Guerrilla Games: PS3 easier to develop for than PS2, architecture is simpler than Xbox 360
Contrary to what a lot of devs have said over the years, it’s easier to develop for the Sony PlayStation 3 than the venerable PS2. In addition, the PS3’s architecture is even simpler than that found in the Xbox 360 and PC. At least that’s what a pair of Guerrilla Games devs said recently.
Contrary to what a lot of devs have said over the years, it’s easier to develop for the Sony PlayStation 3 than the venerable PS2. In addition, the PS3’s architecture is even simpler than that found in the Xbox 360 and PC. That’s what a pair of Guerrilla Games folks told GameDaily.
Of course, it helps that a lot of the devs behind Killzone 2 already had experience developing for a Sony console. According to Guerrilla Games‘ Managing Director Hermen Hulst:
Like us, if you are native to PlayStation, our tech director doesn’t say it’s particularly difficult. It’s specific, but it’s not difficult like PS2 was difficult – PS2 was a difficult [machine] to crack, but PS3 didn’t take us a long time to get up and running.
The problem, says Hulst, lies in the vast difference between developing for another console and developing for the PS3.
I think a lot of those stories that you hear about it being ‘so difficult’ are coming from developers who are native to other consoles and then start working on PS3, because it is very different.
As for the console’s architecture, here’s what Development Director Arjan Brussee had to say:
I actually think PS3 is a simpler architecture than some of the other consoles; you just have to have a certain mindset on how to address it. I think the Cell-based processor with the SPUs and the super high speed DSPs that you can throw all your calculation tasks at gives us a model that’s way easier to program for, even for junior programmers, than the general purpose multi-core type of architecture, which the PC and Xbox 360 have.
In the end it all boils down to the developer’s approach, I guess.
Related articles:
Via GameDaily
