It's nearly 2 months until the official release of the PlayStation 4, Sony's upcoming big black box of dreams and wonders. Sony has focused on creating a high-spec machine that not only offers a plethora of nifty features on the user side, but was designed specifically to be easy to develop for on the creator side.
Speaking with Weekly Famitsu, Sony top man Shuhei Yoshida and Lead System Architect Mark Cerny discussed the next-gen console and its features. In developing the PS4, all ideas were placed on the table (at one point, the controller had a polygraph function), but in the end, the 2 major focal points for the system were "high-specs" and "easy to develop for."
"We asked numerous creators what sort of functions we should implement [in the PS4], and based on the feedback, we settled on the hardware architecture." Cerny said, talking about the PS4's development. "With the PS4 we aimed for not just specs, but setting up an environment where games can be developed smoothly." According to Cerny, adapting games developed on a PC framework to the PS4 is a much easier process than with previous consoles. He recalls, "Relatively small titles took less than a month, and even big titles took only 2 to 3 months."
The short time it takes to adapt titles will hopefully lead to more games coming out sooner, which will help build up the PS4's library and cement its foundation – something that is usually a major stumbling block for new consoles. According to Cerny, the ease of development for the PS4 "probably shortened the development of Knack by an entire year."
Considering how pretty much every new console in recent memory has suffered from either a weak launch lineup and/or weak launch follow-up releases, this would be a welcome change to that pattern.
ファミ通.com [ファミ通.com]
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