PS3 Online Distribution Details

[Serapth]

Gamasutra has an interview with Sony's John Hight (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9931), Director of External Production regarding their plans for Electronic Distribution (ED-i). This is Sony's version of Live Arcade. The key parts being they are doing alot of the development in house ( first party ) and that they are creating games that simply won't run on the Xbox 360. (according to them)


When asked whether Sony is helping with development costs for PS3 E-Distributed titles, Hight explains: "We fund development for 1st party games and we are open to self-funded games." This answer makes it clear that, unlike Xbox Live Arcade, where the titles have been exclusively sourced from third-party sources, Sony is currently developing multiple E-Distribution games in its internal studios.

..."We're looking for fresh, new ideas that fully exploit the power of PlayStation 3. Our 1st party projects are all unique to PS3. Some of our games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360."



One thing I will say is, they really need to come up with a better name then PS3 E-Distribution Initiative.

[AntB]

Sony is now distributing Ecstasy?

Will someone please think of the children?

[Wyrm]

Good to see something similar to Live Arcade though. The name may be stupid, but it's good they arent just letting it be some sort of retarded primordial soup that is left up to the game's developers to take advantage of.

[Serapth]

Well... since it got edited out ( and I understand why ), let me just put this part back...


PS3. Some of our games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360. :rolleyes:

[Inverarity]

Hm. Aside from use of the tilt controller (which might make for some diverting mini-games) I find the "simply couldn't work" statement hard to fathom. Unless he's being very, very literal:

"Look- take our Cell microcode and just TRY to run it on the Xbox 360! It will do nothing! NOTHING!"

On the plus side, I think doing in-house development of a lot of small games could be beneficial for Sony. It strikes me as an excellent way to keep teams fresh (no small task) and to develop new concepts at low cost/risk.

[JamieSI]

I don't really know what to think about this news but, better name then PS3 E-Distribution Initiative. Does it really matter what they call this? lol

[Serapth]

I don't really know what to think about this news but, better name then PS3 E-Distribution Initiative. Does it really matter what they call this? lol


Unless your one of those people that thinking marketing and branding aren't important... Yes, its a huge deal.

[Morratut]

/waits till he sees it running on a friends PS3

[Captain Awesome]

PS3. Some of our games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360. :rolleyes:

Yeah, that part was good.

[Eran Hawke]

Things that won't run on the 360 because of sheer power, for a downloadable game? I call bullshit. Unless as someone pointed out above, they are taking it very literally, there is nothing the PS3 can do that can'tbe done on the 360, probably faster.

Pair this fact that these games are downloadable and where is the 'bluray is good for gamers' argument? You don't need Bluray, you don't need Cell...

...WTF is the PS3 good for?

[Sl1pstream]

Well... since it got edited out ( and I understand why ), let me just put this part back...


PS3. Some of our games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360. :rolleyes:

20 games, based on twisting your controller.

"Our controller is not a gimmick, look at all the games you can play with it."
I expect at least 3 Geometry Wars clones.

[GunnyMo]

Ah Sony. I love you so. Yer silly.

[Eran Hawke]

Some of our games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360
Yeah, cause the code DEMANDS you spend $600 on a downloadable piece of shareware. Wheee!

[SexualChoc]

I could see it being called the EDI. That doesn't sound too bad. And seeing as how they are developing internally too, it could be okay.

[Serapth]

I could see it being called the EDI. That doesn't sound too bad. And seeing as how they are developing internally too, it could be okay.

Except EDI is totally taken as an acronym. ( EDI= Electronic Data Interchange/Interface ). Its an industry standard for B2B data transfer and has been popular for well over a decade.

Small quible, but I hate people using existing acronyms :D

[Eran Hawke]

I thought the whole point of Live Arcade was to let smaller developers in on the action. Develop smaller games, get to know the hardware, try your hand at the platform without a huge investment. It completely defeats the purpose of controlling the development of your little shareware games, Sony, and it drives developersfurther and further from your system.

[GunnyMo]

I thought the whole point of Live Arcade was to let smaller developers in on the action. Develop smaller games, get to know the hardware, try your hand at the platform without a huge investment. It completely defeats the purpose of controlling the development of your little shareware games, Sony, and it drives developersfurther and further from your system.

