210°

Activision: PS3 Development Not a Problem

Activision has stated that, while other companies may be struggling to develop for the PlayStation 3, it has no such problem.

Speaking to investors during Activision's earnings conference call for the financial quarter ending 31/12/07, Michael J. Griffith, president & CEO of Activision's Publishing Unit, said:

"What you are seeing with many publishers is they are unable to simultaneously develop and launch on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Instead, they develop and release one SKU at a time or they simply don't release a PS3 SKU at all. Call of Duty 4 represents the best-in-class next-generation development, making it the number one selling title of all time on the PS3."

"Over the past year, our central technology group has created a proprietary set of tools for next-gen development that has enabled our developers to address the challenging PS3 architecture in efficient ways. Our tools allow us to identify performance bottlenecks in the PS3 and focus our effort in a targeted way to improve performance that would otherwise without these tools simply be a trial-and-error approach."

While Griffith is clearly trying to send out the message that Activision is on top of developing for the PS3, the phrases "challenging PS3 architecture" and "performance bottlenecks in the PS3" still stand out.

Griffith also noted the PS3 as "a technically challenging platform where many continue to struggle".
Alternative Sources:
The Round Peg - contributor
Published: 677 days 15 hours ago | News | PlayStation 3 | Industry News | Dev News
 
 

Showing: 1 - 31 of 31 Comments
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Violater - 677 days 16 hours ago
1 - Yes for Spong
the remotely negative term would be a standout
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ionace - 677 days 15 hours ago
2 -
Nothing is perfect .. thats my way of looking at it. some of the most difficult things to use make for the best results.
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avacadosnorkel - 677 days 15 hours ago
3 - COD4 PS3 SKU
with all the extra room on the disc, all PS3 owners get is a couple extra players in multiplayer?
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dude_uk - 677 days 14 hours ago
3.1 -
dude if u are too dumb to post this sh1t don't even post it...

its not up to disc space (off course thats also a factor)
but its the DEVS THAT CHOSE what to put in each version of the game for the different consoles
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timmyp53 - 677 days 14 hours ago
4 - some ppl need to take notes from
Infantry Ward I wonder how easy it is to get help from Sony's ninjas. I always see special thanks to to guerilla games and stuff so I know some struggling developers can get a hand from some 1st party developers If they ask. All i know for sure is whatever they do they have to weane off the ports ASAP.
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shysun - 677 days 14 hours ago
5 -
IW is the shiznit!
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ASSASSYN 36o - 677 days 13 hours ago
5.1 -
The shiznickel.
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kewlkat007 - 677 days 14 hours ago
6 - All I know is not all developers
are created equal, so I do not expect every game to be polished as the next developers.

-1st party Developers get great treatment and support..non-brainer

-3rd Party developers, I'm sure pay full price for kits, have less money, and do not have that strong backing. Especially when communication/support stinks. If your a huge Power House, then we would assume you are capable and well funded.

Nobody is gonna come out and look like a fool saying there incompetent about an architecture or not as polished but there are other factors gamers never get to know about.
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fenderputty - 677 days 14 hours ago
6.1 - If your a huge Power House, then we would assume you are capable and well funded.
Not in the case of EA.
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kewlkat007 - 677 days 14 hours ago
6.2 - sometimes, I'm not sure who is really making
the Games EA comes brings out. Is it them or Talented devs, they keep in their basement.

If we can only praise 4-5 devs that work on PS3 games this Gen then Sony will have problems.

so being Happy about 5 Devs that do get it, in the end, do not help the console as a whole because I know there was multiple devs on the PS2 that made good games.

