SCEA questions MS' Folding claim

[Fats]

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."

Source (www.eurogamer.net)

[masteratt]

haha, beautiful irony.

Using PR to point out a PR.

[Coded-Dude]

I'm sure it was a direct question to him, and not something he went out and tried to make public.
The same can be said for MS, but they made some bolder claims......
(or rather dismissed teh PS3's power with slight undertones of fanboyism)

[Epix]

haha

"We'll use our 12M MS employees who bought a 360 to totally out-fold you noobs!"

[VG Aficionado]

This is a delicate matter and nothing should have been commented on this from either side to begin with. However, more shame on Peter Moore than on Jack Tretton for the PR comments and then doubting on the F@H practical results.

[cliffbo]

i've changed my mind about Tretton... he is a total f*****g idiot! why did he have to go and do this. to me MS statements were in bad taste and they put themselves in a very bad position. if they supported it, then that would show that their CPU was weaker, if they didn't, then that would show that they prioritize good PR over helping the sick. what Tretton has done here is handed the ball back the MS, who can now claim (Sony) are trying to start a smear campaign around Folding. YOU F*****G IDIOT!!!!!! we don't need you to point out the obvious.

[LiquidEagle]

What are you talking about cliff? Tretton handled that very delicately and made a point that he's not trying to start a smear campaign and he isn't trying to use F@H as a selling point for PS3.

[curryking1]

I posted about this in the other thread, all in all I think that Tretton, even if he meant this in the most good intentions possible, he should've really just avoided the question because I think he didn't handle it very well.

What are you talking about cliff? Tretton handled that very delicately and made a point that he's not trying to start a smear campaign and he isn't trying to use F@H as a selling point for PS3.

I don't think his answer was very close to being perfect. I mean of course maybe he meant it and it really came from 'deep down' or whatever, but really a situation like this should just be avoided. No one wants F@H to be turned into a tool for the console war, I certainly don't, and even Tretton said that but he still went along and commented on Microsoft's words to the press when they were questioned about it.

It all comes down to the more help there is the better, and that's really where he should've stopped, in my opinion.

Edit - Hello xb :P

[cliffbo]

What are you talking about cliff? Tretton handled that very delicately and made a point that he's not trying to start a smear campaign and he isn't trying to use F@H as a selling point for PS3.

Tretton should never have responded to this question, it's called tact. "Sorry but i can't comment on everything MS says" is what he should have said.

[EvilTaru]

Tretton should have simply ignore whatever that shit-eating goat-nailer Peter Moore is trying to pull.

[xbdestroya]

Edit - Hello xb :P

Hey! ;)

Anyway I agree - Tretton needs to just keep his mouth shut. Here's the problem: non-technically minded people like Tretton are fielding technical questions, and they don't know what they're talking about. They latch onto the talk of the Internet the same way a forum poster would, and they end up looking like jackasses. If he gave any premise for his claims other than "Stanford says...," but he didn't. That and he started going on about PR, the medical community, and who's seeking attention vs who's not. I mean... what!?!? But Tretton and Karakker are always saying stupid things.

[dendj55]

I think Tretton handled it well. Folding@Home is an important thing and I think the exposure the PS3 has given it is positive. When your not hacking away at a game, you can help humanity by leaving your system on.

[curryking1]

And this is why we always want Phil Harrison to do everything! lol! :P

[EvilTaru]

Hey! ;)

Anyway I agree - Tretton needs to just keep his mouth shut. Here's the problem: non-technically minded people like Tretton are fielding technical questions, and they don't know what they're talking about. They latch onto the talk of the Internet the same way a forum poster would, and they end up looking like jackasses. If he gave any premise for his claims other than "Stanford says...," but he didn't. That and he started going on about PR, the medical community, and who's seeking attention vs who's not. I mean... what!?!? But Tretton and Karakker are always saying stupid things.

