Crossbar
10-25-2006, 06:00 PM
I found these parts interesting as an independent developers view of the PS3 business:
Edit: It's actually two interviews with two different guys at Blitz. :)
What do you think to the direct download system for the PlayStation 3 in comparison to Xbox Live?
Philip Oliver:It's a very similar system but Sony is going to put much bigger memory limits and footprints on their downloads. They are not going to go the retro route, in fact they say they want their games to be around the same price, but they want them to be higher quality.
From what we've seen so far, they've got less product and less available, but it is higher quality than Xbox Live downloads. They're setting the entry barrier higher, which we don't have a problem with because we want to do high-end games. It is obviously 18 months to two years behind where Xbox is currently, but everyone knows and accepts that. But it will come out as a pretty good service with some pretty good games, and we hope to be there as soon as we can.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=20562
What did you make of the news that the PS3 has been delayed until March in Europe?
Andrew Oliver: I'm not entirely surprised. I think we all knew that things aren't quite ready, but I don't think I've given much away there. To be perfectly honest, I thought developers were going to get blamed for the games not being ready. I'm sure somebody on a hardware launch did that a few years back...
It's really hard to build these big games. With the best will in the world, Sony has done very well providing dev kits, but even then there have been short supplies, there have been problems - it's cutting edge technology and teething problems. So I'm not bloody surprised these things happen, and it's a miracle they do as much as they do.
How has the delay affected your business?
Andrew Oliver:We've been here so many times before... I should imagine some people have been really knocked by it, but we predicted it, and we don't rely on that kind of thing.
Six months ago, everyone was talking about signing up for next-gen no matter what, and dev kits were coming out so people were going for it. We've been saying, look, everybody in the first year of Xbox 360 will probably lose money one way or another, because the sales aren't going to be there - but the amount of cost to develop is horrendous.
You have to develop at some point. That's a fair comment. But can your cashflow take a year's hit of development? That's the issue. This year's been the PlayStation 2's biggest year, and it was totally predictable that would happen. You want have your biggest year in sales the same year you're investing in new technology; you don't want the gap some people will have had last year, where you put all your investment in upfront.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=20571
Andrew Oliver seems comfortable with the situation, despite the PS3 production issues, that is a good thing. :)
Edit: It's actually two interviews with two different guys at Blitz. :)
What do you think to the direct download system for the PlayStation 3 in comparison to Xbox Live?
Philip Oliver:It's a very similar system but Sony is going to put much bigger memory limits and footprints on their downloads. They are not going to go the retro route, in fact they say they want their games to be around the same price, but they want them to be higher quality.
From what we've seen so far, they've got less product and less available, but it is higher quality than Xbox Live downloads. They're setting the entry barrier higher, which we don't have a problem with because we want to do high-end games. It is obviously 18 months to two years behind where Xbox is currently, but everyone knows and accepts that. But it will come out as a pretty good service with some pretty good games, and we hope to be there as soon as we can.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=20562
What did you make of the news that the PS3 has been delayed until March in Europe?
Andrew Oliver: I'm not entirely surprised. I think we all knew that things aren't quite ready, but I don't think I've given much away there. To be perfectly honest, I thought developers were going to get blamed for the games not being ready. I'm sure somebody on a hardware launch did that a few years back...
It's really hard to build these big games. With the best will in the world, Sony has done very well providing dev kits, but even then there have been short supplies, there have been problems - it's cutting edge technology and teething problems. So I'm not bloody surprised these things happen, and it's a miracle they do as much as they do.
How has the delay affected your business?
Andrew Oliver:We've been here so many times before... I should imagine some people have been really knocked by it, but we predicted it, and we don't rely on that kind of thing.
Six months ago, everyone was talking about signing up for next-gen no matter what, and dev kits were coming out so people were going for it. We've been saying, look, everybody in the first year of Xbox 360 will probably lose money one way or another, because the sales aren't going to be there - but the amount of cost to develop is horrendous.
You have to develop at some point. That's a fair comment. But can your cashflow take a year's hit of development? That's the issue. This year's been the PlayStation 2's biggest year, and it was totally predictable that would happen. You want have your biggest year in sales the same year you're investing in new technology; you don't want the gap some people will have had last year, where you put all your investment in upfront.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=20571
Andrew Oliver seems comfortable with the situation, despite the PS3 production issues, that is a good thing. :)