Takahashi: Sony begging PS3 devs to stay on-board

by Christopher Grant on Oct 19th 2007 7:30PM

In his writeup of yesterday's NPD numbers, reporter for The San Jose Mercury News (and man of a thousand sources) Dean Takahashi wrote, "One piece of news that came out this week was that Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform. That change in attitude is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years."

Though Sony hasn't always fessed up to that perceived arrogance, we've all noticed a marked change in tone coming out of Sony following Jack Tretton's E3 keynote speech. With only one PS3 game (barely) cracking the NPD's top 10 software chart last month, convincing developers to build games for a complicated console that some even call "a waste of everyone's time" is no easy task. If Takahashi's info is accurate, it sounds like Sony's looking to preempt any developer exodus, hoping this season's delays aren't next year's cancellations.

Source

Tags: PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (237)

Thats why almost all of the Entertainment industry uses them because they are Gay. Really if you knew anything then you wouldn't sound like a complete moron in this post. Plus I can Run Windows too on my MAC whoopidy sh*t.

'Macssauk,' that was really out of nowhere...

You're really out of touch with that list... Everything you mention is wrong.

You do realize that 'Windows' is the lowest common denominator operating system? That more 'old people,' 'gay people,' and 'people that don't know how to use computers' use Windows?

Now that I think about it, you should probably stay away from Macs...

Jsn:
Your'e welcome. I suppose I revealed my age when I presented evidence that your console is broken and conjugated my verbs. I am exactly twelve, maybe thats the reason your father tried to get me to come over to his house after chatting with me online and telling me he wanted to "hang out". He said he would have beer and a webcam.

This story is kind of stupid. Games are being developed for the 360, PC and PS3. In such an environment most of the cost of development, QA and marketing is shared across all 3 platforms. For example, the graphics, and other assets are virtually identical across platforms, as is most of the code. Developing for the PS3 in addition to the other 2 platforms is not a massive extra investment and unlocks 5 million and counting additional consoles.

People crow how "cheap" the Wii is to develop for. I seriously doubt it is unless we're talking shovelware. After all, devs can't share assets with the 360, PC or PS3 which means that the costs of development, QA and marketing for that one platform may actually be higher.

Let's see just how arrogant Microsoft gets next gen.

Not that they haven't been so already with their newest OS. Thing is, they have the ability to force Vista down their customer's throats. Sony, on the other hand, can't.

I'm starting to get sick of the fanboy flame wars here. Why not go play your console(s) instead of arguing about them in blog comments.

That being said, I'm leaving, to enjoy my PS360.

Wehas:
These "wars" give us something to do instead of F'ing our girlfriends. This is how it has always been; I can remember getiing into a fist fight in middle school over which was cooler: Genesis or Super Nintendo (It was Genesis btw).

o, so you can help explain to the sony fanboys how it feels when their system loses?

First of all, add me to the "serves Sony right" group. They asked for this.

Second, MAC is a cosmetics company. Mac is a computer.

Next, the 360 is not prone to freezing up or overheating. I've had three different versions of the console and NONE of them ever gave me the RROD. I sold them, and I had less than 2% of customers return them for ANY reason. The current model, which I own, has the Zephyr board which will all-but eliminate the RROD. The problem was found, dealt with, and corrected. The warranty is extended, the hardware has been improved, and the problem is a NON-ISSUE now. It was as much an issue as people made it out to be before, either. As usual, the Internet is full of people puffing up their story to add to the hype.

Finally, some points about Mac computers:

1. The one-button mouse is a myth. Since USB you could always plug in any mouse and it would work without drivers or effort, and the last couple years have introduced Apple's own multi-button mouse (The Mighty Mouse) which now comes standard with all full Mac desktops. The Mighty Mouse looks like it has one button, but it actually has five. It also supports 360-degree scrolling.

2. The security issues in Windows aren't as simple as "don't open attachments" but you know that. Bottom line: You can't install ANYTHING on a Mac without the administrator typing in a password. In Windows, things could load up without you ever being prompted or warned... Even with protective add-on software.

