Sony purposefully made the PS3 hard to develop for?
- Posted January 21st, 2009 at 05:35 EDT by
- 44 Comments
In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. President Kaz Hirai has said that the company made a point of not providing developers with an ‘easy to program for’ console in order to extend the hardware’s longevity.
"We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that [developers] want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?" Hirai said. "It means the hardware has a lot more to offer."
Hirai’s comments can easily be applied to the concept of CELL, in which developers must become acquainted with the noticeably more complicated architecture. This is clearly evident with the PlayStation 3, as in the beginning many developers struggled with the new hardware, though after having a few years under their belt we are starting to see improvements and better performance out of the console. To this day, developers continue to find better ways to optimise the use of the hardware, further unlocking the technical prowess of the PS3.
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Ryuuchi10
- 12:56am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 2
Anywho, this is the kind of thing that most people missed and it makes sense because with so many games that the Xbox 360 have, many developers understand such a petty "to program for" while the PS3, in my feeling and perhaps my opinion, has just started. PS3 peeps, it is only the beginning. So many people just don't know how powerful the PS3 really is plus dual-layer blu ray disc? Imagine playing a game that has so much things to do that you might enjoy and can last ,maybe forever.
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Versus
- 12:58am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 3
im sorry, but the way this come out from Sony doesnt sound all that right, at least when you first hear it. its almost as if there saying "we made this harder to develop for so it will have a long life cycle" as oppose to saying "we wanted to have the complex CELL tech inside of it to have a system that would last a very long time"
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Staticneuron
- 1:03am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 4
It silly. It isn't as if they purposely made it hard to program for, it is just that they threw the thought to the wind when trying to design the chip. Their thinking was probably this..... design the chip to be as powerfull as possible and if devs can't get it right away.... they will over time.... they are smart.
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Silent_gig
- 1:16am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 5
Developers should always WANT to push themselves, you cans ee this happening just now with Sonys first party developers - but the trick is to get the third party develoeprs to notice that - weahter it being adding better versions of thier 360 counterpart games or actually taking the time to use the CELLs
Its all in a matter of time
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Lord_Von_PS3
- 1:35am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 6
There are days that Kaz Hirai makes justifiably good statements (~10 year lifespan), then there are days like these... I would like to see more of the former and less of the latter. He is undoing a lot of good recent PR work with comments such as this.
If he wanted to say something about development for the CELL, he should have said that by design - the CELL is architecturally complex and that with continued investment, developers can and will find more ways to take advantage of the CELL's raw power. -
Strudel
- 1:38am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 7
Hahaha, that's something Sony really shouldn't own up too.
If what they've said is true, and they did make a console easy to develop for what awesome games would we be seeing? and how good would cross platform games be?
Would we see almost direct ports from PC games? maybe Valve would have ALL of their PC games on the PS3 the same day?
Perhaps we'd have almost triple the number of games on the PS3 by now if Sony had made it easier for developers.
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Anim3Fr33K
- 1:53am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 8
I get the idea, and honastly its a good one, but 99% of people will take this the wrong way.
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dwightkshrute
- 2:21am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 12
except what Sony didnt anticipate was that most developers are freakin lazy and port half asses codes to the PS3 and make the PS3 look gimped and not capable of running a 360 built game.
if all games were made to utilize the PS3 or were made with the PS3 in mind, we'd have such great games with depth and scope. i look at all the multiplatform games coming out and its like, sure they might be good, but they couldve been amazing. what if resident evil 5 or mass effect was made to utilize the PS3. we all know Mass Effect is a huge game that spans the galaxy, the 360's limit really showed in that game.
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yippeekiya
- 2:31am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 13
@3 exactly my thought
in all honesty, how many consoles would last from year 1 to year 10? i mean physically not sales, however long the cycle is, your machine won't last that long and it means a bigger game library? well if you're productive and easy to creat for like M$360 then library size isn't a problem, how about making a complex Cell that's creater friendly, be superior on day 1 ?? ;)
btw I own a ps3 and love it, don't get me wrong
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rahstar2003
- 3:35am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 17
These sony exeutives need to stop talking. They sound so stupid.
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Dassureth
- 3:54am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 18
seems only a few people understand what he actually means. this may abe a thing lost in translation here, Hirai's english may be good but what he said there is not really what he meant. He's saying they didn't make an easy to develop for console because the console would be weak and not as powerful as what the ps3 is. when you make something more powerful, of course it will be harder to develop for. so if they want to make the technology last 10 years, then it has to be advanced and complicated.
Look at the PS2, for example, when the xbox came out they made it easy to program for so developers could use the full potential, thus games, in the first 2 years, looked a slightly bit better, but after that because the ps2 had untapped potential, to this day there are some games on the ps2 that look almost as good as some games on the xbox360 and far surpassed the original xbox a long time ago.
Hopefully that helps people understand what he actually meant and not what is in words.
