Gearbox Software’s FX artist Nick Peterson has, along with lots of other developers, provided a soundbite for Develop on the PlayStation 4, which was revealed a few weeks ago in New York, an event which resulted in this blabbering mess.
“It all depends on their development tools,” said Peterson. “If they get anywhere near as good as Microsoft’s development tools were for the Xbox 360, they’ll be sitting pretty. The device looks like it’s going to be very fast with that GDDR5 memory. I do wonder where the next Microsoft console will fall in the performance category.”
“Ultimately, you have to sort of cater to the lowest common denominator,” he adds, suggesting that multiplatform games will always have a base, which would be the least powerful of the two machines regardless of how much better one is over the other.
Most assume the PS4 and Xbox 720 to be fairly level in terms of raw power, though.
“Indie for PS4, now that would be interesting,” he adds. “I wonder how much of the hardware they would open up for indies? My guess is it would be something akin to what Microsoft did with XNA for the Xbox 360. It would be neat though.”
“As for the social aspect, I don’t really care about it personally. I’m sure some will, but I also wonder if it is really as big as people claim it is or will be on consoles. It seems to me most peoples’ social sphere sticks to Facebook and not much else at all.”
“PlayStation Home was a flop, the social tools for the Vita don’t seem to be used often, and honestly, I get tired of seeing and hearing 14 year old kids mouthing off at everyone when I play online.”
While it’s certainly not for everyone (me included), PlayStation Home has got a hardcore fan base that seems perfectly willing to spend money in the virtual world so perhaps calling it “a flop” is a little strong but it’s difficult to assign context to these kind of headline-grabbing soundbites.
It’s an interesting set of quotes, so go and have a read.
TSBonyman
I could see Home being more successful on PS4 if they can have it running in the background and allow you to jump straight into bluray games without all the loading in between.
Michael
Social gaming isn’t just competitive online play. Social extends far beyond that.
Motalla
I am not a hardcore PS Homer, but I have spend a few pennies on stuff to freshen up my alter ego. It is fun and I have to do something when there is no Qi on the telly and when I am to tired to game.
Jones81
A gearbox dev calling something a flop?, oh the irony
cc_star
Dev tools, dev tools & more about dev tools.
With Sony making such a play for ‘Indie’ during the reveal, you’d have to hope this side of thing is better sorted than they’ve managed before. If they’ve got things right here then it bodes extremely well for the PS4.
But he’s right, cross platforms devs always have to cater for the lowest common denominator and therefore don’t optimise for advanced features of either system.
Peter Chapman
Jonathan Blow is saying extremely positive things about developing for the PS4 and how powerful it is. He doesn’t strike me as the sort that would say anything just because he’s keen on some sort of platform deal he signed so that’s a promising sign, I think.
Michael
Agreed. When I had a dabble with XNA it was really easy to get something working.
CR8ZYH0RSE
Playstation home still must have a good few people who pay it a visit on a regular basis and spend a few quid otherwise they’d of shut it down a long time agoAlso as for the vita social side of things i use ‘near’ on a daily basis,in fact i lost my 4gb memory card the other day and thought “i’ll be social and let whoever finds it can keep it”.8)
E8_BALL_
I posted it the other day, “return to sender.”
E8_BALL_
err owner rather.
CR8ZYH0RSE
Dev tools talking about Dev tools.
f4rgo
Ha. Like it.
Starman
I think Sony are overestimating the interest in facebook-esque social features for games. Is anyone bothered if a random friend has finished a level/beaten a boss etc..?
Paranoimia
I think enough do, judging by the use of Raptr, PSNProfiles etc.
I just hope that they provide a public API for trophy information.
Starman
I just get the impression there will be notifications every minute telling you what a friend has done on a game, and it could get annoying very quickly.
Paranoimia
But there’s also likely to be a way of filtering/limiting/ignoring them, just like on Google+ and Facebook.
Porcupine_I
If Home didn’t make any money it would have been killed off by Sony by now
bunimomike
You might find its upkeep to be very cheap these days and it doesn’t make Sony look like a complete numpty by taking it down and (indirectly) admitting that it “failed”.
I have to say, when I look at how Home was announced and the excitement it caused, it has definitely flopped. It’s failed in almost every way if you think about the percentage of PS3 gamers (with a connection) that pop in there regularly. I really thought they were onto something but it was yet another half-arsed attempt by Sony.
Damn, they come up with some lovely ideas but rarely see them through to (what I regard as) completion.
If we remove the media coverage and lofty goals Sony had, Home hasn’t failed. It’s just existed.
Paranoimia
As far as I’m aware, Home still gets a significant number of visitors. I haven’t used it myself for a couple of years or so now, but there were always plenty of people in there.
I never did understand why people were so down on it though. If it’s not for you, you simply don’t use it. It’s not costing you anything, so just ignore it. Some people seem to have an unhealthy obsession with slating something they don’t even use.
I’m not pointing fingers at anyone here, it’s just a general observation from comments and discussions over the years. I fully expect the same to happen over PS4’s social features.
Eldave0
Meh, he’s from Gearbox, what does he know….
Though to be fair PS Home was pretty rubbish.