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Bonnell Quizzical On PSP, Development Costs Discussed
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell's comments on the relative mystery of Sony's PSP handheld, arguing that "there's simply not enough information available for publishers to make educated decisions about it." As for development costs for making PSP games, Bonnell cynically estimated: "From one cent to $50 million, I have no idea", suggesting that "there's no way to accurately predict costs on the device at this point." GI.Biz argues: "This is an unusual comment - because one area where Sony has not skimped is on providing development tools for the PSP to its partners", and 1UP has more informative comments from EA CEO Larry Probst at the same financial conference, commenting on PSP dev costs per game: "We're speculating that the $1-2 million range is a good estimate."
Is this something that only entrenched powerhouses with millions to spend can get their hands on (ie: calling them partners rather than developers) or is an sdk for this or the GBA even possible for an indie developer to access and/or use?
Alex.
"How about something to prevent duplicate articles?"
I find it interesting that people who complain about dupes keep repeating it over and over again. Maybe you guys should get your own system in place first before you complain about the negligible impact Slashdot is having on your lives by repeating a story here and there.
"Derp de derp."
Here's hoping the Beowulf filter comes right after.. you know you read slashdot too much when..
Or perhaps some of us remember what the old /. was before it turned into a less advanced form of techtv.
- Development costs for the system will run around $7 million per game. Half of that will go to optimizing the location of data on the UMD so that as little disc access is done as possible, minimizing power drain.
From the first article:
- Broken systems will be accepted for return within the first 12 hours of purchase only. The detachable, easily-lost screen cover is your 100% guarantee that your screen will never get damaged, unless you're a retard.
- The movie strategy is key. Sony is aiming for the lucrative "fringe format" buyer, in the same way that they handled the bustling 8mm video market. Millions of Sony 8mm and Hi8 camcorders were sold in the 1990s, and Sony formed a catalog of movies that were released in this format, specifically for all those people with 8mm camcorders to watch. And that sprouted an industry all by itself, didn't it?
- Sony's wireless strategy makes sense. WiFi for everything is much simpler for the programmers to wrap their heads around. Who cares that WiFi draws a great deal of power even for same-room, multi-player gaming? What, game players do? Oh.
- Downloading MP3s will be simple and fun! As soon as an MP3 comes anywhere near the PSP, it is processed through the PSP's obviously powerful "decoder." It then gets enhanced by Sony's exclusive and amazing "ATRAC" technology, which makes these lucky enhanced audio files sound ALMOST as good as when they were still MP3s, even on a portable platform. Can you believe it's possible? Sony does.
- Connectivity to PS2 will be painless. Simply plug it in and go, for as long as the battery will last. Exciting new PS2 games that are designed to be played for less than 2 hours at a stretch will be released to coincide with PSP connectivity, so that gamers can experience very few interruptions in their gameplay. That's the Sony difference! And in the future, PS3 will feature a new controller port that will provide ample power on the bus to power the PSP.
- Video output? No video output. What the hell are you smoking, Bonnell? That would mean that the PSP would compete with Sony's portable DVD players! UMD format content creators would have to optimize for normal TV screens as well as the forgiving PSP screen! And content creators would also be put off by piracy concerns, particularly when UMD video is expected to be quite costly! Don't you know anything?
All in all, only 35 bellies at SCEI have been slit over the PSP so far. Not too shabby!
EA, Activision, and other US developers do not seem to be having the same problems he is with supporting the PSP. Even without pricing information it's strategically important to have titles on these new machines, just in case they take off - that's why most major publishers decided to put out some games for the N-Gage as well. And if Bruno Bonnell can't estimate development costs, when the technical specs of the machine are already well-known to developers, what is he doing in charge of a video game company?
Atari are dead, and I wish people would remember that. Atari is really Infogrames, run by Bruno Bonnel, who is one of the Games Industry's biggest morons. Why does anyone care what that pillock thinks? I'm just waiting for the French government to stop bailing out his failing company (I assume Infogrames is so universaly despised that they had to buy a credible name like Atari and ruin that too.) so I can watch them slide away into oblivion.
Darn, I get so angry when I hear the good name of Atari abused by that bubble-headed retard.
Just a note; This article wasn't on the frontpage itself, but on the frontpage of the game section, there's always a big difference in number of posts.
Development costs will probably stabilise once the developers know how big the market is going to be.
It wouldn't suprise me if developers were going all-out for launch titles - being on the shelf at day zero right next to the brand new hardware is important to support a new machine. Once the platform has launched they can settle back when they're have more of an idea how big the market is going to be and how many titles (and the value of those titles) that the market can support.
So that's why he doesn't know - he might have an idea of what they're spending for the launch titles, but he's probably also expecting that figure to change - up or down - once the PSP launches and proves it's worth to developers.
I have heard people say this hollywood budget movie is huge, let's go see it. I have never heard people say EA spent a cazillion $$ on this game, let's go see it. It's sad that every industry is setting the quality of its product by how much freaking money they pump in to make it.
What, slashdot's going to be bought out by G4, too?
As more and more people come to realize the PSP isn't going to end up a gaming machine.
No, if you go by the ads and the trend in stories it looks like MSN my want to buy /. after all, microsoft is a major OSDN ad buyer.
I once interviewed at Atari/Infogrames. Their pay was significantly below the industry average, but they worked you so many hours that "you could even afford a car!" Amusingly enough, they required you to sign a form stating that you would work a minimum of 60 hours a week (not during crunch... all of the time). They had even run this by their legal department to see if such indentured servitude would pass a class action suit. Needless to say, I ran as fast away from that place as I could. Who would have thought that if you treat your talent as terribly as the law will allow, you get derivitave, unsellable junk?
...Sony simply doesn't want Atari to throw bad games at the PSP?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Except from what little I can gather it seems to actually be a simplified version of the platform. As such it should be easier to grasp, no pun intended. The development system will probably have a similar cost to the PS2 development system. As such, it should cost about as much to put out a PSP game as it does to put out a PS2 game.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
[Is there a publicly available GBA SDK?] FUCK no.
FUCK yes.
And here's some of what I've made with it. Please hire me.
As such, it should cost about as much to put out a PSP game as it does to put out a PS2 game.
GBA games cost 30 USD each at retail. If PSP games will run at 50 USD each like PS2 games, then what parent will buy not only one copy of a PSP game but two or three for multiplayer? Or will PSP games have useful single-disc multiplayer modes?
Releasing a GBA-like game [on the PS2] ... will probably be cheaper than doing it on the GBA, because both Sony and Nintendo are known for their licensing savvy, meaning how to milk money out of developers, so the cost will probably be similar, but the PSP is vastly more powerful which means much less optimization need be done to get the same type of results.
That is, unless Sony bans 2D games entirely, as it did at the start of the PS1 era (to distinguish the system from the Sega Saturn, which was a 2D powerhouse) and at various times in the PS2 era. Under such a ban, PSP sequels to the sprite based games that fit the GBA so well would need all-new 3D models and a cel-shading engine a la Viewtiful Joe, not just double-size sprite artwork.
Some types of games will probably also be an easy port from PS2
GBA owners also complained about the parade of ports from the Super NES that was the early GBA software line-up.