Neversoft - Console developers looking to push the hardware are facing an evolution in how they think about the processes that go on in games - from fairly monolithic, linear sets of operations to a much more parallelized, piecemeal approach. The cell pushes developers to take the subdivision of these processes one step further, the nature of the SPE's really drives you to break your systems down into relatively tiny subsystems which can operate on small, carefully delineated chunks of data. Developers have reached a point where they they are familiar with the PS3 RSX and PPE that improvements will be incremental. We think the SPEs remain an underutilized resource; this is where the major increases in performance and abilities will come, particularly as more work is done on how to effectively utilize the SPE's in tandem with the RSX for greater graphical processing power.
Ubisoft Montreal - The PS3 has a lot of unused power although it demands a special kind of work to express that power. On our first glance at the CELL architecture we weren't sure what we could do with the SPUs. But after a few years of messing with them, the SPUs turn out to be really capable beasts. They can churn out a lot of computations, they're a perfect compliment to the RSX, and if you program especially for them, they can surpass everything available in the current gen. They're also flexible enough to do a broad range of work and Sony's new tools makes it so they can be used for increasingly complex tasks. The program model used for SPUs is also the most future proof, so we'll get to see it more and more. This programming model gives us the expectation in the progression of quality games helped on the storage side by the capacity of Blu-Ray discs and the non-optional hard drive.
Backbone Entertainment - The PS3 is quite a fun system to work on. We've been really lucky in getting to work on a wide variety of projects on the platform, and have had great results. It's actually our favorite platform to show tech and game demos on; because it has the reputation of being the big bad ass machine. If you can show a demo running on the PS3, people are generally pretty impressed. We've actually used a PS3 build to prototype out a demo for a Wii game, which might be unique! There's a ton of power in the system for whatever you need, whether it's graphics, physics, etc. We're struggling to come up with game types that we couldn't do on the PS3 and really can't think of any. From the development side, we're excited about the future in features like remote play with PSP, and all the connectivity the system offers.
Nihilistic Software - It's cliche, but it's a very "deep" machine. Which means the deeper you dig, the more you can do with it. Even working on our third title for the PS3 we're able to make frequent improvements in performance and visual quality because there's so many ways to do things. It really rewards experimentation and trying new things out. Not everything works out and we've thrown away a lot of code over the years on failed experiments, but I think we're a "long way" from maxing out the hardware.
Quantic Dream - The graphics power is what we relied upon most and it is certainly delivering very impressively on that. The PS3 may deliver strongest in the future on it's online capabilities. I am not thinking only MMOs, but also community based experiences and most importantly online services.
Vicious Cycle Software - Developing on the PS3 can be complicated due to subtleties of the hardware. If you don't use the hardware to it's best advantage, it makes it hard to compete against other developers who are able to take full advantage of the system. Over the next three years we sould see the development community really starting to tap into the power of the PS3 hardware. There is still a lot of potential on the system and I believe we will see better games over it's life cycle compared to the other platforms on the market. More graphics, physics and rendering will get moved to the SPUs moving forward which will allow larger worlds, more simulation, more dynamic objects and better visuals overall. It is a very exciting time in the games industry and we look forward to bringing high quality titles to the PS3.
EA Visceral - We love developing on the PS3 - it's usually our lead SKU. The graphical capabilities are amazing as you can see with Dead Space and Dante's Inferno. We have a very close relationship with Sony and working with them has been a pleasurable partnership. We love the fact that the Blu-Ray disc can hold so much data. There's no doubt thats a huge attraction for us as a developer We're still learning new ways to squeeze even more out of the PS3.
Gearbox Studios - The PS3 is a sexy, powerful machine. Look at a few points: graphics, performance and market relevance. I think it's pretty clear at this point that in the long game, the PS3 can have the edge in graphics and performance depending on how specialized the software can be with the SPUs. It's harnessing the power that is a challenge for most developers and requires a substantial investment for us to do so. As far as other features, I think the free online service is a compelling option for customers and developers. What we love most about the PS3 is the Blu-Ray disc and it's tremendous storage advantage over DVD. WHile there is some risks with seek times developers must be careful about, the storage capability is a dream come true for the kinds of games we create that feature lots of high fidelity music, voice over, and huge amounts of graphics content. This PS3 advantage can not be overstated.
Bethesda - It's an interesting architecture, and it really hasn't been until the last year that developers have cracked it and really gotten how to use so many small processors each with their own memory. It takes a different type of thinking to maximize what it can do, but you're starting to see it now from simple things like running animation on an SPU, to more exotic things like line-of-sight rendering in Killzone 2. It's not to hard to draw a quality line from the first PS3 games to the latest, and guess where it's going to be by the end of this year, and then 2010.
Guerilla Games - We've found the PS3 is easier to develop for than it's competitors, provided one approached it with the right mindset. The cell based architecture allows programmers to offload all of their calculations task to the SPUs. On other platforms, general purpose cores must handle a variety of tasks and calculations- which then quickly become a nightmare to synch. In that regard we believe the PS3's reputation for being hard to develop for is largely undeserved.
Insomniac - We've learned a lot about taking better advantage of the SPUs, and redesigning our systems and gameplay to be more asynchronous. The PS3 is a computational powerhouse; if you want to build something that is based on calculating a lot of physics, objects and collision detection, you can't do better. The water physics in resistance 2 are something made possible by the cell and SPUs. Going forward, there is a lot of room to use the SPUs, and we'll see a lot of people find ways to use the SPUs that aren't related to graphics.
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