Sony Studios boss says easy multi-platform ports are a thing of the past.
Speaking exclusively to MCV, Sony's Head of Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison has said that the choice developers face when deciding what hardware formats to support is harder now than it ever has been.
"Development and support for a format is very important yes, and the story is very different these days to how it was with older formats," he stated. "In the past you could pay a million dollars for a PS2 game and get a $50,000 Xbox port thrown in. Those days are gone. Developers have to pick their formats much more carefully.
"This is partly because of the huge cost of development. But it's not just a financial consideration. It's about strategic marketing and the online consumer. It's about how a game fits its format."
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It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
he has no idea because simply put one of the big cost explosions this gen is blu ray exclusive usage, the dvd use by 360 barely put any noticable dent into dev consideration of game production costs...
You idiot, the hard disc costs doesn't even put a dent in overall games costs.
“This is partly because of the huge cost of development. But it’s not just a financial consideration. It’s about strategic marketing and the online consumer. It’s about how a game fits its format.”
So why alienate people from forcing the them to buy one format, that means less customers and that means less profit, less new sequals or new ips. The DVD had impact, and its still THE choice for the ''usual custumors''.
Why spend millions on the xbox when your game will be gimped?
Yes, we can see, Phil, as most multiplatforms look worse on the PS3.
But seriously, there have been (or will be) some very successful multiplatform titles (Oblivion and Virtual Fighter 5 come to mind), which goes to show that good ports aren't that hard, it just requires a little extra money/effort from developers, which should pay off in the long run.
It still seems to make more sense to me to put in the little extra money and make a good port rather than build a whole new game because ports are more challenging/costly now.