*points and laughs at Sony*

Post by **weemadando** » 2005-10-18 07:39pm

The Inquirer wrote:SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS may be scared away from developing for Sony’s PS3 by the colossal investment required. And many may plumb for the Volish Xbox instead, a report suggests.

Japanese site ZakZak, translated here, muses on the upcoming battle between the PS3 and Xbox 360 and fears Sony’s demanding standards could put it at a disadvantage. Their source suggests that developing software for the PS3 from scratch requires an initial investment of at least 2 billion yen (US $17.6 million) and that’s before they start.

"There are not many software companies that can easily afford that kind of money,” he said. "This is nothing but a nightmare for many Japanese software development companies."

The sentiment is that many software developers will step towards the Xbox 360. Thanks to their inherent similarities 360 developers could also develop PC titles without incurring high R&D costs.

One developer down to work exclusively for Sony is already questioning whether this was the right decision, we hear. µ

And they expect to get developers to sign on HOW? And how much are games going to cost if devs have to recoup those kind of costs? JESUS!

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2005-10-18 07:42pm

I remember I commented that the PS3 would be absurdly hard and expensive to develop for many months back. Then got flamed by the Sony Zombie Hoard who decried my comments as incorrect.

Look who's laughing now!

I always knew this would happen to the CELL system somehow

Dorenn Stark · Post by **Dorenn Stark** » 2005-10-18 08:38pm

I love the PS1&2, I hope the PS3 does not drive the cost of games up too high.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-10-18 08:46pm

Is most of that money going towards development software? If so, yikes!

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-10-18 08:53pm

This is hilarious!

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2005-10-18 08:57pm

*crosses figures* PleasepleasePLEASE let Nintendo win the next generation.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-18 09:12pm

I have to say that I wonder on the accuracy of these reports. I've heard more news sites running around proclaiming this stuff than I've heard actual developers.

While I hope Nintendo wins, the last thing I want is to see this give Microsoft a higher marketshare.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-10-18 09:20pm

I'd rather see microsoft win frankly, they're the most likely to integrate consoles into the PC world.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-18 09:37pm

They're also the most likely to squeeze everyone into a proprietary scheme, lock up the market and kill any possible competitors.

My dream scenario: Nintendo and Sony get pretty similar marketshares (I'm sure that if Sony or Nintendo got a monopoly, they'd be just as bad as M$), Microsoft drops out of the console market.

BTW; Microsoft most likely to integrate consoles into the PC world? Sony is sitting here turning the PS3 into a freaking Linux PC, giving it full keyboard and mouse support, and allowing for CompactFlash and SD cards instead of proprietary memory cards, while Microsoft is requiring you to pay extra for Windows Media Center Edition for streaming some video.

Microsoft is more likely to integrate consoles with WINDOWS. I don't care to see that. I'd much rather see Sony make consoles into Linux stations that can work over a network with all platforms, or better yet, Nintendo which realizes, dude, it's a gaming machine, go actually play games on it.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2005-10-18 09:43pm

Didn't the Nintendo 64 have a problem with high development costs for games? If so, how bad was it compared to this?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-10-18 09:49pm

The software still has to be developed for that platform specifically. You can dress it up like a computer, but until development for one platform works for all, I won't be satisfied. Microsoft strikes me as the most likely candidate to do this. I know competition lowers prices and delivers better products, but frankly, I think it's high time things became standardized. My personal feelings of course. I'm thinking long term here, of course.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-18 10:31pm

Don't get me wrong- I'd LOVE to see it get standardized. But I don't want "standardized" to mean "one company controls everything and therefore the standard is whatever they force everyone to use".

Frankly, if everyone would use OpenGL and the same API's and stop using exotic processors, making porting a matter of tweaking some bits of code, I'd be very happy. The companies would be too, because they would get more games- every game would either be console-exclusive, or immediately available on every console because porting time is very short.

But I DON'T want standardization to mean that everyone uses Microsoft's standards, and therefore Microsoft can force anyone to do whatever they want, like they do in the Windows world.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2005-10-18 10:33pm

Weren't people saying the exact same thing about the PS2?

