n
  
  You and your meaningless defenses, and what is this? you put a new list of exclusives, I figured you wouldn’t ever do that again after I bitch slapped you down the last time you posted that.
  
  Micro$oft is not PC. They only make the OS for most PC’s and supporting Micro$oft “software” is something I don’t mind doing. I love my gaming PC – and that’s the only place M$ has any business being around video games – just the OS of a PC tower.
  
  Xbox can go to hell.
Truth Be Told
REPLY

@drake who gives a shit about you, why don’t you commit suicide bitch.
BBQ
REPLY

Ps3 is 100%better than 360 because 360 is a shit console and microsoft is showing off. You never go win microsoft. Sony kick to shit to microsoft for good.