Is the PS3 Harder to Develop for? Sony answer back

[konsollspiller]

Our friends over at GamePro.com have written an interesting article on a topic I get asked about all the time — Is the PS3 harder to develop for than other systems? I gave them some feedback on this and the reporter, Blake Snow, does a nice job of presenting a well-rounded story. For this piece, I spoke to our PD group and asked them for input on this question and thought you might be interested in reading their full reply:

 

This is an interesting question and hidden within the question is an enormously complex subject! If the game starts life on PS3, then man-hours per feature or costs related to asset production are comparable with industry norms. For that, you can include Xbox 360 and high-end PC games, and exclude PS2 and Wii. However, since PS3’s Cell processor allows MORE features - better physics, more complex graphical processing, lighting or sound, etc. — there is inevitably going to be more cost in supporting those extra features. It’s not that PS3 is harder to write for, it’s just that you can do more with it.

 

Middleware tools like Havok and other specialist graphics tools are now customized to exploit Cell’s SPUs. These mean that developers don’t have to reinvent those particular wheels themselves. Also, PlayStation Edge does some very difficult and performance-critical aspects of the graphics pipeline on the SPUs: geometry processing, animation, compression - delivering performance unachievable on other systems. This is available for free to all developers from SCE. So, given that PS3 can draw more on screen, the assets required to fill that capacity go up, too. This can, but not always, require more people - however depending on the game, much of that extra content can be produced automatically - procedurally in software, not by hand. Compared to PS2, the SPUs are much easier to code for. In PS2 we had some custom chips called VU0 and VU1 which were powerful, but tricky to write for. The SPUs use a more standard programming language.

 

Now, it’s not without challenges:

1) SPUs are not ‘normal’ processors like the PPU. There is a trade-off between performance and versatility. A Ferrari is not the best car for a visit to Home Depot…

 

2) If you are porting:

If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3. This means additional effort. Some developers have been complaining about this but I don’t believe we can solve that. Xbox 360 is a different machine with good, but lower powered hardware in a different architecture. Developers have to view them as two different machines not as a common platform.

 

3) If your game has heavy online use:

XBL provides more and better standard libraries for online gaming to developers. For the same features on PS3, developers have to do some extra work. We’re catching up, but there is a difference.

BTW: Glad you guys and gals are enjoying the new blog!

Blog

 

Microsoft responds to Sony's Blog

 

Gamasutra contacted Xbox's Director of Games Platform Strategy, Andre 'Ozymandias' Vrignaud for reaction, and, while declining detailed comment, he noted:

 

"Sony is facing the fact the Xbox 360 (thanks to being available a year earlier) is the default development platform for almost every game studio and publisher in the industry. It’s been built into the tool chain and processes, and primary development is happening on the Xbox 360 for almost every game you can find.

 

There’s a reason why the Xbox 360 version is almost always the version shown to press and analysts for new titles – often, the PS3 version isn’t even started yet, or is well behind in development

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14326

Endret 14. juni 2007 av konsollspiller

[Avean]

Synes Sony skulle gitt fingeren til alle som slipper ut Xbox360 porter til PS3, for er en del spill som har altfor lang loading pga det. Skaper feil inntrykk av PS3.

[Amored]

Burde det heller vært slik at PS3-spill skulle portes over til Xbox 360 da?

[Avean]

Det tror jeg faktisk hadde vært ENDA verre da det er mer avansert arkitektur på PS3.

[Swoofah]

Det tror jeg faktisk hadde vært ENDA verre da det er mer avansert arkitektur på PS3.

8861895[/snapback]

Du følger med eller?

 

Å porte noe fra PS3 til 360 skal være mye lettere enn andre veien.. Jmf elendige multiplatforms som har startet på 360 med unntak av Oblivion for Bethesta faktisk satte seg ned og JOBBET med spillet mot arkitekturen..

 

Så for å gjevne ut multisene så burde produksjonen starte på ps3 og så ta det og jobbe optimalisere for 360...

[konsollspiller]

Microsoft responds to Sony's Blog

 

Gamasutra contacted Xbox's Director of Games Platform Strategy, Andre 'Ozymandias' Vrignaud for reaction, and, while declining detailed comment, he noted:

 

"Sony is facing the fact the Xbox 360 (thanks to being available a year earlier) is the default development platform for almost every game studio and publisher in the industry. It’s been built into the tool chain and processes, and primary development is happening on the Xbox 360 for almost every game you can find.

 

There’s a reason why the Xbox 360 version is almost always the version shown to press and analysts for new titles – often, the PS3 version isn’t even started yet, or is well behind in development

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14326

Endret 14. juni 2007 av konsollspiller