• Posted September 4th, 2007 at 06:02 EDT by Mike Harradence
• 9 Comments

Sony Computer Entertainment President Kazuo Hirai has urged developers to exploit the unique opportunities of each home console when developing cross platform titles, as opposed to merely creating a standardized version of a particular game.

“When you consider the cost of developing on today’s platforms, I think it’s a logical progression that they’re all thinking of making their games cross-platform,” said Hirai, during an interview with Japanese website ITMedia +D Games.

Indeed, while Hirai conceded that high development costs push developers to release games across all major formats, he stressed that it should also be a priority to implement several exclusive features based on the capabilities of each platform. In the case of PlayStation 3, Hirai highlighted the advantages of Blu-ray and Sixaxis motion functionality.

“But I think it’s important that third parties use the unique characteristics of the platform to add a little bit of extra flavor to their games. For example, with the PS3, you’ve got the Sixaxis controller, or you could utilize the extra capacity provided by Blu-ray to add more levels, put on interviews with the developers or have your videos able to play in 1080p. I think it’s really important that we talk with third party developers so that they can have these interesting extras in the PlayStation 3 version.”

Elsewhere, he stated that the firm would not lose focus when it comes to developing software for the Japanese market, despite the size and demands of Western markets.

“Sony Worldwide Studios has three pillars – Europe, America and Japan… Just because the foreign market is bigger than the domestic one, we don’t intend to take strategy of just making what would have been considered previously as ‘Western games’ and saying ‘We’ve got no choice but to do this’ to our Japanese users. If we did that, there’d be no point in having the Japan Studio.”