UK developers got the chance to chat to Sony yesterday in London, and although the event was (we assume) NDA’d, one such studio has spoken to Eurogamer under the condition of anonymity.
It’s a “developer’s dream” said the unknown commentor. “Sony is finally doing the things developers have been crying out for for years.” Although some developers have had access to NGP development kits for over a year (which makes the lack of a proper leak all the more surprising) an upcoming kit (slightly delayed from Japan) will arrive soon with the final GPU in them.
Apparently key games were demonstrated, too including Uncharted, Little Deviants and WipEout, which, according to the same source, was the “PS3 engine running on NGP* with no changes to the art platform” – running at sixty frames per second. “It looks exactly the same as it does on PS3 – all the shader effects are in there”.
Sony’s submission process for NGP games now falls within that of the normal PS3 process, which means that developers only need await one confirmation to get their game ready to roll on both machines, leading further credence to the idea that the two machines, console and portable, are indeed very closely connection. Although the source did say that Sony don’t just want duplication onto both platforms – “there has to be a reason for the NGP title.”
It does indeed sound like a dev’s perfect machine. “Any shaders for PS3 stuff will just work,” said the leaker. “We won’t have to rewrite. What would have taken two-to-three months before looks like it could take just one-to-two weeks now. The architecture is obviously different, but it’s the same development environment.”
“Sony has made it completely developer-centric this time,” Eurogamer say, following by saying the dev kit is “really simple to plug in and use. It opens direct in Windows Explorer and you can see all systems on a network – so you could, for example, update the firmware of multiple NGPs at once.”
“A PS3 dev station can take three hours to set-up. This looks like it will take under 20 mins. It just makes everything easier – they’ve really thought about it this time”.
* the Eurogamer article says PS3 here, but we presume they meant NGP.
gazzagb
It may be a Developers dream, but it certainly won’t be a gamer’s dream without the right price. I hope Sony don’t go and blow what you potentially be amazing but slapping on a huge price tag.
SpikeyMikey23
I cant wait to see what the games will be like, yes Ive seen some videos but I want more!
cc_star
Buying a game from the PSN & playing it either on the PS3 or NGP has got me interested again.
Good stuff.
Nice to know Sony are removing (their own) barriers for developers, the easier they make it the better it will be for everyone.
Hoopiness
“Buying a game from the PSN & playing it either on the PS3 or NGP has got me interested again.” – Have they said that’ll be the case? The article says they don’t just want duplication. Agreed though, that would be superb.
“It looks exactly the same as it does on PS3 – all the shader effects are in there” – They say that, but the screenshots we’ve seen don’t look as good as the PS3 to me (ie, the usual portable blockiness almost, albeit far better than usual). Are they just talking about the engine underneath?
amiga_dude
Anything like this is not news about PSP2/NGP:-
1) Developer loves it.
2) Kazuo Hirai says “I am supprised by that”. During Sony press conference.
A developer complains that they wish PSP2 had xyz, or not enough of something.