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Guerrilla Games: PS3 easier to develop for than PS2, architecture is simpler than Xbox 360

Posted Apr 3, 2009 at 12:20PM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: PS3 Tags: Guerrilla, Guerrilla Games, Killzone, Microsoft, PS2, Sony

Killzone 2 - Image 1

Contrary to what a lot of devs have said over the years, it's easier to develop for the Sony PlayStation 3 than the venerable PS2. In addition, the PS3's architecture is even simpler than that found in the Xbox 360 and PC. That's what a pair of Guerrilla Games folks told GameDaily.

Of course, it helps that a lot of the devs behind Killzone 2 already had experience developing for a Sony console. According to Guerrilla Games' Managing Director Hermen Hulst:

Like us, if you are native to PlayStation, our tech director doesn't say it's particularly difficult. It's specific, but it's not difficult like PS2 was difficult Â– PS2 was a difficult [machine] to crack, but PS3 didn't take us a long time to get up and running.

The problem, says Hulst, lies in the vast difference between developing for another console and developing for the PS3.

I think a lot of those stories that you hear about it being 'so difficult' are coming from developers who are native to other consoles and then start working on PS3, because it is very different.

As for the console's architecture, here's what Development Director Arjan Brussee had to say:

I actually think PS3 is a simpler architecture than some of the other consoles; you just have to have a certain mindset on how to address it. I think the Cell-based processor with the SPUs and the super high speed DSPs that you can throw all your calculation tasks at gives us a model that's way easier to program for, even for junior programmers, than the general purpose multi-core type of architecture, which the PC and Xbox 360 have.

In the end it all boils down to the developer's approach, I guess.

Killzone 2 could be done on Xbox 360, says ex-Bungie dev

Via GameDaily

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Just because one developer says it doesn't mean they all feel the same way. Like Hulst and Brussee said, the Cell B.E. architecture is very different than your standard PC(Intel/AMD chips) or Xbox 360 CPUs.

Also, these guys are pretty much exclusive PS3 developers. They'd obviously hire experts in the parallel processing field.

Though, this does support what I've always said that the best PS3 games are exclusives.

# No related but.. — TonyFlakes 2009-04-03 14:01

No related but Guerrila is going to release the Killzone 2 Engine to another devs?

# they might not — Link75e 2009-04-03 14:19

if they share the killzone 2 engine then all other shooting games are going to feel the same as killzone plus im pretty sure guerilla would want to keep it amongst them because 1 theycan make alot of money of it since they are the only one with it and 2 yeah just the money.

# ... — papajag 2009-04-03 14:20

See what high budget can give you. $50 Million(from romurs that I heard) should have given the devs the best tools. Other companies such as Capcom won't go that far to make their game. It's all about profit in this economy.

So kudos to Guerrilla and I hope the next Killzone won't take another 5 years to make.

# ... — haru3173 2009-04-03 14:32

That's just an excuse saying PS2 is harder to develop because in PS2 "Killzone 1 sucked before so what made you...". In PS3, they had some success with KZ2 so they say PS3 is easier to develop. IMO

# ... — blkthunda 2009-04-03 14:58

Maybe it's not an excuse, maybe it was harder on the PS2. And Killzone 1 didn't suck. It was just hyped up too much. Anyway I think Killzone 2 wasn't as good as Killzone 1. But that's just me.

# ... — NarooN 2009-04-03 15:03

Obviously you didn't even play KZ1 because that game was awesome. I actually liked it more than Halo at the time, still do, but that was my preference. KZ1 didn't even get a lot of mediocre reviews, it was all generally positive.

# pretty funny — [DVSDevise] 2009-04-03 15:50

5 years of development and over a year delay. Plus it had the biggest Sony development team behind it and an estimated production cost of 60 million dollars. Piece of cake, really. :)

# Ya — Specht 2009-04-03 16:22

Killzone's negative image was mostly generated by the hype that preceded it. Every Sony fanboy expected a game that would make X-Bots jealous. When that didn't happen, it made the game suck in those person's eyes.

To be honest, I wasn't a large fan of the game. I like the direction KZ2 took and I was one of the few that enjoyed the controls when the game first came out.

I don't know much about the Emotion Engine in the PS2 so I can't really say a lot about the difficulty in programming that compared to the Cell, though it's generally considered that the Cell is harder to program relative to the standard CPUs used in all other current game machines.

# "over a year delay" — NarooN 2009-04-03 17:00

What delay? The only delay there was, was from December 2008 to February 2009. The only reason THAT delay happened was because Sony called it- they didn't want KZ2 competing with Resistance 2 and a few other games.

There was no other confirmed release date besides the original December 2008 date.

# they have to share — ptspyder 2009-04-03 19:53

As part of helping make the PS2 easier to develop for, sony requires that all game engines be open source for all other developers. This practice is still in place for all devs. Its part of Sony's business plan.

# dude.. — danielakadanny 2009-04-04 02:17

to the anti-fanboy shelter this is NOT A DRILL

# ~~ — ~~ 2009-04-04 03:29

It is just as the guy said,

"I think the Cell-based processor with the SPUs and the super high speed DSPs that you can throw all your calculation tasks at gives us a model that's way easier to program for"

# jdkjsd — gnizzlespot 2009-04-04 04:50

@ Link75e

The part about a lot of games being the same is true (just look at what the Unreal 3 Engine did), but they would only make money if they licensed the engine out to other devs (again, look at the Unreal 3 Engine).

# wow — anhero 2009-04-04 06:20

It isn't something unexpected to say, coming from a company COMPLETELY owned and subsidized by Sony. Lately Guerilla Games has been talking a lot of lies, from Killzone 2 not being possible on 360 and now to this. Of course they would say this things, they're owned by Sony. Just like Microsoft lied about just 30% of 360s getting RROD, I'd say more like 60%... Real opinions are those by devs who work in all both/all platforms, like EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft, ect. since they aren't owned by any of the hardware makers and can say whatever they like. And to the comments below saying that Guerilla Games can make money of their engine, that engine belongs to Sony and they can do what they wish with it, from sharing it to other game developers owned by them or even sharing them to other developers for a price.

Honest developers know that PC is the best on mostly anything, except making money...

# Not ONLY that.... — dustinmyles 2009-04-04 11:01

BUT 5 years in development is a fairly standard amount of time for almost any QUALITY game to be in development for!

# You know — Stealth! 2009-04-06 05:10

Not to look down on the article, but this is fairly obvious and one I figured most people would get. It makes sense if you're not used to another console specs, is not going to be easy to develop for. That's why Valve finds the PS3 a B!tch to develop games cause they don't know how to code for it, where as they say PC and 360 are the easiest thing to make games for. Despite the fact with the developer tools out there making it easier to develop PS3 games, they don't have much of a argument. I still call them lazy.

This isn't anything new, still nice read.

# lol — gamepro1 2009-04-07 05:55

haha both systems are great thought. Its just stupid when somebody says "Ps3 suckz 360 rulesz!!!!!" All there saying is "Im a fanboy and im jellous ps3 is getting all theses exclusives like God of war, killzone 2, littlebigplanet and metal gear solid 4!"

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