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SDL Has Been Ported to Sony PS2
JigSaw writes: "SDL, the open source answer to DirectX, is a well-known cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide fast access to the graphics framebuffer and audio device. Sam Lantiga, the maintainer and SDL project leader, announced today on the SDL mailing list, that he ported the library to Playstation2 and it will allow to write and run SDL games (open source or commercial, as SDL is LGPL) on the Linux port for the PS2. Great to see Linux to become the source for a whole bunch of free SDL games (some of them with commercial-level quality), easily recompiled for the PS2 and run them without having to spend $49 USD for each game. This release will be even more significant in the near future, as SONY is planning to release the broadband adapter add-on, which will enable small developers (and even companies) to release free or shareware games, downloadable in binary or source format (most SDL games are known to have small sizes) from the web, and hop, to your TV!"
...that Sam Lantiga left Lokigames and is now working for Blizzard? But he is still developing SDL, as it seems. Look here for more details.
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Ahem. *cough* :) Someone's been going to the school of CmdrTaco's all-inclusive non-objective statements. I would hardly call a majority of the SDL games commercial quality. A majority are playful diversions (like minesweeper) and the few that are commercial quality ARE commercial (like Loki's wares).
Don't get me wrong: I think SDL is a step in the right direction. But are you going to get Joe User to play these games when for $20 used you can get a decent copy of Final Fantasy for PS?
Realistically, I have no problem with this - maybe that $200 kicks the price point above where they will be making a loss (at least when they drop the price this coming holiday season). That way, Sony can keep the PS2 in market, even if people aren't buying licensed games.
In other words, you have a choice - buy the PS2 below cost, and play only licensed games (which kick back to Sony, making up the difference), or shell out $200 and play free (both beer and speech) games. And neither will make Sony give up on the PS2 as unprofitable.
Now, as to what the *actual* break even price for Sony is - now that's a different story. I imagine that they are making a profit on the actual unit (not counting initial R&D) at the moment; that may change when the PS2 price drops way down in the next few years.
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Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
...it was ported to the PS/2 with the 1.2.1 release a few weeks ago. The port was done by some Japanese coders. The news here is that Sony has donated a dev platform for further development...so we can all hope Mesa is ported sometime :)