The Hardware is Pretty Different

While I think he's right that getting the hardware out earlier is a bonus, there is still the problem that the PS3/Cell architecture is significantly different from what developers have been working on in the past. The 360 was pretty darn close to everything that had been seen before. More horsepower and fancy stuff support, but the mult-core-ed and core specific juju that's going on is more different than new toys but a similar architecture.

GameDaily BIZ: Epic Games' Mark Rein Talks PS3

In the interview, Rein discusses the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and indicates that Sony may be in a better position with the launch of the PS3 than Microsoft was one year ago with the launch of the Xbox 360.

"Developers were just getting final PS3 hardware [around E3], which is a long time before ship," stated Rein, speaking with Eurogamer TV "Developers did not have finished Xbox 360 hardware last year at E3. So Sony's actually maybe in a better place vis-a-vis Microsoft in relation to launch."

Despite the fact that many developers received final Xbox 360 development tools late in the development cycle, the console still launched with critically acclaimed titles such as Call of Duty 2 from Activision and Perfect Dark Zero from Rare. At the same time, many titles that were originally scheduled to launch with the system were delayed, including Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from Take-Two Interactive.