the real story behind PS3

I've been doing some research on the Web of the past few months on PS3. Unfortunately, I did not bookmark any of the web sites and cannot provide any references.

Nonetheless, this is what I've discovered. PS3 contains an amazingly powerful computer. It is immensely more powerful than the Xbox 360. The problem is, at least at the time of the release of PS3, it was also immensely more difficult to program to its full potential than Xbox 360.

As I have come to understand it, Sony released the PS3 before programming aids for the PS3 were available. The references to this are not completely clear and I may be wrong, but this is what I think. According to what I've read, programming the PS three to its full potential without programming aids is so difficult as to be impractical.

At this point in time, at least some of the programming aids have been created and released by Sony. Sony provides these free to any game developer who wants them. I read said at least one game company is developing a "real" version of a PS3 game---a version that utilizes the PS3 to its real potential. The name of this game (an update of a previous game) includes the words "Ninja Gardens."

I'm not a gamer and have played few videogames in my life. However, I am fascinated with technology in general and computer technology in particular. I'm very interested in the PS3 as a piece of technology. as I understand it from my reading, once the PS3 has been programmed to something approaching its full potential, it will be completely incomparable to the Xbox 360. Not only will graphics, strictly speaking be in another league, but the program will be able to incorporate such things as the principles of physics applied to video games. A least one such program is already available. You simply draw some objects, for example, and let them "fall." The program automatically figures out the effects of gravity, momentum, collisions, etc. and automatically generates the graphics for you.

Current versions of PS3 games utilize only a small percentage of the total potential. This kind of programming is much easier on the PS3. There is some debate about exactly how difficult it is to currently program a PS3 to near its full potential, even with the programming aids devised by Sony up to this point, but it clearly seems to be more difficult than programming an Xbox. As a result of this and the fact that programming aids were not available at the time of release (as far as I can determine) current versions of PS3 games are slightly inferior to Xbox 360 versions.

However, when the next generation of games comes out, it will be seen that the PS3 is in a class of its on. I fully believe this at this point, though I do not presented as a fully established fact because some of the evidence has been a little unclear.

As far as I'm concerned, the question now is whether a great PS3 will have a hugely positive impact on Sony or not. Specifically, will it propel Sony's Blu Ray version of the next-generation high-definition DVD player into dominance against its competitor, which I believe is called HD DVD or something like that.

You'll recall, this is a replay of the VCR wars that Sony lost. This despite the apparent fact that they had the best technology. Well, we'll see what happens.