It's not that they need to keep their mouths shut because the stupid asswipe shit-eating media is always going to be asking these dumb**** shit-eating questions, it's that they need to emphasize that SCE is doing this as a collaboration with Stanford to help contribute to a good cause and the more processing power for the project, the better, so let's not turn this into some stupid mother****ing console war battle.

Without the swearing:

Tretton and Karraker need to emphasize that SCE is doing this to help Stanford contribute to a really good cause and it's really not appropriate to turn something good like F@H into console war fodder.

STUPID MOTHER****ING SHIT-EATING ASSWIPE MEDIA.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/EvilTaru/Indifferent2.gif

[Diresu]

Only MS would do something like try and turn F@H into a competition. Personally I have no problem with what he said here.

[D3adcell]

No, though if the 360 can do it, why not let it? Even if its not as good as the ps3 at doing it, anything that helps cure a disease is good right? Hell if I could run it on my computer I would.

[xbdestroya]

Hell if I could run it on my computer I would.

Wait what? Why don't you?

Only MS would do something like try and turn F@H into a competition. Personally I have no problem with what he said here.

This quote of Tretton's was uncalled for though:


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.

He would have done better to stay above the fray, especially since if he knew anything even remote about the technology he would know that the 360 would be able to contribute to the project in very significant ways in fact; just not to the level of the PS3 from the CPU side. Instead he's basically insinuating that the 360 would be useless, else Stanford would welcome it "with open arms."

[EvilTaru]

Sometimes it's probably for the best to just say to the interviewer, "there's no need for that, let's move on to the next question please."

[xbdestroya]

Sometimes it's probably for the best to just say to the interviewer, "there's no need for that, let's move on to the next question please."

Yes, this is the truth.

[VG Aficionado]

Hell if I could run it on my computer I would.You can! Just download the XP / Mac OS / Linux / GPU client and join our team :)

[cliffbo]

He would have done better to stay above the fray, especially since if he knew anything even remote about the technology he would know that the 360 would be able to contribute to the project in very significant ways in fact; just not to the level of the PS3 from the CPU side. Instead he's basically insinuating that the 360 would be useless, else Stanford would welcome it "with open arms."

exactly! Phill Harrison will be spitting feathers!

[D3adcell]

You can! Just download the XP / Mac OS / Linux / GPU client and join our team :)

I didn't know there was such a thing!

But if you can run it on a PC then why did tretton even question if the 360 could run it or not? The 360 has more processing power then most PC's.

[LiquidEagle]

This quote of Tretton's was uncalled for though:


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.

He would have done better to stay above the fray, especially since if he knew anything even remote about the technology he would know that the 360 would be able to contribute to the project in very significant ways in fact; just not to the level of the PS3 from the CPU side. Instead he's basically insinuating that the 360 would be useless, else Stanford would welcome it "with open arms."

See, I don't have a problem with that statement. I think it's safe to say that their question was, "Why doesn't the 360 support F@H?" and he gave them his guess, his opinion. I also don't think he's saying that the 360 would be useless, but it wouldn't offer the advantage that the PS3 does, which warranted the program's development in the first place. If the 360 is simply getting PC performance and is only good at the same work units the PC is good at, what's the advantage for Stanford to put in the extra work to get it going on 360, y'know? So I don't think he's dogging on it as much as the media outlet conducting/reporting this interview would like people to think.

[GTAce]

@D3adcell:
Yeah but the PS3 has even much more than that lol.
The 360 can do it but much slower than the PS3.

[FantasyGhost]

Here's Pande's interview might answer that: http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/03-05-2007-5386.html

[xbdestroya]

If the 360 is simply getting PC performance and is only good at the same work units the PC is good at, what's the advantage for Stanford to put in the extra work to get it going on 360, y'know? So I don't think he's dogging on it as much as the media outlet conducting/reporting this interview would like people to think.