3. I would gladly pit my fresh-out-of-the-box 24" iMac against ANY fresh install of Windows on ANY PC in a video editing, audio editing, audio composition, or photo editing competition. HANDS DOWN the Mac will smoke a Windows PC. If you're allowed to load a bunch of software on the PC first, the Mac will still be a better media editing experience.

4. Games. I play games on my Mac all the time. I may have kicked your ass at Counter Strike: Source recently. I'm currently running a few different, recent games, but my favorite is Neverwinter Nights 2, which I'm running with just about everything turned up to max, and at 1920x1200 resolution, with no hiccups.

That's all, for now. Personally, I think it's funny that PC guys feel the need to sling insults at Mac users all the time. Do you also pick on people who use a different brand of washing machine?

I'm happy with my computer purchase. Aren't you happy with yours?

"B. Film industry. Actually, your PC can't edit video faster or with greater ease than a Mac. Can't happen, sorry. "

Well Sheppy, full of shit as usual I see. I own a Post House with 3 Avid Sypmhony Nitris online systems and six Media composer offline suites. Guess what? They're all PC's. In case you didn't know, Avid is the industry standard for film and video editing. So have a seat dumbass.

he never responds when you got him beat, so its kinda like meh

Yeah guy, we know. It's not really a PC/Mac thing, Avid was exclusive to the Mac for a long time before it went to Windows - and the fact is that what you're talking about is hundreds of thousands of dollars and a final cut system is far more affordable. If you're a serious post house (and it sounds like you are), you probably have a FCP suite set up as well... Unless you're just as stubborn as Sheppy's comment. Walter Murch (I'm sure you've heard of him) has moved to FCP. A lot of heavyweight doc/reality editing is done on FCP, and many serious editors I know can use both.

Truth is, the whole avid/fcp wars are pointless; people acting like there was no good editing being done before the Avid was introduced.

Don't people use Final Cut Pro?

Anyhow, PC people are so quick to get angry when they can't right-click. I personally observed this last week at an Apple store. What gives? It's a nice feature but not absolutely necessary to get anything done.

If you have a "friend" that edits at MGM, i gan PROMISE you he ain't doing it on a MAC because well, Avid hasn't supported Mac in more than a few years and he certainly ain't cutting on Final Cut Pro.

Wow, you're really wrong, and you're getting 'plussed up' by a bunch of Mac haters with no knowledge of the topic.

Avid/Digidesign has always supported Mac and still does.

http://www.avid.com/products/nleFamily.asp

Getting caught in a lie, bro: you undermine all your credibility. How on EARTH do you claim to own a post facility with multiple Avid systems and then say that Avid hasn't supported Mac for years? Maybe you meant to type YOU haven't supported Mac for years.

I also have a friend cutting a new Will Smith film ('Hancock') on a Mac running Avid software... So you're busted. And I mentioned Walter Murch earlier; he's cut 'Cold Mountain' and 'Jarhead' on Final Cut Pro.

Maybe if Sony gave developers good tools, they wouldn't have to beg them not to go away.

Most complicated = Most time to develop game = Highest development cost.

Smallest install base = fewest customers who are available to buy your game = least amount of $ for you game.

When you take the second one and subtract the first one it means that you lose money. Regardless of what Sony begs, developers will not develop.

Welcome to Play Beyond, where the only games will come out of Japan and be Hentai tentacle porn in four years.

Yes the mad rush by some to claim that there has been some sort of victory in "console wars". There have been maybe 25 million consoles sold when you add up the Wii, PS3 and 360 sales so far this generation. This pales in comparison to the 150 million plus that sold last gen. The truth is that most have yet to make the switch over to the next generation of consoles. It will take alot more time than some would like admit to make such judgements.

@Ukikurdog:
You're right; we lost everything EXCEPT: a shit-ton of money in our business (see: Microsoft), consumer confidence in our hardware (ibid) motion control (ibid, though you can't really lose something you never had) Metal Gear, Final Fantasy etc. etc. So yeah, um, we sure lost...