Ah, but you forget that Sony has always been about "it's our shit so stay the hell away" proprietaryism (if that's not a word, it is now). Sony never watched the Sesame Street episode on sharing. :D

[Serapth]

Ah, but you forget that Sony has always been about "it's our shit so stay the hell away" proprietaryism (if that's not a word, it is now). Sony never watched the Sesame Street episode on sharing. :D


Oh no... they probrably saw it and concluded... "Holy fuck, that Big Bird is a total sucker. Think of the revinue opportunities he missed out on with this "sharing" bullshit!"

[SexualChoc]

Except EDI is totally taken as an acronym. ( EDI= Electronic Data Interchange/Interface ). Its an industry standard for B2B data transfer and has been popular for well over a decade.

Small quible, but I hate people using existing acronyms :D

I thought is sounded familiar. I hate acronyms too, seeing as how it's a guessing game for the most part. And when there is more than one of the same floating about, it's even more annoying.

[Eran Hawke]

Ah, but you forget that Sony has always been about "it's our shit so stay the hell away" proprietaryism (if that's not a word, it is now). Sony never watched the Sesame Street episode on sharing. :D
Sharing or not, PS3 needs to attract developers, not shun them.

[rein]

I think they should call it pie. Everyone likes pie.

[Plays4Pants]

too bad 3rd party developers have to pay for the bandwith. Lame. xbox does it better.

[rein]

too bad 3rd party developers have to pay for the bandwith. Lame. xbox does it better.

Tell me pants, how do you know this? Have you interviewed all of the developers to get their thoughts on the subject?

[Serapth]

I think they should call it pie. Everyone likes pie.


... actually, im not very keen on pie. Certain meat pies are ok, but imho, most pies are highly overrated. I would much rather have cake most days.

[absolut taco]

I would think ED is a bad letter combo after all the Viagra/Cialis commercials that used to be on the tube.

[Chalex]

First party support?

Does this mean that we won't have to wait 1 month+ between releases?

[sTubbs]

... actually, im not very keen on pie. Certain meat pies are ok, but imho, most pies are highly overrated. I would much rather have cake most days.

Agreed. Fruit is NOT desert, no matter how much sugar and pastry it has been coated in.

[Kefkataran]

This is probably good news. Sony has done some fair to outstanding first-party stuff (mixed in with a bit of mediocre too). Microsoft, on the other hand, hasn't done any first-party stuff that's blown me away, so I'm less than disappointed with their lack of Live Arcade stuff. :)

Does this mean that we won't have to wait 1 month+ between releases?

This would be nice, indeed.

[DeadScreenSky]

This is probably good news. Sony has done some fair to outstanding first-party stuff (mixed in with a bit of mediocre too). Microsoft, on the other hand, hasn't done any first-party stuff that's blown me away, so I'm less than disappointed with their lack of Live Arcade stuff. :)
That's the common viewpoint I would imagine. It's a shame that even Halo never managed to achieve any degree of popularity. ;)

[Paranoia]

"We're looking for fresh, new ideas that fully exploit the power of PlayStation 3. Our 1st party projects are all unique to PS3. Some of our games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360."

Quit the bullshit, Sony. Why don't you just say FIRST PARTY SONY EXCLUSIVES.

[Paranoia]

One thing I will say is, they really need to come up with a better name then PS3 E-Distribution Initiative.

Well it couldn't be any worse than PooS.

[Vandenh]

Ah, but you forget that Sony has always been about "it's our shit so stay the hell away" proprietaryism (if that's not a word, it is now). Sony never watched the Sesame Street episode on sharing. :D


It really exists!

http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/1039/1557298001275438741_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/viewimage?imageID=1557298001275438741)

[MStiles]

Live Arcade games are not produced solely by 3rd party developers.
Hexic HD, which comes with every 360, was made by an internal studio. Perhaps the most popular Arcade game, Uno, is made by Carbonated Games - a name for Microsoft's internal casual games studio.

[drakkarim]

oooh, i guess Sony's penis is larger then Microsoft's...

