It’s nearly 2 months until the official release of the PlayStation 4, Sony’s upcoming big black box of dreams and wonders. Sony has focused on creating a high-spec machine that not only offers a plethora of nifty features on the user side, but was designed specifically to be easy to develop for on the creator side.
Speaking with Weekly Famitsu, Sony top man Shuhei Yoshida and Lead System Architect Mark Cerny discussed the next-gen console and its features. In developing the PS4, all ideas were placed on the table (at one point, the controller had a polygraph function), but in the end, the 2 major focal points for the system were “high-specs” and “easy to develop for.”
“We asked numerous creators what sort of functions we should implement [in the PS4], and based on the feedback, we settled on the hardware architecture.” Cerny said, talking about the PS4’s development. “With the PS4 we aimed for not just specs, but setting up an environment where games can be developed smoothly.” According to Cerny, adapting games developed on a PC framework to the PS4 is a much easier process than with previous consoles. He recalls, “Relatively small titles took less than a month, and even big titles took only 2 to 3 months.”
The short time it takes to adapt titles will hopefully lead to more games coming out sooner, which will help build up the PS4’s library and cement its foundation — something that is usually a major stumbling block for new consoles. According to Cerny, the ease of development for the PS4 “probably shortened the development of Knack by an entire year.”
Considering how pretty much every new console in recent memory has suffered from either a weak launch lineup and/or weak launch follow-up releases, this would be a welcome change to that pattern.
ファミ通.com [ファミ通.com]
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Comments
6 responses to “The PS4’s Developer-Friendliness Explained: More Games In Less Time”
Lets hope its better than PS3’s course and that BF4 was just a hick up
This is just win win for everyone. Development time and costs are cut, indies can quickly write games like they do for PC, PC costs drop relatively quickly so it’ll be easier to cut prices in a year/2 years for Sony, cross platform games will be easier to make and everyone on each platform will have a more similar experience (looking at you Bethesda) instead of having to code a game that works on 2-3 different console architectures.
Now we just have to hope that the quality of games being pumped out is high. I must say though, even though some people say the launch titles aren’t great compared to current gen games coming out, it’s still the strongest launch lineup on both systems since, probably ever
Cant really see why people think the launch linup is weak for next gen. New COD, new Assassins, new Battlefield, New Forza, new Killzone, Knack, Watchdogs. Most of those games will probably score an 8 or higher. Thats a huge lineup!
While I definitely don’t agree with them, a lot of people are calling it a weak launch lineup because of the majority of titles being both sequels and multi-platform. People are taking up the mandate that if they can also get it on current-gen consoles, ‘it doesn’t count’. Flawed argument in my opinion, but there you go.
I do like the sound of that. Making games easier to develop for the system, and more accessible to indies is always good in my books.
Sony are basically using many of Microsoft’s X360 strategies this generation (easier platform for development; bringing along a lot of indie (i.e. xbla games) for the launch to provide more early choices, focusing more on the gamer etc)