Porting PlayStation 3 games to PSP successor, NGP is "simple and quick", worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida boss told Edge.
Speaking in the mag's latest issue - which is with subscribers now - Yoshida called making NGP's development environment "as easy as possible" a priority - but stressed that it doesn't mean we'll only see PS3 ports on the handheld.
"We were very focused on this area from the start. This is, again, a lesson learnt from the PS3," he told Edge. "We had to make the development environment for NGP as 'easy' as possible. Today, many teams are familiar with the PS3 and are used to including a variety of effects in their titles.
"Based on this expertise - and also the working habits they developed working on the PS3 - we had to make development on the NGP as natural as possible - an extension of the PS3, if you will.
"So the three demos you've seen - Lost Planet 2, Ryu Ga Gotoku [Yakuza] and MGS4 - they prove porting is simple and quick, but it doesn't mean that's all you can expect. My view of NGP isn't just as a platform for porting PS3 titles."
Sony's already shown footage of Killzone and Resistance running on NGP. A version of Uncharted is also in development.
The new issue of Edge is with subscribers now and will be in stores next week. Order it here and have it delivered to your door.
Comments
25 comments so far...
photoboy on 11 Feb '11 said:
What he should really be saying is that it's easy to port from the 360 and PC, as the NGP architecture is much closer to them than the PS3.
fps_d0minat0r on 11 Feb '11 said:
what he should really say is that the developers who everyone thinks as professionals cant even be bothered to use the cell so this time the GPU will have a larger influence than the processor.
Barca Azul on 11 Feb '11 said:
No no no
This is where the PSP went wrong. They ported games from one to the other. You havent learned.
I dont want to buy the same game twice. It will only work if its through remote play or a digital copy on the PS3 game that acts as an extension.
It has to have its own AAA tittles and not a shoddy port of a PS3 AAA tittle. Like GoW, but these came out so late the machine was obsolete for me.
infernoxXx on 11 Feb '11 said:
agree with barca azul, although the 1 analog stick did make it hard for ports to work well. from what ive seen on some websites, they were stating that the mgs4 cut scene ran at 20fps on the NGP even though they reduced some of the detail and the lower resolution. lost planet 2 was also gimped compared to the ps3 version. i guess its not exactly a straight port then.
STEVONYMO on 11 Feb '11 said:
Porting games to anything is simple and quick...whether they are any good or not or just a cheap shoddy port over is another matter!
subform on 11 Feb '11 said:
Simple and quick = cheap games...right? RIIIIIIIIIGHT?????
3
2
1
..aaaand your back in the room
Balladeer on 11 Feb '11 said:
And people complain about the 3DS recycling old material...
Fr33Kye on 11 Feb '11 said:
Why is this a bad thing? Just because its easy to do doesn't mean that they're wont be NGP exclusive titles that make use of the different control interface. I don't like ports either unless i can play from my original save, but making development easy is hardly a bad thing.
The 3ds is recylcing new material from years ago
boskersrevenge on 11 Feb '11 said:
Well played. You win, well done
MattyR95 on 11 Feb '11 said:
For gods sake! It doesn't mean we'll see loads of PS3 ports!
L1NGARD on 12 Feb '11 said:
Really hope its not going to be all PS3 ports on this. I don't think it will but they've made a stunning piece of kit so i hope they use it to its full potential rathter than bringing ports over with silly extra added features. I was mega excited about the 3DS until i seen the line up and TBH its pretty much all ports. I'll be buyin the NGP regardless but i think Sony will really make a go of this. If the Price is right.
richard99 on 12 Feb '11 said:
I want the NGP to have great titles of it's own but if they're going to port great games from PS3 or some classics from PS1/2 then I'm not going to complain.
Arkham Asylum, Oblivion, Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead are the main ports I'm after (I'd ask for Uncharted 2 as well but I know it's getting it's own version) if NGP is up to it but there's a lot of others I think would still be great as portable games.
Windowlicker79 on 12 Feb '11 said:
I don't think this is such a bad thing. What it means is that there will be top quality titles available much sooner because the developers won't have to get used to programming for a completely new platform.
Obviously there will be a few straight ports, but they're more likely to develop original games that take advantage of the new touch screen and rear touch panel, and are more suited for handheld gameplay.
Balladeer on 12 Feb '11 said:
Arguably better, because the target audience won't have played them only the other day.
Very_Silver_Ownz on 12 Feb '11 said:
the psp1 was ports of ps1 and ps2 games. psp2 will be ports of just ps3 games.
