Sometimes I’m Not Happy When I’m Right
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how it is hard to develop games for PS3 and how their CEO claims that this is on purpose.
Fanboys claimed it was for the prestige, quality over quantity. I say bullsh*t. It’s just arrogance. They want to dictate the playing field. This is Sony’s way of saying “Here is our rule, follow it”.
Famous words by their CEO:
”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?”
–Kaz Hirai, CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment
Bullshit right?
Well, now we have this new announcement:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/sony-announces-lower-cost-ps3-dev-tools.ars
In an effort to increase development for PlayStation 3, Sony today lowered the cost of its PS3 development kit to $2,000, the second price cut the company has made since demo units began shipping to developers in 2005.
“Having the same form factor as the commercially available PS3, the new Reference Tool models allow advanced game programming and more efficient computer graphics rendering,” the company said via press release. “With its more affordable pricing, this new model will appeal to a broader range of developers and publishers, and will help to provide a more streamlined game development environment, further accelerating game development for PS3.”
What’s more, Sony promised enhanced technical support for developers, an optimized PS3 compiler (SNC PPU) to improve efficiency, and better documentation for PhyreEngine, the company’s free-to-use graphics engine that supports both OpenGL and Direct3D. In general, the announcement featured a lot of verbal commitment from Sony on behalf of developers.
“With more and more new and exciting PS3 titles scheduled for release this year from third party developers and publishers as well as from SCE Worldwide Studios,” the company added, “SCE will deploy various measures to further reinforce game development for PS3 and will continue to expand the platform to offer attractive interactive entertainment experiences only available on PS3.”
The news comes as “Surviving the Recession” and “Stability in the Stormy Weather” are a key themes of this year’s Game Developers Conference. With today’s announcement, it’s an issue Sony is obviously aware of. But it’s ironic to see a “lower-cost” development initiative being promoted for the PlayStation 3—which at $400, remains the most expensive console on the market.
As a result and despite solid games, PS3 sales for four consecutive months now over the same period last year—a sobering trend publishers and developers have surely noticed. Perhaps to lower the console’s price will be the only solution to reverse declining demand.
***** SARCASM STARTS HERE *****
WOW! I guess they no longer care about what they do in the next nine and a half year, huh? Why though? Only reason I can think of is that PS4 is coming earlier than expected. Here’s hoping for a Sega-like demise.
Ooooohhhhhh! They’re going to give better documentation and enhanced technical support for developers. Wow, they really want everyone to be able to develop. Whatever happened to quality over quantity?
$2,000 for a PS3 Dev Kit? That’s even cheaper than a DS Dev Kit. Wow, now just about any studio can develop PS3 games.
***** SARCASM ENDS HERE *****
As I’ve stated before, the reasoning of the CEO is just bull. They’re just too lazy and complacent in their position in the Video Game Industry that they thought they could get away with it. Well now, at the very least, PS3 Fanboys can expect a lot of third party games, though a lot of them might be of low quality (which they claimed is what the CEO was trying to prevent).
Honestly, I think this is a very wise move by PS3. Really. See, in my opinion, if developing games for PS3 is hard and of course at the same time would have a greater production cost, all game developers would only do tried and tested game types. Only a few would gamble.
The fanboys just have to hope that it is not yet too late. Oh right, in their eyes, there never was a problem, stupid me.
12 Responses to “Sometimes I’m Not Happy When I’m Right”
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“Fanboys claimed it was for the prestige, quantity over quality”
Uh, don’t you mean quality over quantity?
In any case, I think you’re taking the marketing talk too seriously, and Sony’s intelligence for granted. Sony didn’t get to where it is now in the game industry by being stupid, so I’m almost positive they know they’re in a bad state.
Let’s say you work in Sony. Do you think the best solution for them is to say, oh snap! we effed up! Sorry folks! While that would certainly be refreshing it would in no way help their situation right now, so all they can do try to stick to the plan and hope that some killer app will save the day for them. Remember they’re still losing money on every console they make, so right now there’s just no way they can justify slashing costs.