I think gamers are impatient, it's only been a year and we know games take like 3 years, so really in 6 years you see the "cream of the crop".
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GIJeff - 677 days 14 hours ago
6.3 - hey
sony pays full price for dev kits too.
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heyheyhey - 677 days 14 hours ago
7 -
the end of crappy ports is looking to come soon
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joevfx - 677 days 14 hours ago
8 - "awww booo hoooo...
..i need to learn a new achitecture in this new age of games , waaa waaa i just wan tot sit on my ass and do the same old thign over and over again and learn nothing new"

all game devs except infinity ward, naughty dog, and epic.
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heyheyhey - 677 days 13 hours ago
8.1 -
dont forget insomniac, criterion, guerilla, quantic dream, team ICO, evolution (of Motorstorm fame)

more will get used to it as time goes by
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PS_Family - 677 days 14 hours ago
9 -
I don't know what's all the fuss with crappy ports. Mosts consoles have poor ports at the first year and the differences between 360 and PS3 are minimal.
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GIJeff - 677 days 14 hours ago
9.1 - yep
it was A LOT worse with the ps2 and dreamcast(the dreamcast looked sooo much better at first)....then look what happened.
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AceLuby - 677 days 13 hours ago
9.2 - Here
I put this on a few other boards, but in case you missed it the similarities are amazing:

http://www.streettech.com/a...
http://www.alex-in-wonderla...
http://www.racketboy.com/re...
http://www.sharkygames.com/...
http://dreamcast.ign.com/ar...
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DJ - 677 days 14 hours ago
10 - I kinda wish that COD6 would be a PS3 exclusive
Just to see what they could do without compromises for other platforms. Either way though, they did an amazing job on all three platforms. The end of bad ports seems to have ended almost completely. DMC, Burnout, and COD are outstanding examples.
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Bonsai1214 - 677 days 14 hours ago
11 -
hmm, this makes me think starcraft 2 for ps3 is even more likely. unless i have my companies wrong.. haha. i'm really tired right now
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Kareem - 677 days 13 hours ago
12 - Great news
With IW showing 3rd-party how it's exactly done, I give Kudos to Activision.
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meepmoopmeep - 677 days 13 hours ago
13 - and THAT my friends...
is why i respect infinity ward and CoD4 is my favorite FPS of all time. it seems infinity ward embraces challenges and over comes them professionally. great work IW team! you guys rock! \m/
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chaosatom333 - 677 days 13 hours ago
14 -
all the developers need to share their knowledge of ps3, then we can see some awesome games, especially the first party titles because they know a lot more about the ps3. Also companies need to dump unreal engine 3, and find a new engine to develop for ps3.
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kingnick - 676 days 16 hours ago
14.1 -
Sad that EA bought out Criterion Games and RenderWare. Someone needs to come up with a middleware solution that works well on both platforms without significant tweaking but it is unlikely due to the difference in architectures.
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ruibing - 677 days 13 hours ago
15 -
I still want my Rock Band patch.
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CaliGamer - 677 days 12 hours ago
16 - Nice...
Take that EA.
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pwnsause - 677 days 12 hours ago
17 -
it sounds like the miserable ports PS3 owners have been getting are soon to be over, thank god.
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jackdoe - 677 days 12 hours ago
18 -
Activision made a nice bundle of cash on the PS3 last year for a reason. EA did not. EA looks like it will follow that path if it doesn't get its act together. That Dead Space producer's comments confirmed that EA did not get its act together.
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KingKirchner - 677 days 11 hours ago
19 -
Activision certainly showed that there IS a LOT of money to be made on the PS3 if you aren't lazy and actually put forth a little effort. CoD4's PS3 sales alone are great, and it's the best selling PS3 game now. If only other publishers *cough EA cough* would follow Activisions lead and realize that PS3 owners DO buy games, just not CRAPPY games.
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jackdoe - 677 days 11 hours ago
19.1 -
EA somehow made one of the best games of 2007 into one of the most unappealing games of 2007 *cough* Orange Box *cough*.
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Genki - 676 days 22 hours ago
20 - No problems huh? What a crock of sh*t.
I suppose they forgot the fiasco that was Tony Hawk...

They remind me of Midway now. Promising better Mortal Kombat games, we believe it and they turn out a trash product again and again.

I'll start listening when they start delivering.

So far, all they have is CoD4. Unless Infinity Ward gets cloned 10 times over, I'm not holding my breath for their other studios.
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altimako02 - 676 days 16 hours ago
21 -
I CANT BELIVE THAT THE ALMIGHTY PS3 HAS ANY BOTTLENECKS
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