playable demos @E3 for PSP

[Dio]

Makes me wonder, though. Did they expect handhelds to remain in 2D perpetually? Because the only way they'd retain those low costs is if they stayed 2D or with particularly low-quality 3D in perpetuity.

Developers want more functionality and low costs, but right now this is a very unsolved problem. It's the main driving force gutting the small developers out of the industry.

Getting in first is not a bad thing, but getting in second can be - too many games chasing too few buyers is not a good situation to be in. If you aren't in that first wave, it can be better to sit on your hands for six months and set your priorities based on how the hardware sales curve goes.

I would not be surprised if low-key development (say 2-3 programming staff) was underway at many companies considering sit-and-wait.

 

[London Geezer]

I guess many developers are already well underway with a catalogue heavily based on ports from PS1 or simplified PS2 titles (although i'm sure titles that do not really exploit the PS2 hardware will not be very taxing on PSP, memory size constrictions aside, ICO comes to mind).
Then some developers might want to wait and see if it will be profitable to spend time on original content for PSP, although i believe that unless PSP is outrageously expensive, it will be a success at least in Japan.

 

[cthellis42]

Developers want more functionality and low costs, but right now this is a very unsolved problem. It's the main driving force gutting the small developers out of the industry.

Sad but true, and pretty much a universal in all ends of the tech industry. I don't see any real way around it except to keep going forward at a snail's pace, or only when there's a huge stack of middlewear and engines to license so a small developer will have less to worry about, and be able to get into into a platform at a managable pace.

I would not be surprised if low-key development (say 2-3 programming staff) was underway at many companies considering sit-and-wait.

For a staff of that size, quite possibly. (Maybe one person gets shifted to experiment with the platform and give them a better idea of how they can proceed in it in the future.) And in the meanwhile, of course, there will still be buhjillions of GBA's out there to continue making games for. Hehe...

 

[Dio]

I don't see any real way around it except to keep going forward at a snail's pace, or only when there's a huge stack of middlewear and engines to license so a small developer will have less to worry about, and be able to get into into a platform at a managable pace.

Code's not so much the problem - sure, it's worse than it was a few years back, but not too bad - it's probably growing linearly. It's art, animation and level design that take real time and people, and are on an exponential curve.

 

[cthellis42]

That's where the "advancing at a snail's pace" comes into play, because the moment you switch to a 3D standard, and the moment you start putting any reasonably high capacity on a machine, the graphical design kicks it into high gear. But since there's usually not much "middlewear" for art assets, they would at least get advantages from having a lot of codebase specifics down so they can both know what art/design a game can support, and concentrate on those all the more.

 

[zurich]

dp!

 

[zurich]

I predict an enhanced port of FF VII and/or FF Tactics (more likely VII).

 

[akira888]

If they put Xenogears and FFVII on the thing I'll pay 200 dollars for it.

I suspect however that even on PSP we should expect to see many GBA-style titles being published. There will also in all likelyhood be quite a few GBA/PSP multiplatform titles, where the extra screen size of the PSP will be used most likely to show more of the playfield at once in much the same way that the PSX ports of the Wonderswan FF1/FF2 did. Not that that's neccessarily bad, but given industry trends is seems probable.

 

[Fafalada]

Undoubtedly. The problem may be that they're impressed by its potential to absorb as much money as a full-blown PS2 title . Several game developers have been making worried noises about the cost of developing for the PSP in the industry mags. It may be that even moderately large developers may want to sit on the fence to see how it works out initially.

I don't see much cause for complaint - I thought it seemed pretty clear from the moment PSP specs were unveiled that at least initially it will be mostly a PS2-port box.
It's not like GBA is overflowing with original content either - and all those SNES/Amiga/etc. ports&remakes are bound to drive average development costs even further down.

 

[Dio]

SNES and Amiga games were mostly asm. Even if it's the same CPU munging asm for another architecture is a notorious nightmare.

Of course, it shifts the effort focus from art to code, which definitely counteracts my biggest argument for the cost rise.

 

[passerby]

All this talk also makes me wonder about the costs for a next-gen title on a next gen console.

There will need to be some very careful management of art assets and resources, and the ability to reuse will be important. Of course having said that, the thought of repeating the very repetitive environs in the last parts of Halo probably makes people shudder.

Although this cannot apply to every game, I think the ability to "do more with less" and recognize that "quantity != quality" will help immensely in cutting development costs. Control the number of levels and environments, but create more quality gameplay with them. Easier said than done, but there are a few examples of this being done. Ico reuses its levels ingeniously. GHS totally takes place in a single motel. MGS2 also cleverly reuses several levels by changing mission objectives, situations, etc. The first Zero takes place in one single haunted mansion. Etc.

 

[Dio]

I just read an interview with SCEE's UK boss in MCV in which he says PSP isn't competing with the GBA and platform royalties will be lower for it, so it looks like the game prices are going to be somewhere between PS2 and GBA level.

He also said the console itself wouldn't be sold as a loss leader, at a price closer to £200 than £300.

 

[London Geezer]

I just read an interview with SCEE's UK boss in MCV in which he says PSP isn't competing with the GBA and platform royalties will be lower for it, so it looks like the game prices are going to be somewhere between PS2 and GBA level.

He also said the console itself wouldn't be sold as a loss leader, at a price closer to £200 than £300.

Gosh.... £200... Let's hope that June bonus of mine will last till november... Somehow i don't think so...

It's quite clear that the PSP was never thought of as a competitor to the GBA. Might it be a competitor to the GBA2? Handheld market is getting interesting...

 

[Clashman]

There will need to be some very careful management of art assets and resources, and the ability to reuse will be important. Of course having said that, the thought of repeating the very repetitive environs in the last parts of Halo probably makes people shudder.

They could also just pack up shop and move development to India, which should drive down dev costs significantly.

 

[London Geezer]

They could also just pack up shop and move development to India, which should drive down dev costs significantly.

U know, it's becoming illegal to do so... Or so i heard...

 

[passerby]

Completely OT.

They could also just pack up shop and move development to India, which should drive down dev costs significantly.

I think some studios already outsource part of development work to China.

In the current global job market, jobs involving things like creative talent are some of the few things that are still.... unexportable. You can get good programmers cheap in nations such as India and China, but the "smart, creative" resources are the one thing that the developed nations still have, that the developing nations still lack.

My thought is that if and when talents from other nations attain the same levels of creativity, their standard of living would have risen enough that exporting jobs overseas may longer be as attractive an option as before.

 

[V3]

You can get good programmers cheap in nations such as India and China, but the "smart, creative" resources are the one thing that the developed nations still have, that the developing nations still lack.

Nah, what they lack is managerial resources. They're smart and creative, just can't managed them properly.

My thought is that if and when talents from other nations attain the same levels of creativity, their standard of living would have risen enough that exporting jobs overseas may longer be as attractive an option as before.

It'll be a while, probably not in my life time.

 

[wazoo]

Ubi Soft has a studio in China.