Microsoft already tried this by releasing a version of the 360 that’s $200 and while this has boosted their sales somewhat, it’s still a very distant second behind the Wii in terms of sales.
I agree that this may be a dreamcast-like situation for them, or rather, a Saturn situation, which is when Sega lost most of their market share, which Dreamcast just wasn’t able to make up for. Although this time, I doubt the company is going to even be able to muster up the energy to release a PS4, so they’re already in a do or die situation with the PS3.
REPLIES ARE IN ALL CAPS
“Fanboys claimed it was for the prestige, quantity over quality”
Uh, don’t you mean quality over quantity?
OBVIOUSLY
In any case, I think you’re taking the marketing talk too seriously, and Sony’s intelligence for granted.
I DON’T THINK THE PROBLEM IS THEIR INTELLIGENCE, I BELIEVE IT’S THEIR ARROGANCE.
Sony didn’t get to where it is now in the game industry by being stupid, so I’m almost positive they know they’re in a bad state.
SONY GOT TO WHERE THEY ARE BY OFFERING A VAST NUMBER OF GAMES ON THEIR PREVIOUS CONSOLES. SONY IS BEING STUPID NOW BY MESSING WITH THEIR SUCCESS FORMULA. JUST BECAUSE A COMPANY WAS SUCCESSFUL BEFORE DOESN’T MAKE THEM IMMUNE TO STUPIDITY.
Let’s say you work in Sony. Do you think the best solution for them is to say, oh snap! we effed up! Sorry folks!
NOPE, BUT A “NO COMMENT” ANSWER IS BETTER THAN SAYING “IT’S ON PURPOSE”
While that would certainly be refreshing it would in no way help their situation right now, so all they can do try to stick to the plan and hope that some killer app will save the day for them.
STICKING TO A LOSING STRATEGY, UNTIL SOME SORT OF MIRACLE COMES OUT? I THINK WHAT THEY DID (REDUCING COST FOR DEV KITS, MORE SUPPORT TO DEVELOPERS) IS FAR BETTER THAN HOPING FOR THE BEST.
Remember they’re still losing money on every console they make, so right now there’s just no way they can justify slashing costs.
I DON’T THINK THAT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR LOSS IN EVERY CONSOLE THEY MAKE. MOST OF THE REVENUES COMES FROM THEIR SHARES OF THE PROFIT FROM GAMES SOLD ANYWAY. THE REASON WHY THEY CANNOT JUSTIFY LOWERING THEIR PRICE IS BECAUSE PS3 WOULD BECOME A CHEAP BLUE RAY PLAYER AND THAT WOULD HURT THEIR PARTNERS WHO ARE SELLING BLUERAY PLAYERS.
Microsoft already tried this by releasing a version of the 360 that’s $200 and while this has boosted their sales somewhat, it’s still a very distant second behind the Wii in terms of sales.
I agree that this may be a dreamcast-like situation for them, or rather, a Saturn situation, which is when Sega lost most of their market share, which Dreamcast just wasn’t able to make up for. Although this time, I doubt the company is going to even be able to muster up the energy to release a PS4, so they’re already in a do or die situation with the PS3.
NEXT TIME I’LL PUT A …
“Fanboys claimed it was for the prestige, quantity over quality”
Cheapening the price doesn’t equate to cheapening the quality. Did the cheapening of the price give incompetent developers a boost to their skills? Support wise, could be. But still I don’t think incompetent 3rd rate studios will settle for the sure shot stuffs like I dunno, some other console who probably self destructs within a few uses?
Take crude as an analogy. It became cheaper nowadays compared to last few years but the cheapening wont make a Ferrari crawl like a turtle nor someone can put a McLaren to shame through a Kia pride with cheaper gas.
And besides, I don’t think giving more proper documentations and support to developers would hurt quality. Much more, make the games worse. I don’t know. As a developer myself, I’m very fond of documentations. I’d rather take tons of books of documentations rather than blindly coding. As an I.T. manager, I doubt you’d not want more documentation to browse that’s related to your job.
