Back in November, a Sony developer named Josh Robinson, who claims to have had hands on experience with one of five PlayStation 3 dev kits available in the United States, wrote an op-ed on Downinfront.tv citing his disappointment in the PS3 and his take on the 360. He lamented, "I started of VERY excited about the PS3. I was very confident that it was going to just destroy the XBOX 360 just on the name SONY alone. The more time that goes by the more I am becoming doubtful. Everything I’ve developed or seen developed has yet to be 'next gen.'"The post has made its way around the net a bit since then and Joystiq picked up the story two days ago. In the last two days, the original post has been removed and the corresponding forum had been closed stating, "We removed the post for a reason. I can't go into it any more until I talk with the other members of DIF. When we clear things up, we'll post it again. =)"
After looking into it a bit more, the story appears authentic. Josh Robinson works for Sony, maintains a personal webpage here, and has a member page at Downinfront here. He also posted several responses to the Joystiq post, before the Joystiq trolls proved insurmountable. What does this mean?
Well, not much probably. Could one developer have had a bad experience with early PS3 dev kits? Sure. I personally don't expect the PS3's graphics to look any different than the 360's, but this might help temper some of the Sony hype a bit. The main point is that progress on the system is slow. Dev kits are finally getting out to developers in decent numbers, while Sony meanwhile ignored CES entirely, letting Microsoft walk away with the lion's share of press.
In the meantime, enjoy the op-ed, courtesy of Google's cache.

1. I read the article last year and thought it had a ring of truth about it. No doubt the PS3 is difficult to program, just as the PS2 was difficult to program. That it's using even more complicated technology that is unproven doesn't help. Just like the 360, most early developers will program only program for one processor until they can get the hang of the system. I wouldn't expect 'next gen' titles to appear until a year AFTER the system is introduced.
I also read how many final dev kits sony admited to distributed by January, but the number sounds awfully high (4000 wasn't it?) when you consider there number of publishers is WAY under 1000. That would have to mean there are those that have a TON of dev kits.
And it's been mentioned before, but the graphics between the PS3 and Xbox 360 will be similiar and I doubt most major third parties will take the time to taylor their titles between the systems. Always develop for the lowest common denominator...
The real difference should come down original first party titles, content, features offered, and pricing.
Posted at 9:47PM on Jan 11th 2006 by A2 0 stars