The_Jaster on 12 Feb '11 said:
If it gets flooded with ports then I think that's a bad move in my book as it was the reason psp didn't do better than it could have done.....for one simple reason which I over heard at the 3DS event in Glasgow today it went something like this "I won't buy an NGP if the majority if the games are ports of ps3 games as I can already play those games more comfortably & on a better screen" which is a very good point I think.
Yeah, yeah we all know the 3DS has some ports too but I will be avoiding most of them as with any new format its all about the new experiences for me.
Also those 3DS ports are already different straight off the bat as they are displayed in top notch 3D.
Balladeer on 12 Feb '11 said:
And I still won't be buying OoT unless it can demonstrate some new content. Starfox, however...
The_Jaster on 13 Feb '11 said:
Yeah I seen a Starfox demo trailer at the 3DS event too...........its 3D is very cool.
Fr33Kye on 13 Feb '11 said:
Arguably better, because the target audience won't have played them only the other day.[/quote
Well it was a joke, but the point i've been consistently trying to make is that nintendo have been selling consoles with the same ip's for years. That's why people buy nintendo consoles, for the same ip's they've known for years and likely grew up on. That is what i call recycling old material. Having a new uncharted is the equivalent of a new mario title, but uncharted is an ip created this generation. How many mario games are there anyway? They both need new ip's, and it makes sense for them to launch or at least create hype with titles people are familiar with, but they are still the same names nintendo has been using for years. Of course they are a little better with this handheld than in the past, but not much. I mean everyone has a nintendo game they love, but i wouldn't want to have to buy a wii or 3ds, just because i new starfox came out...
AJDarkstar on 13 Feb '11 said:
So only those who have made PS3 games will be able to make sense of Sony's awful development tools? Hardly encouraging for new, would-be devs, eh?
Balladeer on 13 Feb '11 said:
Everyone re-uses IPs. Nintendo gets a lot of stick from it, but (a) they sell and (b) Killzone 3 anyone? Gran Turismo 5? CoD 957 (or whatever they're up to)? And comparing Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy, even if they feature the same characters, is just silly.
What's more, Nintendo do release new IPs - Wii Sports series anybody? Professor Layton? The upcoming Steel Diver? Just because you don't like them doesn't mean they don't exist. Last generation we had Chibi-Robo and Pikmin too. And there are lots more which never see the light of day in the West - Captain Rainbow springs to mind, as does that Pandora RPG I can't remember the name of.
Bottom line: criticising Nintendo for reusing IPs is silly when every other company does the same thing to a similar extent. So stop doing it. Not just you - everyone.
Ports are a completely different kettle of fish, though.
Windowlicker79 on 13 Feb '11 said:
How many " new, would-be devs" do you think will want to only develop games for a new handheld device with what will always have a much smaller user base rather than for the PS3 which already has a huge potential market?
I think the answer is very few, if any.
Fr33Kye on 13 Feb '11 said:
I never said other companies don't do it. Killzone 3? When was the first killzone released? When was the first mario released? Its very unlikely that you can sell killzone to people who grew up on it. Yes i can compare mario galaxy, because it has the same name and characters. You cannot pretend that the name mario and his iconic appearence dont hold a massive amount of weight alone. Nintendo has been around longer, so they have been reusing ip's since the beginning of time. Some ip's need to die because at this point its just lazy. If Galaxy was so wonderfully different why call it mario at all? I'll tell you, because attaching mario to it allows it to sell a few million easily. It will sell to people who've been playing mario since they were born, and that is not ok to me. Professor layton is the only nintendo game that i would buy a DS for, but that doesn't change the fact that they are still using old characters to shift units. When gamers bought the wii, did they buy it for new ip's? Or nintendo's series
The_Jaster on 13 Feb '11 said:
Yeah but yet again we go back to the same old "so does everyone else" thing but its a fact you hear more gamers moaning about Nintendo doing it rather than the other companies, its quite silly to moan about really as its a sequel driven Industry.
For me, neither I bought it as I was growing tired of the same old control pads the fact it was Nintendo doing it made it a bonus.
Balladeer on 13 Feb '11 said:
The question you should be asking yourself is would SMG have been any better without Mario? If not, what are you complaining about? Let us have our nostalgia, you can have your great game and we're all happy.
And if you don't like my Killzone example, look at the Halo series. You can't tell me that even if Reach had been utter turd people wouldn't have rushed out and bought it anyway.