Blood Bowl developer: making PS3 version 'a bit risky and expensive'

If you're a PS3-only gamer who happens to be a fan of vintage tabletop gaming, monsters, and football, then you are probably acutely, painfully aware of the lack of Blood Bowl video games in your future. Cyanide is making an Xbox 360 version -- why not use the same assets and codebase for the PS3 like so many others? What's the deal? Does it hate the PS3 or something?

In an interview with Destructoid, the developer explained its apparent snub on the platform. "Cyanide is a small company," a representative said. "We have no previous experience on that platform [and] it would have been a bit risky and expensive for us. But, we are hoping to do a PS3 version if the game is selling well."

So, rather than a lack of faith in the platform, Cyanide has somewhat of a lack of faith in its own ability to develop for it without killing the budget. It still means no PS3 version for now, but it also means no janky, poorly ported PS3 version for now. That's ... something. And if the other versions of the game, coming out in Q2 of this year, are successful, we may see a (good) PS3 version yet.

[Via VG247]

Reader Comments (55)

Sony didn't set out to make the PS3 intentionally difficult to program, they made it intentionally very powerful. The Cell CPU is *very* fast, but programmers have to learn how to get the best results from the Cell's SPEs. Programming the PS3 has a steep learning curve compared to the 360, but it's a side-effect of Sony, Toshiba and IBM's intent to create a completely new, extremely fast CPU design.

Don't forget that Sony intends for the PS3 to be around for 10 years if not more. Developers are still unlocking the PS2 and driving that platform still.

Sony is trying to push the envelope and I agree that there are a TON of lazy developers that don't want to learn something new. It's easier to push something out when you know the code, but that will also allow for crappier games.

Sony is hedging a bet that it will not have to bring out another system to go after whatever Microsoft wants to unveil. Their system is stable and as more programmers start to play with it, they will start to fully understand what Sony is trying to accomplish with this platform.

I'm sick of hearing you all call developers "lazy" for not making games on the PS3. Yes these programmers working 10-12 hour days, 80 hour work weeks are so Lazy. I had a very good friend working on Saints Row for Xbox 360, and as only an animator, he worked 10 hours durring the week, and 8 on Saturday, and that was required.

First fo all, yes, money is very much involved. For each coder seat, they need to get a dev kit, which can run anywhere $10k-$100k. That's just the hardware. The dev may also need to get dev or test kits for those making the assets, ie. modelers, texture artists, level designers, etc. So we're talking about 10-50 kits. That's not including the extra time and hours needed to learn the new quirks of a the console's architecture, or even how to program for the new system. And, the extra staff. Plus the more time it takes, it's more going out, money wise, and nothing coming in.

On top of all that, is the longer it get's delayed, fans get pissed.. and so on.

Even for a Wii game, those devs are doing a shit load of work. Even for a 360 game, these devs are doing a shit-load of work. And on top of all that, Content is more important then anything. The best coding in the world won't save a poorly designed game with no fun gameplay.

As a owner of a PS3/360 I think Sony was arrogant with the design of the PS3 instead of talking to developers like MS did the 360 they went out and designed a chip which no developer has come close to mastering.

Don't get me wrong i do like my PS3 but with all multiplatform games that are being released these days i tend to buy the 360 version because it normally the best version eg frame rate, text dropout.

With rumors going about the cell process is going to drop for the PS4 maybe Sony agrees they got it wrong with the Cell processor.

Oh...so that means...everyone, buy this game for your 360!!!! Blood Bowl is a classic!

Blood Bowl developer: making PS3 version 'a bit risky and expensive'

Reader Comments (55)

Posted: Feb 9th 2009 3:08PM ymmv said

Posted: Feb 9th 2009 5:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 9th 2009 5:51PM Duscrom said

Posted: Feb 9th 2009 5:29PM bknight2k said

Posted: Feb 10th 2009 12:27AM (Unverified) said

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