Despite the testing stage of the new Home feature of the PlayStation 3 being underway right now and Sony making the service a priority for the success of the new hardware, it seems that the company has held off from releasing tools to Third Party developers a little too long.
There was a three day conference called 'Devstation' that took place last week down in London, UK, where Sony Europe threw around major buzzwords such as 'technology', 'innovation' and 'creativity' as it tried to show how developer-focused it is trying to be. The event was a major chance to unveil the plans and overall strategic work for the future of both the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3, keeping over four hundred and fifty Third Party developers firmly in the loop, plus getting them up to speed on the PlayStation Network and impending Home service.
Michael Denny, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Europe, who keynoted the event was quoted as saying:
"We're breaking [into] a new business, much as we did with the first PlayStation. We used to be predominantly a single platform publisher, but now with PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2, we're truly a multiplatform publisher with a mix of products and services that appeal to a wide range of tastes, lifestyles and budgets.
"With Home, we are having to manage a much more sophisticated business and that's exciting and pioneering. It's great to be given the opportunity at DevStation to stand up and inspire our valued third party partners to join us."
Whilst some developers are currently underway with talks regarding being launch partners for the extensive Home online network feature, it seems that development kits have not even been sent out, with Sony planning on rolling out the first generation of Home creation tools later this month. But with Sony determined to deliver strong support for Home, its impressive 3D lobby, the community aspect and the matchmaking space available, perhaps the turnaround time will not be as long as expected.
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