Developers Reaction to PS3 price?

[TheChefO]

Almost not at all

Quite arrogant - time will tell.

 

[nelg]

Well if there's no evidence for it, there's surely no reason to think it.

I was thinking the same thing in regards to the supposed superiority of the gaming experience the PS3 is to provide.

[puts on asbestos underwear]

 

[TheChefO]

I was thinking the same thing in regards to the supposed superiority of the gaming experience the PS3 is to provide.

[puts on asbestos underwear]

Ouch - Ken & co. raised the bar - its up to them to meet it (although mgs4 looks freakin unbelievable... almost purchase worthy)

 

[Nesh]

Quite arrogant - time will tell.

You are refering to the future. Currently there is almost none

 

[TheChefO]

You are refering to the future. Currently there is almost none

ok and IF they only have an installed base 7 million come fall 2008 do you think the situation will be different?

 

[TheChefO]

I dont think we can expect developers who rely on Sony, MS, Nintendo for their paychecks to come out publicly against these companies. (except that guy from Ubisoft of course)

I doubt any developers want to get on the bad side of the current market leader. A flurry of negative comments from developers would ceertainly mean something, but i dont the lack of negtivity can be taken as support or even indifference.

Also, the development partners probably have some transparency into a longer term pricing strategy whereas we do not, and i'm sure thats what they really care about. The first 6 million PS3 will sell regardless, so the 12-18 month out pricing is really key when making platform decisions.

I agree I'm not saying publicly dismissing ps3 - I'm saying are there pub/devs behind the scenes changing their release targets after hearing about sony's pricing/marketing strategy.

 

[Tap In]

I agree I'm not saying publicly dismissing ps3 - I'm saying are there pub/devs behind the scenes changing their release targets after hearing about sony's pricing/marketing strategy.

I have to say, after reading Xbox Uncloaked, I was surprised at how cavalier Publishers (like EA) were about shifting levels of support for systems.

Not that they would say it publicly. They will always publicly support all systems (that they have decided to sell on) and when talking about each will make it sound like the best thing ever, since it's their bread and butter.

they appear to make those adjustments on the fly and go where the winds take them. I mean it is about the money afterall. That said, I can't imagine PS3 losing dev support based on their pricing strategy. Sony has as much collateral with devs as they do the general public and they are going to trade on that for a while.

this question is best revisited 1 -2 years after launch to see how successful sales are IMO.

 

[TheChefO]

I have to say, after reading Xbox Uncloaked, I was surprised at how cavalier Publishers (like EA) were about shifting levels of support for systems.

Not that they would say it publicly. They will always support all systems (that they have decided to sell on) and when talking about each will make it sound like the best thing ever, since it's their bread and butter.

they appear to make those adjustments on the fly and go where the winds take them. I mean it is about the money afterall. That said, I can't imagine PS3 losing dev support based on their pricing strategy. Sony has as much collateral with devs as they do the general public and they are going to trade on that for a while.

this question is best revisited 1 -2 years after launch to see how successful sales are IMO.

True but here's the problem with that. If you are a developer you have to know what platform you're targeting at least one year out and the worst part is the more ambitious your title the more time/money you need to invest.

Assume youve been in development on a big budget title with a 3 year target. You're contracted last year right after e3. 2007 e3 comes around and sales projections are heavily lowered for ps3. What do you do?

 

[Tap In]

.... 2007 e3 comes around and sales projections are heavily lowered for ps3. What do you do?

Port it to 360 and PC ASAP.

I hear what you're saying and from what EA was quoted as having said in the book I referenced, they DO make changes pretty quickly like that (at least huge Pubs like EA).

to what extent, I have NO idea and maybe some devs here could shed some light on that for us.

My point was, I doubt that the launch price has had an impact on any plans.

 

[TheChefO]

Port it to 360 and PC ASAP.

I hear what you're saying and from what EA was quoted as having said in the book I referenced, they DO make changes pretty quickly like that (at least huge Pubs like EA).

to what extent, I have NO idea and maybe some devs here could shed some light on that for us.

My point was, I doubt that the launch price has had an impact on any plans.

Well perhaps not action but I'm sure more than a few pubs/devs took a double take at that price and have since at least thought about the possibility that things may not go 100% to plan as they have the past two generations and they may need to take precautionary measures. For instance: It would be good to know the sales figures for 360/Wii dev kits before and after the e3 timeframe.

 

[Tap In]

... more than a few pubs/devs took a double take at that price and have since at least thought about the possibility that things may not go 100% to plan as they have the past two generations....

I don't doubt that

it's obvious after seeing the games at E3 and knowing the price (and reading the reactions) that the environment for this gen has changed to a degree.

 

[TheChefO]

I don't doubt that

it's obvious after seeing the games at E3 and knowing the price (and reading the reactions) that the environment for this gen has changed to a degree.

I think this gen could end up being the closest split (33%) ever - IF Wii drops at $150 launch. regardless of the guts of the system, parents will see it is new and has new games and is dirt cheap. techies may wait but at that price it becomes very "undisruptive".

