Bourne Conspiracy devs lament PS3's Unreal Engine problems

High Moon, the developers behind the upcoming book-gone-movie-gone-game title, The Bourne Conspiracy, is on the ever-growing list of teams struggling with the Unreal Engine and PS3. Their VP, Paul O'Connor, spoke to Gamasutra about PS3 and how the Unreal Engine was working out for them on the platform. He admitted: "We needed a lot of support on Unreal to make it run on the PlayStation 3. We got caught in the same crunch as everybody else when [Epic] finalized Gears Of War, so that definitely slowed down the PS3 support at the time."

It's not all bad news, as he goes on to praise what the team has managed to do with the PS3 and says the game is about ready to go through the pipeline. High Moon had to use a lot of their own toolset, though, saying while the Unreal Engine 3 is a great toolset, for the PS3, they needed to bring out their own stuff as well. This problem has been plaguing many Unreal developers, and is at the root of a lawsuit brought on by Too Human developer, Silicon Knights.

Reader Comments (16)

Which generation will Sony learn to develope a friendly programming language, like ie. 360/PC? I've got a 360 & PS3 but port for port 360 looks better but is supposed to be inferior to the PS3, how? Quit blaming "Lazy Developers" and put the blame on the company that designed the thing, next time Sony ask 3rd party publishers what they would like not what "YOU" think is best.

:| Sony didn't create UE3. Devs who rely on middleware know to expect such issues.

First step is understanding, second step is how to use it, third step is how to make it better.

I'd rather have them try, instead of calling it a defeat. You can't blame the developers for not having enough experience with the architecture of the PS3.

Thats a bad argument to make..... just because its easy makes it in now way better. PS2 was a hard system to develop for but it was able to push out games near the end that look almost as good as first gen 360 games.

Also it seems to be the Unreal engine giving people problems not just development in general..... Silcon knights it makeing to human and they are suing epic why? cause the unreal engine had problems running on witch system? Ohhhhh thats right the 360! Seems to me that its Epics lack of support not just the PS3 advanced architecture.

The unfortunate reallity, is that if you push your limits with cutting edge hardware, developers will take a while to get upto speed.

Microsoft went for the easy evolutionary option, with quick results, but limits on what it can do.

Sony went with revolutionary hi tech hardware, that will deliver much more performance and gains, but those results will be spread across the consoles lifespan.

In short, the 360 won't see to much more in terms of better graphics, PS3 will continue to improve over the next 6 years (like the PS1 and PS2 did before)

Microshaft is a software company
Sony is a hardware company.

M$ only knows software that is easy, but has limits
Sony knows how to push the cutting edge, even if it is hard as hell to work with, pays off in a while, and won't be obsolete in 4 year's time.

M$ knows and wants to stick with computer like architecture
Sony tests the limit, and isn't afraid to test the waters.

See a pattern here? I'd rather have a system that is cutting edge than one that is essentially a computer with horrid hardware failures.

Fatal Inertia and Lost Odyssey on 360 really lack polish, you'd have thought UE3 would give these developers the time they need to get things just right but it seems to me like they'd have been better off having the balls to build up their own tech like Insomniac and Naughty Dog. Most of the developers we're talking about here aren't small-fries.

@bigd7387 - Having groundbreaking architecture is not a bad thing. Sure, you have to work a little harder at the start, its like anything else thats new, Its unknown to everyone. People are afraid of the unknown and people don't like change. The 360 uses tried and tested PC architecture which devs have been using for years so its comfortable. However the same happened with the PS2. The start of its life saw lots of this happening. Then a few years down the line when devs realise how flexible the ps2 chipset actually is, they churn out stuff like god of war, a game that can hold its own against the 'next gen' consoles. Give it time, you'll see the PS3's uniqueness become its strength. Sony shouldn't be criticised for being forward thinking. They should be praised.

No shit, comments like that guy's make me wonder how old he is. We've seen the same thing every generation with Sony's consoles. They break new ground, they ship with a barebones dev kit and crappy software, then 2 years later developers amaze everyone.

This is all due to Ken Kutaragi and his knack for inventing future-proofed devices. However...the drawback is that to enjoy the future, sometimes you have to sacrifice the present. Terminator: SCC proves this. ;)

No doubt, comments like that guy's make me wonder how old he is. We've seen the same thing every generation with Sony's consoles. They break new ground, they ship with a barebones dev kit and crappy software, then 2 years later developers amaze everyone.

This is all due to Ken Kutaragi and his knack for inventing future-proofed devices. However...the drawback is that to enjoy the future, sometimes you have to sacrifice the present. Terminator: SCC proves this. ;)

Finding a peanut in a pile of shit doesnt alleviate the smell.
I sure that devs will eventually get the hang of programming for the ps3, but in the mean time, the customer has to cling to the hope that sony will continue to support (pour money into) 1st and 2nd party games to make the console worth your investment.

Not much hype around this game (yet). Hopefully it turns out decent since it is a game based off a movie.

Yeah.....umm, they must not be using the Sonx-Epic version of the U3E.Also U3E is a pretty tired engine now.

A lot of devs are lazy not just on ps3 but on 360 as well I agree lost Odyssey was a great game but man did it lack polish whoa some time great to look at others horrid. I think ratchet and clank was not as shiny as it should of been.

Sick of UE3. It's like when everyone was using Quake 2 engine, everything looks the same!

"PS2 was a hard system to develop for but it was able to push out games near the end that look almost as good as first gen 360 games."

LOL, thats because 90% of the first gen 360 games were ports of ps2 and xbox games. Only Condemned, Quake, and CoD2, and PGR3 were developed with the 360 in mind.
Fact: The every consoles releases its best looking games towards the end of its life. Devs usually have a pretty good grip on the hardware limitations and the software exploitations by then.

Bourne Conspiracy devs lament PS3's Unreal Engine problems

Reader Comments (16)

Posted: Mar 14th 2008 7:51PM bigd7387 said

Posted: Mar 14th 2008 8:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 14th 2008 8:13PM Synnyr said

Posted: Mar 14th 2008 9:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 15th 2008 4:59AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 15th 2008 2:06PM TheSound said

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Posted: Mar 14th 2008 9:05PM easo said

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Posted: Mar 16th 2008 3:51PM easo said

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