PS3's complicated platform is discouraging second-tier game developers

[ZippyDSMlee]

According to Taiwanese game developers, the PlayStation 3 platform, even in comparison to the Xbox 360, is technologically too complicated to make it easy to develop games, especially by second-tier developers.

The second-tier developers, including those in Taiwan, do not have the financial or technological capabilities that international developers do and therefore cannot pass the technological barriers that the PS3 platform imposes.

This fact can partly account for the limited amount of PS3-specific games.

The developers also indicated that the Xbox 360 platform much was easier to produce games for.

The developers also made some interesting points. Although the PS3 might have stronger hardware functionality than the Xbox 360 many users do not see better video quality while playing the same game on both systems. A reason for this phenomenom is possibly that game developers are more willing to invest in optimized performance for the Xbox 360 simply because those games are currently more profitable.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/9181.cfm
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this makes one wonder the PS3 is not the end all be all the PS2 was will devs go out of their way to make stuff for it?
without the 2nd and 3rd party devs that MADE the PS2 what will the PS3 become the N64?

[KN]

What happened to this 'open platform' Sony had created? :S


But yeah, this echoes Phil Harrison's earlier comment that no one will be able to utilize the PS3 fully. Sony's given us an 8 cylinder engine, but no one's ever going to find out how to fire all eight of them.

[ZippyDSMlee]

What happened to this 'open platform' Sony had created? :S


But yeah, this echoes Phil Harrison's earlier comment that no one will be able to utilize the PS3 fully. Sony's given us an 8 cylinder engine, but no one's ever going to find out how to fire all eight of them.

Anything can happen sony might be shelling out dev kits to get dev is to make games they might now,hell devs might go to the WII just because its Japaneses and the 360 they will only go to because it offers cheap power.

[KN]

Anything can happen sony might be shelling out dev kits to get dev is to make games they might now,hell devs might go to the WII just because its Japaneses and the 360 they will only go to because it offers cheap power.

Pretty much.

I think Sony misunderstood why the PS2 was so popular. Third party made it popular, not the Playstation brand.

[ZippyDSMlee]

Pretty much.

I think Sony misunderstood why the PS2 was so popular. Third party made it popular, not the Playstation brand.

it pretty much made both the PSX and PS2 the more hollywoodized gaming becomes the less they understand anythign about gaming....

[Garrett]

As I understood, Sony had developed the PS3's internal OS to be replaced by any other OS that the developer wished, like a heavily modified Fedora Core 5 Linux. Once developers have easier tools to work with, and learn the machine's ability, the machine should be much less of a problem to work with.

But easier to program 360, plus it's 1 year lead hurts it. we need to take another look at it in a year, and see if development is still slack.

[Thefremen]

As I understood, Sony had developed the PS3's internal OS to be replaced by any other OS that the developer wished, like a heavily modified Fedora Core 5 Linux. Once developers have easier tools to work with, and learn the machine's ability, the machine should be much less of a problem to work with.

But easier to program 360, plus it's 1 year lead hurts it. we need to take another look at it in a year, and see if development is still slack.

Not to mention with the number of people who own PS3s that gives developers little reason to spend the millions it will take to utilize the system, not to mention they'll get flamed by fanboys if they dare to try and make money by developing for xb360. :)

[steelcobra]

They said the PS2 was hard to program back when it came out, but look at it now. In two years it'll be a solid system with a huge library.

[Hannah]

As I understood, Sony had developed the PS3's internal OS to be replaced by any other OS that the developer wished, like a heavily modified Fedora Core 5 Linux. Once developers have easier tools to work with, and learn the machine's ability, the machine should be much less of a problem to work with.

But easier to program 360, plus it's 1 year lead hurts it. we need to take another look at it in a year, and see if development is still slack.

Apparently the PS3 is also poorly documented, and it's damn hard trying to get the most out of all those processors. We're talking horrendous multithreading here. Never looked at any of it myself, so I'm just going by what I've heard from programmers at EA and other local game companies. So... yeah. Eventually, I expect games on the PS3 to look better than those on the 360, but there is that steep learning curve to get over first.

[Hannah]

They said the PS2 was hard to program back when it came out, but look at it now. In two years it'll be a solid system with a huge library.

Ahh, but the PS2 didn't have any particularly strong competitors. The Xbox was a latecomer that had no hope in Japan, and the Gamecube lacked any real 3rd party support. In other words, developers HAD to make the most of the PS2, because otherwise, their games weren't going to sell. This time around, it's a bit different -- they can drop the PS3 in favour of the Wii or 360 and still make a lot of money, and development costs may actually be lower if they go that route. The PS3 may still bounce back, but I think it's too early to tell.

[Thefremen]

Ahh, but the PS2 didn't have any particularly strong competitors. The Xbox was a latecomer that had no hope in Japan, and the Gamecube lacked any real 3rd party support. In other words, developers HAD to make the most of the PS2, because otherwise, their games weren't going to sell. This time around, it's a bit different -- they can drop the PS3 in favour of the Wii or 360 and still make a lot of money, and development costs may actually be lower if they go that route. The PS3 may still bounce back, but I think it's too early to tell.

Basically the PS2 is Arrakis in 10,191 AG, the PS3 is Chapterhouse in ~23,000 AG (IIRC). It's not the only source of the Fun, and right now it is not the best source, but it has potential. Still, the Tleilaxu (Microsoft) has a signifigant lead and the Honored Matres (Nintendo) have the advantage of offering something that has similar results but is a totally different strategy and product.

[ZippyDSMlee]

Ahh, but the PS2 didn't have any particularly strong competitors. The Xbox was a latecomer that had no hope in Japan, and the Gamecube lacked any real 3rd party support. In other words, developers HAD to make the most of the PS2, because otherwise, their games weren't going to sell. This time around, it's a bit different -- they can drop the PS3 in favour of the Wii or 360 and still make a lot of money, and development costs may actually be lower if they go that route. The PS3 may still bounce back, but I think it's too early to tell.

Bascily the PS3 is more the net Saturn but with better world wide support,Sega was very arrogant and didnt support the dev much and thus the console failed because of lack of games, sony is hurting them selfs becusse they think they are the end all be all in gaming and thus wont do a better job of gettign dev kits out and making sure people know how to code for it..

its fun to code for a engine thats poorly documented UT03 is a glitchly SOB.