Activision: PS3 Development Not a Problem
Publisher boasts PS3 success
Posted 8 Feb 2008
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Speaking to investors during Activision's earnings conference call for the financial quarter ending 31/12/07, Michael J. Griffith, president & CEO of Activision's Publishing Unit, said:
“What you are seeing with many publishers is they are unable to simultaneously develop and launch on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Instead, they develop and release one SKU at a time or they simply don’t release a PS3 SKU at all. Call of Duty 4 represents the best-in-class next-generation development, making it the number one selling title of all time on the PS3.
“Over the past year, our central technology group has created a proprietary set of tools for next-gen development that has enabled our developers to address the challenging PS3 architecture in efficient ways. Our tools allow us to identify performance bottlenecks in the PS3 and focus our effort in a targeted way to improve performance that would otherwise without these tools simply be a trial-and-error approach.”
“Over the past year, our central technology group has created a proprietary set of tools for next-gen development that has enabled our developers to address the challenging PS3 architecture in efficient ways. Our tools allow us to identify performance bottlenecks in the PS3 and focus our effort in a targeted way to improve performance that would otherwise without these tools simply be a trial-and-error approach.”
While Griffith is clearly trying to send out the message that Activision is on top of developing for the PS3, the phrases “challenging PS3 architecture” and “performance bottlenecks in the PS3” still stand out.
Griffith also noted the PS3 as “a technically challenging platform where many continue to struggle”.
Recently, Electronic Arts' CEO, John Riccitiello, said that the PS3 is still taking EA longer to develop for than the 360 where it is not the lead platform.
During the call, Griffith also outlined Activision's publishing line up for 2009. You can find SPOnG's report here.
Source: Seeking Alpha
Comments
2/8
Activision...go help this idiots:EA,THQ and Valve...they are just fat geeks that dont know s**t.
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3/8
Well, the PS3 is undoubtedly a very powerful piece of hardware. But it's also obvious that its architecture presents challenges to a lot of developers. Because it is not the typical PC architecture (which is used to develop a lot of games), devs have to come up with new tools to get the job done w/o the performance suffering.
4/8
Activision what happened with the PS3 version of COD 4, hum it was sh!tty and still needs patching.
Ther Xbox version has now been fixed and works fine.
BTW fanboys I owe a Wii so I didn't care which is better PS3 or Xbox360
Ther Xbox version has now been fixed and works fine.
BTW fanboys I owe a Wii so I didn't care which is better PS3 or Xbox360
5/8
I've had no problems with COD4 on my PS3
6/8
Quoth the article:
the phrases “challenging PS3 architecture” and
“performance bottlenecks in the PS3” still stand out.
Yeah, well, they shouldn't stand out.
The PS3 cell processor is significantly different than all previous platforms. That's been a known for years, and calling it the "challenging PS3 architecture" is merely restating that known. There's no new information here.
Regarding "performance bottlenecks in the PS3", all releases for all platforms have performance bottlenecks that one must address during development. This isn't unique to the PS3, so if you're trying to read more into that, you don't understand game development.
the phrases “challenging PS3 architecture” and
“performance bottlenecks in the PS3” still stand out.
Yeah, well, they shouldn't stand out.
The PS3 cell processor is significantly different than all previous platforms. That's been a known for years, and calling it the "challenging PS3 architecture" is merely restating that known. There's no new information here.
Regarding "performance bottlenecks in the PS3", all releases for all platforms have performance bottlenecks that one must address during development. This isn't unique to the PS3, so if you're trying to read more into that, you don't understand game development.
7/8
anon wrote:
Regarding "performance bottlenecks in the PS3", all releases for all platforms have performance bottlenecks that one must address during development. This isn't unique to the PS3, so if you're trying to read more into that, you don't understand game development.
Exactly, it's only a problem because it's "different," and that's already known by developers now. If they know that are going to find development more difficult on the PS3, yet still plan on releasing a game simultaneously between platforms, do something about it, i.e. start work on the PS3 earlier, or get PS3-experienced people on your team.
I could say the same thing about anything I haven't done before: "it's new, so it's more difficult" - but what should I have expected when I started doing it? What I would have done is say, "I haven't done it before, so in which case I'll expect it to be more 'difficult', and hence allocate more time to doing it."
8/8
bertybassett wrote:
Activision what happened with the PS3 version of COD 4, hum it was sh!tty and still needs patching.
Ther Xbox version has now been fixed and works fine.
BTW fanboys I owe a Wii so I didn't care which is better PS3 or Xbox360
i did not have problem nither,maybe your internet sucks.
Ther Xbox version has now been fixed and works fine.
BTW fanboys I owe a Wii so I didn't care which is better PS3 or Xbox360
i did not have problem nither,maybe your internet sucks.
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I think that if a developer chooses to develop on the PS3, it's their responsibility to make whatever they're doing work on the PS3 - thinking of it as secondary is irresponsible, if they were planning to release on it in the first place.
You have the right to say "PS3 is not good enough" if you're not using it, if that's the reason why you're not using it. But making a game on the PS3 and saying "I can't do it properly because it's too hard" is just unprofessional. Even if they said "this feature isn't possible on the PS3 for this reason" that would be more valid.