Word on the net has it that Japanese game developers are leaving the PS3 at a rate worse than Nintendo’s GameCube era”. Kutaragi could be demanding too much greatness from developers, and with initial investment required for PS3 development reported to be as high as US $17.6 million some developers could now be leaving Sony in favour of Microsoft and their Xbox 360.
With the recent cancellation of Condemned for the PS3 and more and more developers announcing a preference for Xbox 360, claiming the PS3 architecture is too advanced and difficult to program for, certainly gives these latest rumors some credibility. It’s a recent article on Japanese site ZakZak that seems to be the source for these recent claims.
Most believe it will be a decisive victory [for Sony], with the catch phrase “Don’t stop evolution”, much like Junichirou Koizumi’s election victory with his catchphrase “Don’t stop reformation.” However, another industry insider confided, “This is nothing but a nightmare for many Japanese software development companies.”
One of the reasons for this nightmare is soaring development costs.
The industry insider went on to say, “Kutaragi has said, ‘Please develop suitable software for PS3 - this software must not be of the same standard as PS2 software.’ Developing software for the PS3 from scratch will require an initial investment of at least 2 billion yen [US $17.6 million] [not including development costs]. There are not many software companies that can easily afford that kind of money.”
You can read the whole translation over at ps3focus.com
Word on the net has it that Japanese game developers are leaving the PS3 at a rate worse than Nintendo’s GameCube era”. Kutaragi could be demanding too much greatness from developers, and with initial investment required for PS3 development reported to be as high as US $17.6 million some developers could now be leaving Sony in favour of Microsoft and their Xbox 360.