I do fear for the industry that Sony is making the same type of arrogant mistakes that N did w/ n64. Personally I would soak up the justice of the hype machine running into the truth wall. But selfishly a drastic change such as that would be bad for the industry as I think Sony will keep ms in check. Healthy competition is good and the end result of this gen I hope is good strong healthy competition.

 

[PeterT]

Really, there are only a few main types of games when you devide them by "exclusivity" and the reason for it:

• Mainstream sports/FPS/Action/GTA-Clone games. These were already multiplatform to a large degree last gen, and with increasing development costs it would be only natural to expect even more of them to be this gen. Got to sell those stupidly expensive assets as often as possible.
• 1st/2nd party "system seller" franchises - as they are closely related to the company making the console the chance of these going multiplatform are slim.
• Big 3rd party franchises that are exclusive to one console and thus don't fall into the first category: There are very few of these, and I expect them to become even more uncommon in the future... one example would be the DMC series.
• Lesser known games that are usually exclusive to one platform out of cost factors or because the intended target audience is concentrated there: Ie. JRPGs.

I see console price (and speculated - though very unlikely IMHO - related sales drop) only affecting the third category strongly, and it is already increasingly rare to begin with. In other words, unless there are some other big changes in the landscape that work in concert with the price, I don't think it will have much influence on developers at this point.

 

[Nesh]

ok and IF they only have an installed base 7 million come fall 2008 do you think the situation will be different?

Hmm 7 million sounds way too few I think for a period of 2 years.

I cant suggest numbers but if PS3 doesnt reach a certain userbase developers will see more reasons to support the other consoles with the former PS exclusives since their games wont be selling as much as expected on the PS3.

I dont think PS3 will do that bad though. But as you said time will tell.

 

[ERP]

True but here's the problem with that. If you are a developer you have to know what platform you're targeting at least one year out and the worst part is the more ambitious your title the more time/money you need to invest.

Assume youve been in development on a big budget title with a 3 year target. You're contracted last year right after e3. 2007 e3 comes around and sales projections are heavily lowered for ps3. What do you do?

IME I can move a title from one platform to another in weeks if I have to. Biggest issue is whether the assets will work on the new target.
It usually takes about a week to get the game "compiling and running" usually without graphics or sound, and another couple of weeks to fix toolchains and graphics runtimes.
Moving something to PS2 when you don't have a runtime has been the only real exception I've ever seen to this, and even that wasn't much longer.
This doesn't really take into account platform specific optimizations, but they are generally done later in development.

For the Cross platform publishers it's more about primary SKU, which SKU do you prioritise?

FWIW I haven't heard of any fall out from the price yet, but I wouldn't expect to in the short term, people will wait and see.

PS3 will likely be successfull in Japan either way, so I can't imagine it affecting Japanese publishers much.

 

[Tap In]

thanks for the insight ERP :smile:

 

[TheChefO]

IME I can move a title from one platform to another in weeks if I have to.
For the Cross platform publishers it's more about primary SKU, which SKU do you prioritise?

3 weeks to a unknown platform? I would think for a platform that one was familiar with this could be a realitively streamlined process but for one to port the game to a unkown platform I would think this may take a significant amount of time. These are the developers that I'm thinking of. The ones that bet the bank on ps3 and haven't ordered anything but ps3 dev kits.

 

[TheChefO]

Hmm 7 million sounds way too few I think for a period of 2 years.

I cant suggest numbers but if PS3 doesnt reach a certain userbase developers will see more reasons to support the other consoles with the former PS exclusives since their games wont be selling as much as expected on the PS3.

I dont think PS3 will do that bad though. But as you said time will tell.

I can't seem to edit my posts but I meant 7mil by fall 2007. Not saying it will happen just a "what if" scenario.

 

[TheChefO]

Really, there are only a few main types of games when you devide them by "exclusivity" and the reason for it:

• Mainstream sports/FPS/Action/GTA-Clone games. These were already multiplatform to a large degree last gen, and with increasing development costs it would be only natural to expect even more of them to be this gen. Got to sell those stupidly expensive assets as often as possible.
• 1st/2nd party "system seller" franchises - as they are closely related to the company making the console the chance of these going multiplatform are slim.
• Big 3rd party franchises that are exclusive to one console and thus don't fall into the first category: There are very few of these, and I expect them to become even more uncommon in the future... one example would be the DMC series.
• Lesser known games that are usually exclusive to one platform out of cost factors or because the intended target audience is concentrated there: Ie. JRPGs.

I see console price (and speculated - though very unlikely IMHO - related sales drop) only affecting the third category strongly, and it is already increasingly rare to begin with. In other words, unless there are some other big changes in the landscape that work in concert with the price, I don't think it will have much influence on developers at this point.

You don't think the fourth point will also be a factor? specifically smaller devs producing smaller more niche games which already have a small potential sales target? I would think they would be a candidate for price sensitivity and market penetration. For jrpg obviously they are much bigger in japan but japanese don't have endless wallets either.

 

[TheChefO]

I was really leaning toward PS3 in the beginning," he said. "But then at the Sony conference they announced the price and I was like, 'Mmm, maybe it's too expensive.'"

-Koji Igarashi

So he's the first one to come out publicly (that I know of). Any others?



http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200606/N06.0622.1901.28664.htm