Well, I'm not sure how much of the actual coding was done by Stanford though; Sony played a very active role in this whole thing. I think simply MS is not of the mind to open their system up to apps of this nature at the moment, for better or worse. On the 360 the GPU would be the angle to go with rather than the CPU, but frankly I think whether the 360 would be great at folding or not, and whether MS would otherwise be ok with such apps running or not, a pragmatic reason for them *not* to do this simply comes down to the fact that it would increase the rate of 'ring of death' incidence.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Tretton meant poorly, I just think that Sony should lay off of comparisons of *any* kind for a while and just let the fruits of the labor do the talking. As time goes on, the image will rebuild, because there are indeed very PS3-specific achievements in coding/game design on the horizon.

[VG Aficionado]

I didn't know there was such a thing!http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

Our team number is 54261! Join us! :)

[curryking1]

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Tretton meant poorly, I just think that Sony should lay off of comparisons of *any* kind for a while and just let the fruits of the labor do the talking. As time goes on, the image will rebuild, because there are indeed very PS3-specific achievements in coding/game design on the horizon.

I totally agree :)

I don't think Tretton meant poorly either, he just did a very weak job at communicating.

[LiquidEagle]

I'm no Jack Tretton ultrafan or anything, but I do think the guy deserves more credit than most people give him, and I think he does a good job of communicating -- most of where I think he gets the "poor communication" label is from the way the gaming press lights him.

[D3adcell]

http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

Our team number is 54261! Join us! :)

Joined.

[curryking1]

I'm no Jack Tretton ultrafan or anything, but I do think the guy deserves more credit than most people give him, and I think he does a good job of communicating -- most of where I think he gets the "poor communication" label is from the way the gaming press lights him.

I'm only said weak communication is because of this one incident, otherwise I would not describe him as such. I feel he is simply a regular, competent PR person generally. He's far from bad, simply good or normal for a high up company official. I agree with you.

[masonite]

Personally i think that the insinuation that the xbox isnt powerful enough was a very inteligent tact. On the one hand, if MS still refuses to try f@h, not only do they look uncharitable, but they also look weak. On the other hand, if they do come out and support it, it will be good for the medical community and the entire community at large. Tretton has put himself in an enviable spot - regardless of what ms's next move is, tretton can come out and applaud - either say thanks for finally pulling their finger out and helping, although its a shame MS had to turn it into a PR stunt to do so, or if MS doesn't jump onboard, he doesn't need to say anything.

Essentially by commenting on it he has made any action my MS seem insincere and unsporting.

The fact that he handled a tough, sensetive question like this and gave the one of the best possible answers is IMO a lot better than effectively saying "its too hard for me to answer correctly".







I'm sure the gaming media will try and spin this one, but from the medical community's point of view, tretton's "challenge" of sorts for MS to come on board will be welcomed. And in the end, isn't that what this is all about?

You see, if Tretton really wanted to turn this into a PR exercise for his company, "no comment" is exactly what he would have said ;)

[curryking1]

^That is an interesting way to look at it, as a challenge for MS to turn it into something to to help the F@H thing.

I'm not sure I understand the last sentence there though lol.

[cliffbo]

You see, if Tretton really wanted to turn this into a PR exercise for his company, "no comment" is exactly what he would have said

that is exactly right. MS has put themselves in a bad position by mentioning Folding in the first place. like i said above: if they do go with it it will surely show the cell in a good light, if they don't go with Folding then that makes it look like PR is more important than curing desease

[Diresu]

Wait what? Why don't you?



This quote of Tretton's was uncalled for though:


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.

He would have done better to stay above the fray, especially since if he knew anything even remote about the technology he would know that the 360 would be able to contribute to the project in very significant ways in fact; just not to the level of the PS3 from the CPU side. Instead he's basically insinuating that the 360 would be useless, else Stanford would welcome it "with open arms."

He isn't insinuating it's useless. He said it would help, just not very much. While that might be innacurate it doesn't bother me. Yea he could have just said not comment but who gives a shit these days? I am sure people would jump on a different statement. Considering the crap that Moore and Shane Kim are spewing I am surprised at just how much of a composure Sony reps have had as of late for the most part.