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SCEA questions MS' Folding claim News
PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 News by Games Industry.biz
SCEA boss Jack Tretton has questioned whether Xbox 360 has enough power to take part in a Folding@Home-style initiative - saying he'd be "very disappointed" if the company is just seeking out good PR, GamesIndustry.biz reports.
Folding@Home enables multiple, connected PlayStation 3s to calculate data which is used in medical research at Stanford University. As reported earlier this month, Xbox boss Peter Moore suggested Microsoft may be interested in launching a similar initiative, stating, "If we truly believe that we can in some way marshal the resources of a much larger installed base of Xbox 360 owners, with a processor that's of equal power to the PS3, then you have my commitment that we'll look at that."
Speaking to GamePro, Tretton questioned Microsoft's intentions: "Let's face it, if your motivation is for PR, to me, that's a little shallow. We go out of our way, correctly so, to make sure that we don't try to sell PS3s on Folding@Home.
"I think to look at it as a marketing platform is something that a company certainly wouldn't want to do. I'm certainly not insinuating that's Microsoft's motivation, but I'm not even sure how relevant it is to what we're doing. Would they be even having this conversation if we weren't doing it? I don't know."
Tretton went on to query whether Xbox 360 is even powerful enough to take part in such a project, stating, "I would guess that the medical community would take help from anywhere they could get it, but the commentary that I heard is that Stanford isn't sure that [the Xbox 360's processing abilities] would help them very much. Which is odd to me because if it helped at all, it seems like they would welcome it with open arms.
"It's really ugly territory to get into, but let's take fighting a disease and see if we can get some credit for that," he continued.
"It's not a cool game to play one way or the other so I don't want to even give the impression that that's our motivation, and I'd be very disappointed if they're looking for PR value or to try to suck off some of the goodwill that we're doing."
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Inquisitor
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18/05/07 @ 11:53
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Idiot, maybe they didn't get the idea until the saw what you were doing. Its not the most obvious thing you can think of a console doing is it?
If microsoft think they can help by copying what sony are doing theres nothing wrong with it at all, sony are treating the whole thing like guarding an 'exlusive', if anyones treating it as marketing its them. Especially using it as an excuse to have a pop at the 360. |
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"Idiot, maybe they didn't get the idea until the saw what you were doing. Its not the most obvious thing you can think of a console doing is it?
If microsoft think they can help by copying what sony are doing theres nothing wrong with it at all, sony are treating the whole thing like guarding an 'exlusive', if anyones treating it as marketing its them. Especially using it as an excuse to have a pop at the 360." +1 |
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dirigiblebill
18/05/07 @ 11:57
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Sounds an awful lot like- "I hope they're not looking for publicity because we're certainly not- ours is an act of unmitigated philanthropy, though incidentally it's an act of philanthropy ONLY possible through our l33t gaming machine, now available at all electronics stores." Hmmm.
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"Especially using it as an excuse to have a pop at the 360."
Don't you think that Microsoft saying that they could easily do it too was their way of having a pop at the PS3? Especially as they probably won't take it any further than just saying "We could do that too"... It's 6 of one and half dozen of the other if you ask me (which no-one has, but I don't really care ;) ). |
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dirigiblebill
18/05/07 @ 12:06
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They should let me do the interviews. "This is no place for commercial posturing. We would sincerely welcome any contributions Microsoft make in this area, though said contributions might be a little more significant if their console didn't suck ass harder than Fusion Frenzy."
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 13:07
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Britesparc
18/05/07 @ 12:12
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Sony seems to be pissed off that MS are following them down this road, and that they're using it for PR purposes... but if Sony was really concerned about the diseases and not the PR, then they'd be welcoming MS with open arms and saying the more processing power we can get behind this, the better...
It feels like everyone is using it to take pot shots at each other. Sony, you did a good thing; if MS can help, then that's a good thing too. |
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SeesThroughAll
18/05/07 @ 12:12
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If microsoft think they can help by copying what sony are doing theres nothing wrong with it at all, sony are treating the whole thing like guarding an 'exlusive', if anyones treating it as marketing its them. Especially using it as an excuse to have a pop at the 360.
Yes, but not only did Moore use it as an excuse to have a pop at the PS3, he also questioned the value of the contribution from PS3s to the project. Just because it isn't from MS. Both comments are dirty PR, especially Moore's. As for using philantropy for PR, well, ask Gates, he's been doing that for a while.
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 13:13
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This guy seems a bit ridiculous - "I'm not insinuating this but..." and goes on to suggest the worst possible motivations. Rubbish. If you're STATING you're not insinuating something then that very statement is just a cynical bit of manipulation. I'm a Wii owner so I don't care about MS or Sony, but this is some obvious manipulative rubbish that you learn about in English at school.
And yes, no doubt if he's accusing MS of using this for PR then the same charge can be levelled at Sony, it's a moronic fanboy who says that accusation can only be levelled at one party. And as for the 360 being powerful enough - f@h runs on low-spec PCs, it'll easily run on a 360 with the right software. |
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reality_cheque
18/05/07 @ 12:20
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I would be very interested to hear why EG bothered with this story, as it's obviously just flamebait. It's like they WANT moronic comments. Is the news today really that bad?
Odd that Tretton waited until after the H3 beta has launched, obviously Sony want to make sure they get some column inches. I also wouldn't have wasted space on Peter Moore's little PR comment either, without something more solid that "we like that idea, and may get in on it too. If we think it's worth it."
