Third party problems with the PS3?

A new Gamasutra article, referring to a comment made by THQ CEO Brian Farrell to Bloomberg.com, indicates that Third Party support for the Playstation 3 may prove to be problematic. Even now, a few months before the PS3 shipping date, there seems to be a definite lack of development kits and technical information for Third Party developers. Because of those reasons, the video game adaption of The Sopranos will not find a home on Sony’s next-gen console – the same could happen to other titles currently in the pipeline.

“There certainly will not be a lot of titles available [at launch].”, Farrell concluded. Others agree with him, and games industry analyst Mike Hickey added, “Developing for Sony’s platform is incrementally more complex than what you’re looking at for Microsoft or Nintendo, with costs that could go over $25 million a game”.

On the upside, other companies – like Sega and Activision – look on this matter with optimism, mentioning the PS3’s incredible CPU capabilities. “This is the most sophisticated piece of consumer hardware ever”, noted Activision’s CEO Robert Kotick.

So on the one hand, you’ll probably see some incredible games with the second or third wave of PS3 software. On the other, the budgets necessary for developing those games might force smaller third party developers to pull out of PS3 business. Looking at the Gamecube’s line up, we really should have learned how important Third Party availability is for consoles.

A new Gamasutra article, referring to a comment made by THQ CEO Brian Farrell to Bloomberg.com, indicates that Third Party support for the Playstation 3 may prove to be problematic. Even now, a few months before the PS3 shipping date, there seems to be a definite lack of development kits and technical information for Third Party developers. Because of those reasons, the video game adaption of The Sopranos will not find a home on Sony’s next-gen console – the same could happen to other titles currently in the pipeline.

“There certainly will not be a lot of titles available [at launch].”, Farrell concluded. Others agree with him, and games industry analyst Mike Hickey added, “Developing for Sony’s platform is incrementally more complex than what you’re looking at for Microsoft or Nintendo, with costs that could go over $25 million a game”.

On the upside, other companies – like Sega and Activision – look on this matter with optimism, mentioning the PS3’s incredible CPU capabilities. “This is the most sophisticated piece of consumer hardware ever”, noted Activision’s CEO Robert Kotick.

So on the one hand, you’ll probably see some incredible games with the second or third wave of PS3 software. On the other, the budgets necessary for developing those games might force smaller third party developers to pull out of PS3 business. Looking at the Gamecube’s line up, we really should have learned how important Third Party availability is for consoles.