The PS3 - Too difficult to programme?

[TheWildWhelk]

Not entirely sure where to begin, so i'll try and cut to the main beef that is annoying me at the moment. I'm an avid gamer, the PS3 is my first console having previously been a pc owner. In the 18 months that i have had a 60 gig PS3 one thing that keeps cropping up is the fact that the PS3 is difficult to programme for.

This has been reflected in games such as GTA 4 which is 640p, Ghostbusters 540p (!) and even Conan which is 576p. The main concern is that the PS3 doesn't seem to have as much graphics memory available to it, which i don't quite understand. The PS3 (like it's microsoft competitor) has a 256mb graphics card and a full half-gig of Ram. I think the actual ram is split for some reason, so why are so many companies complaining that the pS3 is difficult to programme for? Activision in particular are facing up to the fact that the new Ghostbusters game looks atrocious compared to the 360 version.

Any light either Techies or anyone else could shed on this matter would be fantastic, thank you. It's been bugging me for a while, so perhaps you could help me get to the bottom of it.

Thanks again, people.

David.