ERRATA: But still I don’t think incompetent 3rd rate studios
CORRECT SENTENCE: But still I think incompetent 3rd rate studios
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sarcasm
Your point?
This is a good move for sony itself. Lowering the price of the devkit would mean more developers producing games for the PS3.
A game doesn’t need to have a bigtime publisher just to have an A+ game for it. Sometimes, some of the great designers can be found on some independent game companies. Take for example the game Audiosurf for the PC. I’s highly popular and look who developed it? an independent game company.
Also, developers can now take advantage of the PS3 in the business perspective. So far there are no pirated PS3 games out in the market today.
**************** SARCASM STARTS HERE ****************
WOW! I guess they no longer care about what they do in the next nine and a half year, huh? Why though? Only reason I can think of is that PS4 is coming earlier than expected. Here’s hoping for a Sega-like demise.
Ooooohhhhhh! They’re going to give better documentation and enhanced technical support for developers. Wow, they really want everyone to be able to develop. Whatever happened to quality over quantity?
$2,000 for a PS3 Dev Kit? That’s even cheaper than a DS Dev Kit. Wow, now just about any studio can develop PS3 games.
**************** SARCASM ENDS HERE ****************
Of course, cheapening of price doesn’t mean cheapening of quality but it means that they are more focused this time on quantity of games, hence the outstanding support for developers.
Of course, I like documentation. Who doesn’t? But it also means that it would be easier and more affordable for mediocre studios to make mediocre games, which would usually means a drop in percentage of quality. Take note, PERCENTAGE, not the actual number.
Which do you think is better? 100 games and 80 of those are quality games or 1000 games and 600 of those are quality games?
And if you’ve actually read the entire article, you will actually see that I actually praised PS3’s move. You see, I believe that the reason for PSX and PS2’s dominance is because of the vast number of games. And what they’re doing now is that they went back to their winning formula, and that is to make sure developers would create a lot of games for them.
A PS3 article made by me does not automatically mean “oooohhh me hater me bash PS3″.
Oh and the point of the article is to show that I was right and the fanboys are wrong about why PS3 is hard to develop for. It’s not about the prestige or the prevention of mediocre stuff. It’s because they’re lazy and arrogant to make it easier to develop for. Kudos to PS3 for realizing their mistake and correcting it.
haha you don’t get my point and let’s just stop there. You’re already turning yourself into an oxymoron.
Yes I agree that this is a good move as far as my narcissistic sense is concerned.
Oxymoron? Whatever did I say that are contradictory to each other?
I’m not sure why you don’t get the point of my article while most of the other writers do?
And lastly, I would suggest not to resort to name calling. That is usually how forum trolls talk.
NOPE, BUT A “NO COMMENT” ANSWER IS BETTER THAN SAYING “IT’S ON PURPOSE”
Actually, Apple does this all the time, and people swoon all over them. Like everytime they hold a feature back it’s “on purpose”, and people buy it. Not all people, but enough that Apple thrives.
Sony’s not at Apple’s level by any means, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a workable strategy, it just isn’t working for them right now. Sometimes it’s just not easy to turn a ship as big as Sony around.
On sarcasm… it’s very hard to make sarcasm come across with the written word. For example:
“Fanboys claimed it was for the prestige, quantity over quality”
Uh, don’t you mean quality over quantity?
OBVIOUSLY
I’m hard pressed to see where the reader is supposed to take it that this is sarcasm. Remember that just because you feel a certain emotion when writing an article doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s being conveyed properly when you write it down.
Sorry, but I’m firmly in the camp of “I don’t get the point of your article.”
The OBVIOUSLY reply was a mistake. It was supposed to be OBVIOUSLY A TYPO.
As for the sarcasm, well, yeah basing on the comments of my fellow writer, the sarcasm was lost. My mistake, I thought that since other people who read the article got the sarcasm (because of the excessive OOOOOOHHHH and WOW!!!!), there would be no need for a ****tag**** for when the sarcasm starts and ends.
Don’t worry though, I’ll place markers next time I use sarcasm.