This is the canary in the coal mine for Sony.

Ah, Sony. Though many people know your console line, few know your history in this industry.
1)PS1 beats Saturn on acount of PRICE(later software support was gained, making PS1 the de facto winner), and by the time latecomer N64 arrives with EXPENSIVE cartridges(and a 2 game launche), the most share has been attained already by PS.
2)PS2 rolls to humongous hype(old man?Remember?),a massive installed base with BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY,DVD support(, and Street Fighter EX 2(sorry, couldn't help myself). By attaining a few important exclusives (read: GTA) mounted up enought momentum to superceed unproven newcomer Xbox and back-to-basics Gamecube, and economic struggles force the Dreamcast out of the equation. While Sony was winning, though, Xbox was building it's own online network, and it's own installed base.

PS3 comes out a year after it's main competition, with a UNBELIEVABLE amount of hype, a format STILL IN COMPETITION WITH ANOTHER(Blu Ray) and a bigger price tag. While even the less enthusiastic expected Sony to roll over other consoles, as it has done before, they were not the Saturn and Dreamcast. They were not the N64 and Gamecube. They were prepared to take Sony head on(Or in Wii's case, avoid it entirely.)

All in all, Sony thought It was the default winner. After all, that is what had happened so far. But Sony's went against the lessons it's own history provided. It hasn't FAILED...yet. But It is headed for failiure, If hystory has anything to say.

Actually with the 40GB PS3 and the price drop on the 80GB, they're getting competetive with the 360's price if you play the 360 online at all. The way I see it I'd be paying the online costs all at once when I get a PS3 versus paying $X per month for the remainder of the console run.

Man if this doesn't bring back deja vu to the old Saturn and Dreamcast "vets". lol

so close to 200

this is too funny. the company who said they could sell 5 million hardware units without any games is now begging its developers to stay. the poor sales of the ps3 is exactly what they deserve.

Actually (according to some people), they almost made good on that no games promise with this last month, just now hitting 5 million sales worldwide.

erm, colossalhat, it does have games.

when they said they could sell 5 million without any games, they were implying sales of ps3 would be stellar because of consumer confidence in the brand label... but as we've seen over the past year, ps3 sales have been a disaster.

Sony took some really big risks stuffing that box with all that gear. I think it's capabilities are cool and all but I can't see everyone coughing up the cash for some time. Heck, I feel bad I jumped in soo early with the Wii; I can't imagine how I'd feel if I got the PS3.

As far as the Devs go, they have every right to an apology so do the PS3 owners. I'm sure things will be fixed by end 09 though.

yeah, sony should've done what nintendo did. think of the price consumers might pay, then make your box a fun console in about that much money. but noooo, they wanted to cram blueray down everyone's throats for their hd movie war

When sony can beat everything that M$ and XBOX Live gives me for free, than Ya'll can talk. Until then, please STFU.

Half-assed online play, hard to program for system, And fat-head-ness from Sony bigwigs will kill the PS3. Sony, do what you want, the PS3 is dying a slow-painful death.

Delays will become cancellations!

Makes sense. I mean unless your game is MGS4, developers are going to have a better shot at making more money making games for multiple platforms.

" How on EARTH do you claim to own a post facility with multiple Avid systems and then say that Avid hasn't supported Mac for years? "

Show me ONE Nitris on MAC and I'll eat my words. Ever been to NAB? Didn't thinks so. AVID had ONE system running on a Mac and it was an Xpress. So, for a company that was EXCLUSIVELY Mac for a loong time, I'd say that's pretty piss poor mac support. In fact the ONLY thing that saved any kind of Mac support at AVID was them buying Digidesign and therefore Pro Tools of which we have 4 of those suites too. Only post audio is done on a Mac here my friend so have a seat asshole and think twice before calling somebody out as a liar. Yes I can use FCP but fact is Avid is will continue to dominate the high end post market. FCP is for wedding cutters.

