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[Canis lupus]

Cerny has admitted having to do 15 separate presentations to first-party staff at Sony when he brought x86 to the table in 2008. Someone (presumably high up) at Sony didn’t think the complex x86 architecture could be used for a games console, and Cerny had to fight against that. Clearly he won.

While a complex architecture, x86 is widely used and has an abundance of support across the tech industry. By adopting it, not only did it lead the way for much easier/more accessible game development, it also meant Sony could approach a number of hardware manufacturers to source components. And that must have gone a long way towards the PS4 shipping for $399 compared to the PS3′s launch price of $600+. Having 140+ games in development is also a nice number to throw around prior to launch.

Cerny also confirms it was developers who pushed for a unified memory system in the machine, which surprised the hardware development team but ultimately makes for faster games development. He also reiterated that PS4 is the most powerful games console ever created, but that none of the launch titles will be using anywhere near the full feature set of the hardware. Just like with previous consoles, that will take time and developers getting to grips and unlocking the full performance on offer.

With the PS4 already thought to be the more powerful of the next-gen consoles, and if development truly is as easy as Cerny suggests, that performance lead over the Xbox One could remain for years to come. Experienced developers can hit the ground running and unlock performance faster if they have worked on x86 before. In the end, it’s the gamer who wins by getting more accomplished games sooner in the console’s lifecycle.

http://www.geek.com/games/mark-cern...s-convincing-sony-to-use-x86-for-ps4-1570945/

 

[Stone Ocean]

2008 Sony?

I'm amazed it didn't take like 30 presentations.

 

[LiK]

Hero

 

[Dawg]

 

[MikeE21286]

After seeing what devs are doing with the now 7 year old PS3, it'll be great to see what they do with PS4 once it matures.

 

[waltyftm]

Persistent little bugger, i like that.

 

[twobear]

MS are doing exactly the same thing, not really sure what's so noteworthy about this.

 

[Eusis]

Admittedly I do wonder where the Cell was going, I still would've preferred that for BC purposes if the line had enough potential to get stronger. Seemed like it may've been a dead end though, so now I just wish he were able to sell them on the x86 in 2002 or whatever instead.

 

[bernardobri]

Bad ass Cerny is bad ass.

 

[vxXJordanXxv]

Made my day thank you.

 

[Vooduu]

Based Cerny.

Seriously, the whole industry needs more ambitious people like him.

 

[DeviantBoi]

Why did they think that x86 was too complex for games if that's what PC games run on?

 

[VanquishUK]

This is fucking hilarious.

 

[jaypah]

What can you say? The man does his job and does it well. Kudos, him and his team built what seems to be an awesome piece of kit for what you are paying. I just can't believe how much they got right, it's amazing.

 

[waltyftm]

MS are doing exactly the same thing, not really sure what's so noteworthy about this.

As do i with your post.

 

[BronsonLee]

I can only imagine Cerny constantly whipping up PowerPoints for these and pulling them out at will

 

[Instigator]

Someone at Sony should have stood up to Mark concerning Knack.

"Mark, is this a game or just a physics demo?"

"I'm sorry, Mark, but this game is boring, You need to do more with it"

"Come on, two boxes and a rock is not a level."

"What? You want to show that game off on Jimmy Fallon?"

 

[FeiRR]

Thank you, Mark Cerny. You might have just saved console gaming from oblivion.

 

[Dorimukyasuto]

Gold, jerry. Gold!

 

[jaaz]

MS are doing exactly the same thing, not really sure what's so noteworthy about this.

Why does it have to be unique to the PS4 to be noteworthy?

 

[pureIsometric]

Here he comes...you better watch out!!

 

[Jrs3000]

Nice, I guess Reggie didn't do enough presentations then.

 

[fvng]

They should be kissing his feet

 

[Eusis]

Why did they think that x86 was too complex for games if that's what PC games run on?

My guess is that x86 is more complex but also more general purpose, so maybe you could have gotten a CPU that was more focused on what gaming needed and thus cheaper for the same performance. Though the Cell seemed to be anything BUT that with the added baggage of not being an architecture many were familiar programming with, certainly not in the format the Cell was in.

 

[gigantor21]

Thank God for his persistence.

 

[sixteen-bit]

15th time's the charm

 

[Wishmaster92]

Perfect.

 

[Tathanen]

Someone at Sony should have stood up to Mark concerning Knack.

Yeah I want to like the guy when he's talkin about hardware and systems design, but once he starts championing Knack it sort of undermines the rest for me. What a boring shitty lookin game.

 

[Dead Prince]

but it only took 1 presentation to convince me <3

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I can't wait to hear post launch how many customizations they made to the CPU.

 

[GarthVaderUK]

Sony are lucky to have Mark Cerny.

 

[Chobel]

Nice!

 

[wind_steaker]

Working in software development, I'm surprised it's not more. There are a lot of people to convince and it's a big decision.

 

[iamshadowlark]

Why did they think that x86 was too complex for games if that's what PC games run on?

PC Games run on quite a bit of abstraction layers.

 

[twobear]

Why does it have to be unique to the PS4 to be noteworthy?

I figure if he'd given 15 presentations pushing for bumping the RAM up to 8GB then it would be cool. As it is it comes across as crazy on Sony's behalf.

 

[dancmc]

This is actually not all that unusual for large companies, especially when making certain programmatic decisions that require significant financial investment.

 

[somesayyea]

glad he was persistent

 

[phosphor112]

Someone at Sony should have stood up to Mark concerning Knack.

"Mark, is this a game or just a physics demo?"

"I'm sorry, Mark, but this game is boring, You need to do more with it"

"Come on, two boxes and a rock is not a level."

"What? You want to show that game off on Jimmy Fallon?"

Instigator
Member
(Today, 04:13 PM)

Spoiler

Thread shitting at it's finest

 

[Dr. Randy Marsh]

During the 15th presentation, they were in a hot tub.

 

[IT Slave]

Most of the resistance was probably due to certain egos not wanting to give up the design of the console to a westerner.

 

[Robbok]

Hahaha! This is so hillarious. Good job, this GIF is awesome.

 

[Marvel]

Thank you for eventually listening to Mr Cerny, Sony.

Fantastic GIF Dawg, LOL.

 

[Deilpo]

Me seeing this

 

[casmith07]

This gif is amazing. My favorite version is the one with Roger Goodell's head.

 

[Nachtmaer]

Why did they think that x86 was too complex for games if that's what PC games run on?

I find that a bit puzzling too. What else is there they could've used that doesn't cost insane amounts of money in this day and age? We all know how Sony ended up with making a custom chip like Cell (even if it wasn't a Sony-only thing). What does IBM offer that isn't POWER (unless they can scale it down) and fits in a console besides the Wii U's CPU? I am honestly curious.

Also what is so surprising about x86? The Xbox basically used a Pentium III.

 

[jaypah]

I can't wait to hear post launch how many customizations they made to the CPU.

I thought they were going to do an in depth talk about it during TGS?

 

[BRocknRolla]

Sony owes this guy a lot. He's part of the group that's really steering the company right.

 

[Celestial Mortal]

 

[WolvenOne]

PC Games run on quite a bit of abstraction layers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are going to be "some," abstraction layers for the PS4/X1 as well, correct? I mean, not as many as their are for PC's, but still.

 

[Acquiescence]

I think I wet me knickers.