PS3 - Xbox 2 - Game Developpers
Game Developers Share Info About PS3
BBC news has a good article that interviews a couple of game developers regarding the next generation console platforms and their expectations. Below are some of the more interesting comments:
Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, said Mr Armes, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo to send kits. " The rumors are that PlayStation 3 will have a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2]," he said.
Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, said the company had a central technology group which was at the forefront of preparing for the next generation of consoles. " We are working on new libraries of effects. A lot of the major techniques are already out there and in use in PC gaming, such as pixel shaders and normal mapping."
Mr Dunn said he expected the introduction of real-world physics to be a major part of the new consoles. " We want to increase that level of immersion and realism in gaming to people can lose themselves in a game."
Simon Gardner, president of Climax´s Action Studio, said: " It´s definitely an exciting time. We want to give more freedom to the player. We want to give players an emotional connection to the characters they play."
" The environments will be much more believable and dramatic, growing and changing as you play. There will be a breadth of effects, more involving worlds to play in. It´s a bit like being an artist and being given a bigger canvas and a smaller brush. We´re being given more tools. For the average consumer, we can get things of a more filmic quality."
Gerhard Florin, head of EA in Europe, said gamers should expect titles that blur the line between films and video games. " PS3 will provide graphics indistinguishable from movies," said Mr Florin.
He said the distribution method for games would also change radically in the next round of consoles. " A gamer could buy a starter disc for 10 euros. When he goes home he goes online and he could buy AI and levels as you go."