Harrison: Developers face format choice

Sony Studios boss says easy multi-platform ports are a thing of the past.

Speaking exclusively to MCV, Sony's Head of Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison has said that the choice developers face when deciding what hardware formats to support is harder now than it ever has been.

"Development and support for a format is very important yes, and the story is very different these days to how it was with older formats," he stated. "In the past you could pay a million dollars for a PS2 game and get a $50,000 Xbox port thrown in. Those days are gone. Developers have to pick their formats much more carefully.

"This is partly because of the huge cost of development. But it's not just a financial consideration. It's about strategic marketing and the online consumer. It's about how a game fits its format."

[WilliamRLBaker]

he has no idea because simply put one of the big cost explosions this gen is blu ray exclusive usage, the dvd use by 360 barely put any noticable dent into dev consideration of game production costs...

[DaEnforcer]

You idiot, the hard disc costs doesn't even put a dent in overall games costs.

[WilliamRLBaker]

really? you mean it costs nothing to fund r&d to research and train your programmers to program with bd in mind?

it costs nothing to either refit 0r build new pressing factories for said discs?

it doesn't cost 5-10 dollars via mass produced pressed bd discs?

i didn't know that the only thing in game development was the programing of the game.....game devs must have a magical giant that craps out the completed media, box, instructions just by looking at the game right?

every thing you do to get your game onto bluray disc is included on the cost impact of hard media.

a company must get sdk,and tools to train its employees to program for the media type used, then they must either secure publishing rights so as to get said games produced in physical form onto said format, or they must build pressing plants that deal with said format, then they must make deal with publisher to purchase said materials to make blank said format discs or purchase said blanks from other companies or if they build said plants must secure materials if they make bd discs or secure blank media from other companies.

edit:people here must know nothing of game publishing....

[Nicosia]

“This is partly because of the huge cost of development. But it’s not just a financial consideration. It’s about strategic marketing and the online consumer. It’s about how a game fits its format.”

So why alienate people from forcing the them to buy one format, that means less customers and that means less profit, less new sequals or new ips. The DVD had impact, and its still THE choice for the ''usual custumors''.

[Rims]

Why spend millions on the xbox when your game will be gimped?

[WilliamRLBaker]

how so far 9 out of ten ps3 games are gimped and deliver nothing as promised?

[SorenK]

Yes, we can see, Phil, as most multiplatforms look worse on the PS3.

But seriously, there have been (or will be) some very successful multiplatform titles (Oblivion and Virtual Fighter 5 come to mind), which goes to show that good ports aren't that hard, it just requires a little extra money/effort from developers, which should pay off in the long run.

It still seems to make more sense to me to put in the little extra money and make a good port rather than build a whole new game because ports are more challenging/costly now.

[otherZinc]

Phil this is why developers are choosing the 360, you (SONY) were thinking you owned the video game world and made the choice of creating a completly different format, developers didnt follow.

Now SONY gets second rate ports, also, SONY cant create a great game to show developers what can be done on the PS3.

John Carmak & Valve Soft said SONY wants and would need another team to work on the PS3 alone, they were right and you lose Phil.

Also, people are not buying your games, so who is going to make exclusives for the PS3?

I think SONY will only get timed exclusives, TEAM NINJA found out the hard way that the PS3 is not the way to go for an exclusive title with that BOMB NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA that sold 60K in 5 days. SIGMA would have sold 150K in 5 days on the 360, its a great game that no one wants on the PS3.

SONY you have yourself to blame for this with your B-RAY & CELL TECH.

[Igniter]

There was an article somewhere in the last few days where a dev for DMC4 talked about the development engine they created that allowed them to make a PS3 and a 360 game at the same time.

Also take into account MS's XNA initiatives to bring programming for the PC and the 360 (and other platforms later) closer together. The tools for making games are merging.

Making a game for one platform and porting to another just seems like outdated thinking to me.

[BIadestarX]

"and other platforms later" I hope you are not thinking that Sony will benefit from the XNA "initiatives"... Just like DirectX, Microsoft goal is to create an army of developers that will support platforms where XNA and directX are supported... How do you think PC became what it is today? Microsoft always focus on creating development environments and framework (XNA, DirectX, .Net, asp.net, etc) that developers would easly learn. Why do you think microsoft is pushing so hard for educational institutions to start using XNA when teaching game programming? People may not be paying much attention to this... but what platforms do you think this students will prefer when they come out of school? The key to world domination is not on the hardware is on the software. The same way that people buy windows to run the application they have to use, even when other OS are arguably better; people will buy the console with the better/most games.
While Sony is focusing on the consumer by pushing new formats and Nintendo is focusing also on the consumer by expanding to the casual gamer; microsoft is focusing on the developer... that's the core of the industry... you get the developer... you get the industry. Microsoft is trying to increase the number of developers and grab them before they are even game developers.

[BIadestarX]

Do you know where Sony would have done a super killing? If they would support both formats. It's technically possible, so why not? Allow developers to choose what format to retail their games. There is no reason why some games should be in a blu-ray disk since they fit perfectly fine in a DVD9. For example, why shouldnt Virtual Fighter come on a DVD9? Fits fine on the XBox 360. give developer the choice, they would love that. The PS3 can read PS2 DVD games. So, why not? It would reduce development and production cost.

[DJ]

are only nominally more expensive to produce than DVDs (around ten cents), and it's a security issue as well. By forcing all publishers to use BD-ROM, said publishers are actually protected by several layers of security, thus thwarting rampant piracy.

A lot of multiplatform games are actually going way past the 8GB limit imposed on the Xbox 360 platform, and developers are loving it. For them, real 'choice' is being able to choose how much content they want to put into a game, and without making compromises to that game. Konami's soccer game for instance is going to be available on the 360, but heavily compromised. The true version of the game is around 18GB, and thus is superior on Sony's platform since they've given developers so much freedom with a significantly larger and more secure format.

[Bloodmask]

you screwed up this gen. You made your architecture in PS3 so diferent that most third parties don't want to deal with the headache. A good example of this is Madden.

360 has ease of development with the XNA toolkit. And the architecture of 360 is very similar to PC where all games are developed on first. Then put on their respective dev kits.

If developers do have to choose a platform they will most likely choose 360 or Wii just based on the install base. And you will get no game or a crippled port as usual.

The only developers that praise your hardware are the first and second parties that have no choice bc they are working for Sony. And devs that have strong ties with Sony such as Square and Konami.

[Keyser]

Phil, thanks for telling us the story but I think we new this.

This is sort of what Crazy Ken was trying to do when developing the PS3. How could he give almost limitless room for a developer to work. No more issues about I don't have enough space or enough horsepower to pull of this game. He challenged developers to step their game up. Many have chosen to stick to what they know (what's easiest) but for those who can afford it they will see the financial rewards of their hard work. (See Heavenly Sword Demo)

[freeza]

an this is why rockstar are making games with sony in the future, 360 is crapp you wasted your money losers