Sony On Developing for an Open PS2 Platform

October 27th, 2008, 19:21 Posted By: wraggster

PlayStation development took center stage at Casual Connect when Sony Europe's developer relations manager George Bain addressed an audience of Eastern European developers.

The PlayStation 2 has sold 131.3 million units to date, he said. The software sales for that platform have been over 1.4 billion.

The PlayStation Portable has sold 41.3 million units. Software sales have been 169 million.

And as of June 30th, the PlayStation 3 has sold 14.4 million units, with software sales of 94 million.

The most important information Bain had for his audience was news that, in Europe, the PlayStation 2 "is effectively an open platform," adding, "You no longer have to submit a game for content approval." He used examples from Russia and Indian developers, saying they can "create low-development cost titles and release them in their market."


Without the need of a licensed publisher, it's a direct relationship between a developer and Sony.


Bain reports that there is no cost to become a licensed developer, but dev kits do cost. In some cases, Sony lends dev kits.

In a press release from November of 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment International announced that dev kits for the PlayStation 3 would cost $10,250.

Bain told his audience that if they were working on a smaller casual title, they could alternately use debug units which are less expensive – 10 percent of the cost of a full dev kit.

The PSP is easier to develop for, Bain pointed out: "It doesn't require a huge amount of programming resources to develop on the PlayStation Portable." He also outlined the release of Media Manager version 3 – an application that would function as iTunes, but for the PSP.

Moving on to the PlayStation Network, Bain reports over 12 million registered accounts, as of September of this year. And 5 million of those subscribers are from SCEE's territory alone.

"One thing that a lot of developers seem to forget is that PlayStation Network is free," said Bain. "Consumers do not have to pay a monthly fee," he said in reference to other similar services.

He also said that Sony does not require a demo of games that are for sale. "It's up to the developer if they make a demo or not."

"Game developers should create games for local markets," Bain said. Several new policies allow for that.

First, Sony is adapting a global approval system. Previously games had to be submitted separately through Sony Europe, Japan, and America. Now, the game idea is sent through a single website for approval.

And now, Sony will allow developers to publish by going through a third-party publisher. "This has never been done before," notes Bain. "This is something we're actively promoting."

"...without the need of a licensed publisher," he continues, "it's a direct relationship between a developer and Sony."

Something else to ease the process is an edict that, once a game has been approved, episodic and expansion content won't need to be approved before being published.

Currently, developers interested in utilizing in-game ads must work with the only two licensed ad providers, Double Fusion and IGA Worldwide, but Bain says the company is in discussions with additional partners.

Bain concluded by restating: "Developers no longer need a publisher to distribute games on PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3."

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...latform/?biz=1

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