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2005-10-18 10:36pm

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Didn't the Nintendo 64 have a problem with high development costs for games? If so, how bad was it compared to this?

Expensive cartridges were the problem. If there were big development costs, they don't compare to how much money was lost due to the media costing tens of dollars itself.

The decision to stay with catridges was officially shown to be a joke when Square showed you can have RPGs on CD without big load times.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-10-18 10:38pm

The PissTwo *was* a bastard to code for, but I don't recall anyone throwing around 16.7Million just for baseline development. That's staggering. Indeed, I recall PS2 dev kits being GIVEN AWAY to encourage development for the platform.

Sony, shortsighted? Not learning from mistakes?

NEVER!

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2005-10-18 10:48pm

This ZakZak publication doesn't substanciate its claim of that kind of investment. In all likelyhood it is complete bullshit passed from some NBot posting in a futaba board.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-18 11:02pm

Hamel wrote:This ZakZak publication doesn't substanciate its claim of that kind of investment. In all likelyhood it is complete bullshit passed from some NBot posting in a futaba board.

That's what I was thinking.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-10-18 11:13pm

InnocentBystander wrote:I'd rather see microsoft win frankly, they're the most likely to integrate consoles into the PC world.

Yeah, like that's ever going to happen outside of some masturbatory geek fantasy...

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2005-10-18 11:19pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:I'd rather see microsoft win frankly, they're the most likely to integrate consoles into the PC world.
Yeah, like that's ever going to happen outside of some masturbatory geek fantasy...

It's almost as masturbatory as the idea of Nintendo becoming the savior of the games industry.

Stark wrote:The PissTwo *was* a bastard to code for, but I don't recall anyone throwing around 16.7Million just for baseline development. That's staggering. Indeed, I recall PS2 dev kits being GIVEN AWAY to encourage development for the platform.

Sony, shortsighted? Not learning from mistakes?

NEVER!

What mistakes are you hinting at?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-10-18 11:20pm

Sorry, you must have me mistaken for Praxis.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2005-10-18 11:28pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Sorry, you must have me mistaken for Praxis.

It wasn't a jab at you. Not even at him. Someone put a gun to my balls and forced me to say it.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-18 11:28pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
It's almost as masturbatory as the idea of Nintendo becoming the savior of the games industry.
Sorry, you must have me mistaken for Praxis.

Um...my previous post...

My dream scenario: Nintendo and Sony get pretty similar marketshares (I'm sure that if Sony or Nintendo got a monopoly, they'd be just as bad as M$), Microsoft drops out of the console market.

I like the Revolution and Nintendo's games the best of the consoles, is that a crime?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-10-18 11:30pm

Hamel wrote:
Stark wrote:The PissTwo *was* a bastard to code for, but I don't recall anyone throwing around 16.7Million just for baseline development. That's staggering. Indeed, I recall PS2 dev kits being GIVEN AWAY to encourage development for the platform.

Sony, shortsighted? Not learning from mistakes?

NEVER!
What mistakes are you hinting at?

Sony-standard business practices, basically. The kind of blinkered attitude that made them think they could make everyone change from CF to MS with enough sweet ads, regardless of the sometimes 400% price difference. Their history of spec-sheet padding at the expense of practicality (the PS2, for example - cram in the buzzwords!). Not so much commercial mistakes as bad attitude, I guess.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-10-18 11:40pm

Praxis wrote:I like the Revolution and Nintendo's games the best of the consoles, is that a crime?

No offense, Praxis, but sometimes in these G&C threads you can come across as kind of a whore.

Hobot · Post by **Hobot** » 2005-10-18 11:49pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Praxis wrote:I like the Revolution and Nintendo's games the best of the consoles, is that a crime?
No offense, Praxis, but sometimes in these G&C threads you can come across as kind of a whore.

And sometimes you come off as a dick.

I may prefer the Xbox, but I don't mind Praxis's enthusiasm for Nintendo.