Why was the PS3 harder to program for? Because its GPU was out of date, its RAM was split, and its architecture sucked. Programming the PS3 "incorrectly" leads to extremely poor performance.
The XBox was "easier" to program for because it was a more balanced system. Overall, the XBox360 was both simpler and more powerful.
By making XBox360 more powerful, previous soft-exclusives like Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid made their way to the XBox360. Sony lost a lot of publishers because of the boneheaded hardware they shoved into developer's faces.
It is Microsoft that has made this mistake in this generation. Not only from a policy stand point against indie gamers (ie: Oddworld moving to PS4 exclusive title. As well as SuperGiant Games making Transistor PS4 exclusive), but also by launching with weaker (yet paradoxically more expensive) hardware.
The PS4 will be easier to program for, it has a simpler more unified architecture, and Sony's policies are more friendly towards developers.
While it barely matters for the end consumer, it is easy to see which systems producers will prefer in the coming generation.
"The PS4 will be easier to program for, it has a simpler more unified architecture, and Sony's policies are more friendly towards developers."
The architectures seem near identical--the only big difference would seem to be that the XBO will have dedicated framebuffer memory, probably hidden behind a system call anyways.
As for being more friendly to developers, Microsoft has always had the best tools and documentation for developers (long live SGI, poor bastards).
I don't really see where you're getting this from.
Count the number of indie-developers on XBox One. Now count the 140 currently announced titles on the PS4 (most of them indie games). The current joke: PS4 has more exclusives than XBox One has launch titles. (slight hyperbole, but the number of PS4 exclusives almost gets there. 30 titles from Sony themselves, ~10 exclusive indie titles announced at E3, and all of a sudden the game environment for PS4 looks mighty tasty)
It is dead obvious which console has won the support of indie developers.
Microsoft may have superior documentation... but when you _require_ indie gamers to find a publisher before they're allowed to make an XBox one game, the number of titles on your system will suffer significantly.
A number of PS4 indie developers want to program for the XBox One, but they can't due to Microsoft's boneheaded policy. It doesn't matter how good the XBox One development kit is, if Microsoft fails to hand it off to innovative developers.
Again, XBox One _POLICY_ is bad for indie developers.
Certain memory transfers on the PS3 are just straight up broken: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1007286/ps3-hardwar...
The XBox was "easier" to program for because it was a more balanced system. Overall, the XBox360 was both simpler and more powerful.
By making XBox360 more powerful, previous soft-exclusives like Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid made their way to the XBox360. Sony lost a lot of publishers because of the boneheaded hardware they shoved into developer's faces.
It is Microsoft that has made this mistake in this generation. Not only from a policy stand point against indie gamers (ie: Oddworld moving to PS4 exclusive title. As well as SuperGiant Games making Transistor PS4 exclusive), but also by launching with weaker (yet paradoxically more expensive) hardware.
The PS4 will be easier to program for, it has a simpler more unified architecture, and Sony's policies are more friendly towards developers.
While it barely matters for the end consumer, it is easy to see which systems producers will prefer in the coming generation.