They should scrap the PS3 version.

[Abriael]

declaring someone "doesn't know what they're talking about" doesn't make it so.

No. Your misguided arguments make it so.

It is a completely FITting example. You are just in denial.

It doesn't fit because the lead platforms are switched. It's a very basic and understandable concept.

The game's assets are not the problem. Lack of memory and lack of hard disk space on a fixed platform were the problem. There were tons of things they couldn't do with the game purely because they had used up all the memory of the PS2 already.

That's because the PS2 was the *lead development platform*. having the inferior platform as the lead development platform forces the developer to be held to the lowest common denominator. Having the superior platform as the lead simply does not.

That's all well and good but why bother releasing an inferior version?

Because it opens the game to an IMMENSELY BIGGER fanbase than that of PC gamers (and one that is very sensitive to the Final Fantasy franchise at it), meaning more players, more profits, and more support on the long run. Again. Basic principle.

It's a principle called: 70+ million potential customers worldwide.

A PC capable of running the game doesn't cost much more than a game console.

Only twice as much on the bare minimum. Sorry, but you're running out of excuses.

My point about MMORPGs needing an upgradable platform is completely ON the mark.

You saying so doesn't make it so. You've been told why it's off mark, and you really have no argument.

The PS3 can't limit PC in any way. Several people, including Yoshida, already explained it to you. You seem to think to know better, but hello? You don't.

Memory limitations is why zones are split into smaller parts, because PS3 can't load a whole region in its RAM.

Nope. Zones have been split to reduce load on the servers. It has nothing to do with memory limitations, as assets are streamed. Games don't need to load all the assets of a zone into the ram anymore. if it did, even 4 gigs wouldn't nearly be enough.

[Ladon]

Nope. Zones have been split to reduce load on the servers. It has nothing to do with memory limitations, as assets are streamed. Games don't need to load all the assets of a zone into the ram anymore. if it did, even 4 gigs wouldn't nearly be enough.

That's part of it but there are methods to deal with this in a seamless world as well. They were also obviously split to deal with memory limitations as well.

Also you can't really stream the assets of a MMO or any online game for that matter very well because it's too expensive to keep track of what you would need to server side so that the client is able to stream in the asset before it is displayed. Streaming is only realistic when each display frame is predictable. MMOs are anything but this.

[Abriael]

That's part of it. They were also obviously split to deal with memory limitations.

Also you can't really stream the assets of a MMO or any online game for that matter very well because it's too expensive to keep track of what you would need to server side so that the client is able to stream in the asset before it is displayed. Streaming is only realistic when each display frame is predictable. MMOs are anything but this.

Almost all modern MMORPGs do it without a single problem. Streaming the assets is very possible, and in *very few games* each display frame is predictable.

There's absolutely no way all the assets for a zone can be fully stored in the ram of even most PCs, even more so on the much more limited video ram. Most modern MMOS are designed to be able to run on cards with 512 Mb.

The lesser predictability of a MMORPG (that isn't even so relevant, because the only really unpredictable assets are player character assets, that of course have nothing to do with zones) can be addressed by raising the level of pre-streaming.

Server load is the whole picture.

[Ladon]

Almost all modern MMORPGs do it without a single problem. Streaming the assets is very possible, and in *very few games* each display frame is predictable.

There's absolutely no way all the assets for a zone can be fully stored in the ram of even most PCs, even more so on the much more limited video ram. Most modern MMOS are designed to be able to run on cards with 512 Mb.

The lesser predictability of a MMORPG (that isn't even so relevant, because the only really unpredictable assets are player character assets, that of course have nothing to do with zones) can be addressed by raising the level of pre-streaming.

Server load is the whole picture.

You can't stream common assets, this is why games have minimum memory requirements to begin with. You could stream local assets but you'd still need to keep your common asset memory size constant for performance reasons.

Also I don't really see any evidence the ARR engine is streaming any assets except LOD. That will save on mipmapping memory requirements and nothing much else.

[Kallera]

The PS3 launch provides a new audience with which to sell the game to. It would have been a lot harder to justify making 2.0 if they only had the pc crowd to deal with. (As in, those that have played 1.0 and have made their judgements already.)