Apparently, developing games for the PlayStation 3 is roughly comparable to that one time we pushed a wheelbarrow full of lovely, scantily clad ladies up and down the beach -- "exotic and tough." Speaking to VideoGamer.com, EALA producer Amer Ajami used those words to elaborate on the decision to halt PS3 development of the Hitler-free real-time strategy romp, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.
"We actually announced a PS3 version early on but that was when we were still doing a lot of technical exploration of the architecture," explained Ajami. "PS3 is a very powerful system but as you guys know it's very exotic and tough to develop for and our engine really at the time wasn't designed for PS3." Couch commanders need not give up all hope, though, as Ajami notes EA "might go back and do something with the PS3 later on." Also just like that time we pushed a wheelbarrow full of lovely, scantily clad ladies up and down the beach.*
*We went back to apologize.














(Page 1) Reader Comments
Gonna have to learn it some time fellas, it'll be around for another "10 years."
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Mind you an RTS on the wii is a very cool concept.
Pointer > Mouse > Controller
If you think the wiimote is better then a mouse, you must have a broken mouse. But yeah, still better then a controller tho.
Yeah, you are spot on Sherlock. By the way...here are numbers for you on the sales of the PS3 compared to the PS2 and others.
At the end of May 1st quarter for SCE, the PS3 has SOLD 14.47m units. How did the best selling console of ALL TIME fair in the SAME time frame?
The Wii has hit 30M after 87 weeks on the market.
The DS had sold 22M after 87 weeks.
The Ps2 had sold 16M.
The GameCube had sold 8.5M.
The PS3 12.47M. (took the 360 9 more months than the PS3)
It took DS roughly 105 weeks to hit 30M.
It took Ps2 roughly 130 weeks to hit 30M.
What will it take for the PS3?
If you STILL think the PS3 is doomed, then so be it*, (no hope 4u) just like the Earth is 6K years old right?
14.47M not 12.47
So, the mighty PS2 sold barley 1.5M MORE than the DOA PS3 At TWICE the cost. Yeah, Sony fails.
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Like a lot of people on here have said before, clearly as they have said many times EA wishes for there to be just one console, and clearly they have already chosen the 360.
Even still, I would never buy an rts for a console. Even if they didnt cancel the ps3 version i still will buy it for pc
People keep whining "ooh lazy developers, they just have to work harder and get their development process to support the PS3's architecture."
NO THEY DON'T! They can simply avoid the PS3 and make plenty of great games and gobs of money without it. For Sony, it was not a concern that their hardware was going to be extremely inconvenient to develop for. They were the console leaders so, they figured "we do what we want, bitches!". Well, at least with the RA series, it might be biting them in the ass.
There's just no point to wasting all that money to learn about the supposed power of the cell when most games if not all games can look just as beautiful to the average gamer on the 360.
Then factor in the revenues that one would get even if they did spend that money to create a ps3 version I doubt the revenue would exceed expenditure in the majority of cases. Especially if it's not a huge game from a big series.
Hence why FFXIII is coming the 360 which I've predicted all along for over a year now.
Versus is probably a timed exclusive (hopefully). Meanwhile the 360 will continue to enjoy a nice lil load of exclusive titles that are sure to be major hits.
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That sounds like nice conditions to work under!
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Burnout paradise ps3 being the lead platform just shows these guy are...
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Ha! I'm thinking MGS3, Shadow of the Collosus, and God of War 2. All of those games are better than anything the Xbox ever offered. Don't say "Teh Haloz!!!". The only reason that game was a success is because it's so easy a blind kid could play it.
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No problem EALA.
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Bastards...
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There are still a few devs out there that keep trying to port old aging engines into a new machine.
I am glad they canned the PS3 vesion, as someone else above me said it would have been full of bugs.
Round peg....meet square hole.
Kayrappy archaic ignorant developers...go to GG or Insomniacs how to develop for Cell pages, you just might learn something.
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We are a society that tries so hard to be 'culturally diverse'. Why can't we try to be 'technologically diverse' as well?
Sheesh!
Insomniac has absolutely no choice in the matter as to what they program on being financially reliant on Sony. Of course they'll put a ton of effort learning the PS3, that is their only source of income.
EA doesn't have that restriction. EA needs to look at long term, meaning post PS3, when making decisions about what to train employees in. Remember, this is a whole new language, you can't just up and learn German or Mandarin in a few weeks and learn a new language every 4 years. The team that makes Red Alert is more familiar with DirectX because it's been around almost as long as the Playstation brand has, DirectX 1.0 released three weeks after the Playstation 1 launched in the US.
Learning on DirectX or OpenGL makes sense because the programmers don't have to completely change thinking patterns just to get used to a new revision or advancement. DirectX is DirectX, it just gets built on year after year.
There isn't a correlation between PS2 development and PS3 development, let alone between the DirectX environment that's been around for 13 years or OpenGL which has been around for 16 years.
Learning the tricks of the trade on the PS3 are going to be rendered irrelevant in 4-6 years when the PS4 is released. Cell has absolutely no application apart from the Playstation 3 in the marketplace. There simply is little financial impetus for EA to utilize resources hiring PS3 specific teams or training them to use a niche product.
The skills developed in making PS3 games will be useless in a decade from now but the skills used in DirectX based games will still be useful since that API isn't going anywhere.
Summary: Insomniac is good at PS3 development because they don't have a choice in the matter. EA does and is clearly not going to put a lot of effort into a skill that has zero long-term applications.
It gives you familiar tools and frameworks to develop with, dramatically reduces development time, and does not mean that you will end up with a substandard game.
You can start with a game engine that was basically developed for the SNES, add a UT graphics engine, HAVOC physics, additional sound engine, animation engine, and end with something completely next gen, revolutionary, and capable of things that no predecessor has done before, but developed faster and with fewer bugs with an older underlying engine.
as far as console strategy games go, anyone play CivRev? any good?
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Sega Saturn.
I rest my case.
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One word:
Troll.
I rest my case.
When are devs going to realise that ports just don't work, to get the most out of 360, you need to remain exclusive, to get the most out of PS3, you need to remain exclusive, exclusivity gives you games like Gears and MGS, ports can just about give you COD4 'IF' you know how to use both technologies properly.
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