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swanky2167
- 4:22am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 19
I can agree with this. 360 games aren't going to evolve past the point they are now just because the developers have explored every avenue of the 360 architecture. Whereas, the PS3 may not ever be fully explored - I mean, KZ2 is going to be great, but you know now that GG has that experience, they're going to be able to optimize their engine and make their next PS3 game even better. Same with Uncharted 2. With the PS3, there's room for growth. With the 360, it's already maxed out.
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Lanthros
- 5:58am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 24
developers who complain about how hard the PS3 is to program for ARE LAZY. Case in point Valve, probably the most talented company out there but as of late have decided they dont want to WORK. The harder the game is to make the more love went into making it AND IT SHOWS. After all what does the microsoftpenis console really offer? Stolen half life mods (halo) and bare bones shooters with retarded AI (gears).
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jake_hammers
- 7:33am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 28
stupid. if this was true (which it is not) they would be overlooking the fact that new, better hardware will be available by the time that developrs reach full capability. So you trying to tell me that Sony deliberately delayed getting any good games until some time down the road, when there is a huge possibility that some other company will have a stronger piece of hardware on the markety markets?
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HARDCOREPS3
- 8:58am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 29
SEE THAT IG, NAUGHTY DOG, AND GUERILLA CAN HANDLE THE POWERFUL CELL. THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT CELL. OTHER COMPANIES ARE STILL COMPLAINTS ABOUT HARD TO DEVELOP FOR AND BEING CRYBABY AND WHINES.
YEAH TELL THAT TO IG, ND, GG!
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Lanthros
- 10:17am EST - January 21st, 2009
- 31
@30 easy to program for means that the performance of the system will be tapped out faster. If you make a system thats challenging to work with you will get a constant stream of games improving. Sony is trying to return to the only actual GOOD buisness model, quality before quantity.
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MR-AWESOME55
- 2:04pm EST - January 21st, 2009
- 33
Maybe he didn't say it the way he should've, but it's still a good thing. I mean look at the Wii; very easy to develop for, TONS of games, but on IGN: Australia 1 in 4 games were rated 4.0 and below out of 10. I mean how many games would you actually buy a Wii for? PS3 has the potential for better games and they aren't rushed on it BECAUSE THEY'RE QUALITY GAMES! They spend more time learning the PS3 and learn it's potential
All in all, this is a good strategy....
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slimweasel
- 3:01pm EST - January 21st, 2009
- 34
easy to develop for = shovelware.if software and hardware didn't push in new directions then where would we be.... tandy 1000, comadore 64. i'm sure developers and programmers had their headaches with those but they pressed on and look where we are today
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ypaotroicn
- 3:11pm EST - January 21st, 2009
- 35
as these newer and more demanding games come out... i will not be able to play them anymore as my PS3 can't even handle some recent games. freakin overheating... 600 down the drain for future games... f my life
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a_stray_bullet10
- 6:33pm EST - January 21st, 2009
- 39
WHAT R U ALL COMPLAINING ABOUT!?!
its just like a chick saying 2 u: "i didnt wanna give u the goodies all at once, i like teasing u"i dont see a problem with that.
sony just gave them a strip tease. -
chumdiddy
- 8:43pm EST - January 21st, 2009
- 40
360 = PC. Very easy to program for.
The PS3 is harder and it has absolutely had an effect on total games and quality of games made for it. Sadly, we have gotten a lot of bad ports and many games they were flat out dropped from the system due to its frustration enducing qualities for devs. The real question is, will it be too late before devs get a real handle and begin to crank out fast, quality and better than 360 on a daily bases type games? Will people CARE by then? Will 720 be out by then, possibly blowing PS3 out of the water with its 1st gen games? Time will tell.
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Free_Agent
- 10:33pm EST - January 21st, 2009
- 41
Sony really needs to get rid of Kaz. This game is out of his mind. "yeah, we made it hard to develop for to improve the longevity" I'm sorry but that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard. Making something easy to develop for doesn't decrease longevity. A good console would be easy to develop for, but also have plenty of horsepower under the hood to grow with new development practices. It's Sony's way of saying that the cell processor was the worst decision they ever made, and they need some sort of excuse. No need to smack them for it, they are the ones making things worse for themselves.
I just can't wait to hear what the developers have to say about this.
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Syphon_Filter
- 11:34pm EST - January 21st, 2009
- 42
@41, Kaz is right about that and most of the developers hate to develope games for Sony because Sony use different parts in the hardware that they developed. Which they have to spend more time and they dislike that. The game companies likes to make an easy money and throwing many possible games out to sale. Thats why most of the game companies like to develope games for Xbox 360 and Wii which is a lot easier for them than doing that for Ps3. Sony uses different graphics cards, sound and etc.
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Skillgannon
- 7:28am EST - January 22nd, 2009
- 43
Yeah, it took a while for visually stunning games to come out on the Ps2 such as God of War 2, which really helped it's lifecycle as a console. Just imagine what we can expect over the next few years from the Ps3, seeing as how much power the cell has to offer even after what we've seen in Killzone 2 with their deffered rendering using different SPU's for different tasks. They said they could only push the SPU's to 60% in the most heated fire fights?
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