"...so have a seat asshole and think twice before calling somebody out as a liar. "

Let's sit down together in front of this link that exposes your comment "...i gan PROMISE you he ain't doing it on a MAC because well, Avid hasn't supported Mac in more than a few years" as incorrect:

http://www.avid.com/products/nleFamily.asp

You're getting heated because you were shown to be wrong about Avid not supporting Macs, no need to call me an 'asshole.' I sometimes work with post houses like yours here in NYC and LA, a good friend is a master of the Avid DS, and I know a few Flame operators. I know several amazing editors, cutting on both Avid and FCP. And yes, I have been to NAB. I don't go to NAB anymore, as honestly I don't live in Cali any longer (I'm not as close to Las Vegas now) and I'm on the creative side, so it's more than adequate for me to follow what happens there via the web.

Relax, I don't claim to know as much as you in this area, but I knew enough to spot you glossing past the truth: Media Composer and Avid Xpress are on the Mac, as they have been for a long time.

...And since when has saying "Avid hasn't supported the Mac for like, years" equated to "Nitris isn't on the Mac?" Avid/Digidesign isn't gonna send you a Nitris system if you write 'Avid' on the purchase order, so why would you say that? Maybe because you thought no one here would know what you were talking about?

It's great that you have those Nitris systems, but you're the only person I've ever talked to that would call them simply an 'Avid.' When people say that, they're usually referring to Media Composer.

And like so many Avid snobs, you assume the tools make the work with a comment like 'FCP is for wedding cutters.' I can understand; Avid editors have been the high-end guys for many years and FCP is the affordable/piratable solution, so you get different projects done on each, and sometimes, a different caliber of work. And of course a post house sounds better when it can say "Avid," or "Flame/Inferno" for brand recognition. But they're just tools, and if equally-skilled editors opt to use one FCP over the Media Composer, you won't see the difference on screen in an edit (I'm excluding post and color-correction here). You're acting like there was no good editing before the Avid, and none can be possible without it. We all know editing started nearly one hundred years before NLEs came on the 'scene.' Things will keep changing, as I'm sure you've noticed. I like Avid, but I have no reason to go to bat for them. Maybe you're wearing your heart on your sleeve because you have so much money invested. But this was not a FCP vs. Avid argument, this was me pointing out that you were incorrect about Avid not supporting the Mac, and wrong about movies not being cut on Macs.

This is the wrong area for a discussion on this, so this post will be it for me. Good luck with things.

it seems as though you guys are turining this into the best come back ever. seriously if the PS3 makes a come back like the PSP you'll all look stupid. then you will move on to something else to kick sony. sony has proved them selves time and time agian. People do care about the things they put in the PS3 MS right now is adopting all these options. SONY giving it to you from the start is bad but MS slowly adding more stuff adding up to be like the PS3 is better. YOU ALL ARE DUMASSES.

Citing the PSP comeback is cool. Any other comeback examples?

wat can i say, let sony feel wat Big N felt during n64 time.

All this because Sony decided to force blu-ray off on us!

I'm not convinced of this veracity of this story. I've read Dean Takahashi's blog entries on the blog and frankly, they're very biased towards the Xbox360 and Microsoft. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the guy was found to be on the take from M$.

Previous 50 Comments

Takahashi: Sony begging PS3 devs to stay on-board

Reader Comments (237)

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 9:33AM cbcc1119 said

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 6:04PM hey buddy said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 11:09AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 11:20AM DrXym said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 12:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 12:26PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 12:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 12:48PM ZeroCorpse said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 12:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 7:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 5:46PM hey buddy said

Posted: Nov 6th 2007 12:51AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 1:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 5:46PM hey buddy said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 1:35PM Mal F4cti0n said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 1:59PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 2:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 2:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 2:41PM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 3:06PM Colossalhat said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 3:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 4:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 4:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 4:47PM Colossalhat said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 4:50PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 7:47PM Ducarta said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 9:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 9:40PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 20th 2007 11:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 6:32PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 7:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 3:27AM hey buddy said

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 11:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 11:38PM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said

Posted: Oct 25th 2007 9:17AM Abk said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 1:41PM freelance said

Posted: Nov 6th 2007 12:50AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW