Sony Europe exec talks low cost titles for the open platforms
PlayStation was in the limelight at Casual Connect as George Bain, Sony Europe‘s developer relations manager, addressed Eastern European developers. The 411: open platforms make for low cost titles. Info and details in the full articles.
PlayStation was in the limelight at Casual Connect as George Bain, Sony Europe‘s developer relations manager, addressed Eastern European developers. The 411: open platforms make for low cost titles.
Bain emphasized that because a platform is open, developers no longer need to submit a game for approval, allowing them to create games at low development cost.
Bain adds that there is no cost to become a licensed developer, but you’ll have to pay for the dev kits. Dev kits for the PS3 cost US$ 10,250. If developers are working on smaller, more casual titles, then they could use a debug kit instead, which costs only 10% of a full dev kit.
Sony is adapting a global approval system. Previous games had to be submitted separately through Europe, Japan, and America. Now, a game idea will simply be sent to a single website for approval.
“Without the need of a licensed publisher, it’s a direct relationship between a developer and Sony.” Sony will also allow developers to publish through third-party publishers. “this has never been done before,” said Bain, “This is something we’re actively promoting.”
This gives developers so much new opportunity, especially when we consider that publishers aren’t imperative for the PS3 and PSP. We’re already seeing this in Tiki game’s quest to complete Galaxy’s End.
Bain also mentioned that the PSP is easier to develop for, saying that “it doesn’t require a huge amount of programming resources to develop on the PlayStation Portable.” With the success that the PSP is having, this would be a great opportunity for developers.
Great news. If this goes well, we will be seeing great, less-pricey titles on the PSP, and even on the PS2. We’ll also be getting them a lot faster – minus all the red tape and processing that conventional publishing would take. Perhaps we’re seeing the start of some form of indie gaming? Let’s sit tight and watch as it unfolds in the coming weeks.
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