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 13:21
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MightyMouse
18/05/07 @ 12:25
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How useful is f@h in the overall scheme of things anyway? The PR value's always been greater than the contribution made to science. Not bashing it, there is a use, but let's get some perspective when criticising MS and Sony on this one.
Edit: So is the complaint that it's PR, or just that it's crass PR?
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 13:32
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neil_likes_bums
18/05/07 @ 12:42
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So hang on a minute. Let's just say they do want to do it purely for marketing, exactly how is that EVER a bad thing? Who cares who's having a pop at who if it helps a good cause.
Cock. I imagine this has been said already 50 times ^^ up there ^^, but I'm too lazy to read :-D |
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This guy comes across like he doesn't really understand distributed computing, "I heard [that] Stanford isn't sure that [the Xbox 360's processing abilities] would help them very much."
Well I reckon that there are far more 360's shipped and in peoples homes than PS3's, and given it's similar performance I would bet they would return MORE data than all the PS3's put together... Also I seem to remember f@h started a long time ago when PC's were much less powerful than modern consoles, and I didn't hear Stanford saying it's all pointless back then. (Well obviouosly some people did, but then there are always SOME people)
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 13:50
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How long has folding@home been running on a Windows platform? I expect Sony has a long way to go before they can match the years of CPU cycles already provided to the project by many thousands of Windows PCs. Also, in term of individual philanthropic endeavour I think Bill is way ahead of Jack.
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 13:54
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SeesThroughAll
18/05/07 @ 12:53
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How long has folding@home been running on a Windows platform? I expect Sony has a long way to go before they can match the years of CPU cycles already provided to the project by many thousands of Windows PCs.
lol |
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MasterGrief
18/05/07 @ 12:54
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Where Sony go Microsoft follow. It's just like every other market they enter
Ipod>Zune Linux/MacOSX> Windows Wii&PS3> 360 Take the upright design for the 360 for example- completely ripped off the PS2 Or the xbox controller- completely ripped from the Dremacast http://media.teamxbox.com/dailyposts/gat... |
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Mentalist(air)
18/05/07 @ 12:54
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Nobody should be using Folding@Home, whether or not it's for PR purposes (which it certainly is, in both cases). It's just a cynical way to make drug companies money by them stealing from your electricity bill.
If you want to help, donate some cash to CRUK or something.
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 13:54
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Mentalist(air)
18/05/07 @ 13:02
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Linux/MacOSX> Windows
Um... Windows is 6 years older than linux, man. And the UI design of Macos was practially bought wholesale from Xerox Parc. |
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@Mentalist(air)
"It's just a cynical way to make drug companies money by them stealing from your electricity bill." Stanford University. Not Pfizer. Not Astra Zeneca. Stanford University's Chemistry department. EDIT: Don't even get me started on UK "charities".
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 14:07
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@MG, if I had the chance to build my own console I'd pikey all the decent looking ideas out there too.
@Mentalist, Evidence for your cynicism? A cure for alzheimers would indeed make the company responsible a shit load of money for about 5 years. Then, cheap ass generics all round. I'm of the opinion that this folding business is a good start. |
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Kenshin001
18/05/07 @ 13:12
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When will MS adopt Folding@Home? I think never.
F@H on 360 = RRoD Do the maths. |
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kangarootoo
18/05/07 @ 13:14
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@MasterGrief
"Take the upright design for the 360 for example- completely ripped off the PS2" I hope that is sarcasm. You surely aren't suggesting that Sony invented turning something onto its side? I'm pretty sure a dead Mammoth probably got there sooner on that one. |
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FrostyPhoenixxx
18/05/07 @ 13:25
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PS3 under 100k in America, under 9,000 in Japan.
Game over, I expect Konami to announce MGS4 for 360 within a few weeks, same goes for every other PS3 exclusive.
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most recently on 18/05/07 @ 14:25
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Of curse the 360 would be able to do a good contribution. It has an ATI GPU in it that is half-way beween the HD1000 and the HD2000 series nd already today it is possible to fold exclusevly on the GPU AND tht is even faster than folding on the Cell.
As I've mentioned in an earlier thead about this, I listened to a talk by a guy from Stanford on the launch even o the HD2000 and that is what he said. they had not been contacted by MS at that pint (about a month ago) but tey were happy to o something smilar. Why rn folding on the Xbox CPU ifyou can run it on the GPU? Heck, if you are worried about overheating, run it 50% on the CPu and 50% on the GPu,not maxing either out. The prolem with both the Cell and the PGU approach is that itis very inflexible. Rightnow they can only do water-simlulations. I'm not sure if MS really should do this but I guess why not. If it helps. n the other hand I' still not sure that adding even more power-hungry machines that run 24/7 is a good idea regardklss if they are doing something like this... |
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@Hansi320
Yes, that's my RESPONSE to that - if you're going to respond to what I'm sayign then you need to say some that argues against my logic, not something that my logic argues against. Honestly, asking if I understood...if I hadn't then I wouldn't have made the comment in the first place. He's saying something he can easily back down from later that still serves as useful smear talk. P.S. I thought I'd leave this as-is, as I don't like the sly way posts are edited afterwards to remove things that the poster didn't want to say, but I will apologise for my hot-headed response - sorry!
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 18/05/07 @ 16:28
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