[Demo_Boy]

"Some of our games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360"

Since he deliberately omits mention of the Wii, it is clear all of their EDI games focus on tilting the controller.

[Jack B]

Live Arcade games are not produced solely by 3rd party developers.
Hexic HD, which comes with every 360, was made by an internal studio. Perhaps the most popular Arcade game, Uno, is made by Carbonated Games - a name for Microsoft's internal casual games studio.

Glad someone mentioned Microsoft and Sony are developing Arcade titles.

It's impossible to really differentiate between Sony and Microsoft's arcade type offerings from the short article.

The lack of rumble in the PS3 controller and lack of tilt in the 360 controller give both consoles a "potential" for slightly different titles, but other than that this article doesn't give any specifics as to why they'd be different.

Since the base PS3 comes with a hard drive, they wouldn't necessarily be limited to the 50mb size restriction on 360 Live (my understanding was the limit is to help the non HD users of the 360). That may prove beneficial, although Microsoft has hinted they'll ease that 50mb limitation in the future.

As for the quality of titles. Microsoft has strict standards for integrating into Live and upgrading the quality of the graphics to HD. So far much of Sony's announcements have been about letting the developer decide, so we could see arcade titles without HD graphics or online support. It might help get them ported quicker, but in that case the quality might not be up to the same standards.

It could be good or bad depending.

[Kelegacy]

As critical of MS as I sometimes am, this is why competition in the industry is a good thing. Sony, the market leader by far, is trying to play catch-up with MS and Nintendo in terms of services and programs. I think this is great for everyone. MS forced Sony's hand this time around in many respects, but none of the big three are innocent from borrowing one anothers' ideas and implementing them somehow.

So, while we cry "Copycats!", it is without a doubt good for all of us that companies ARE indeed "copying" one another. Successes will lead to more and more ideas for the platforms in the future, and hopefully more risks.

[Siraris]

Glad someone mentioned Microsoft and Sony are developing Arcade titles.

It's impossible to really differentiate between Sony and Microsoft's arcade type offerings from the short article.

The lack of rumble in the PS3 controller and lack of tilt in the 360 controller give both consoles a "potential" for slightly different titles, but other than that this article doesn't give any specifics as to why they'd be different.

Since the base PS3 comes with a hard drive, they wouldn't necessarily be limited to the 50mb size restriction on 360 Live (my understanding was the limit is to help the non HD users of the 360). That may prove beneficial, although Microsoft has hinted they'll ease that 50mb limitation in the future.

As for the quality of titles. Microsoft has strict standards for integrating into Live and upgrading the quality of the graphics to HD. So far much of Sony's announcements have been about letting the developer decide, so we could see arcade titles without HD graphics or online support. It might help get them ported quicker, but in that case the quality might not be up to the same standards.

It could be good or bad depending.

Why is it that in every post you make, you have to look at the negative side of Sonys offering? You never say, "Sonys offering could be great, because ...." you just say "Sonys offering could be bad because....."

Just because Sony is giving control to the developers, doesn't mean that the games will suffer in quality. Sony has to approve every game that comes out for their console, which means that if the game doesn't live up to their standards, it won't make it out on the system.

[tombofsoldier]

More first party crap! WHOOOOOOO! Why in the name of sanity are they trying to compete with Live Arcade by making everything first party? I thought the entire point of Live Arcade was that small 3rd party developers could create original game.

[Kamalot]

Why is it that in every post you make, you have to look at the negative side of Sonys offering? You never say, "Sonys offering could be great, because ...." you just say "Sonys offering could be bad because....."Sony has killed the optimist in me with the PSP.

[Jack B]

Why is it that in every post you make, you have to look at the negative side of Sonys offering? You never say, "Sonys offering could be great, because ...." you just say "Sonys offering could be bad because....."

Just because Sony is giving control to the developers, doesn't mean that the games will suffer in quality. Sony has to approve every game that comes out for their console, which means that if the game doesn't live up to their standards, it won't make it out on the system.

That's not true at all. I believe I was balanced and realistic. I did not say Sony's arcade service wouldn't be good. Re-read the entire post.

I'll say it again. Sony does not have the 50mb requirement, which I stated would give them an ability to make potentially better arcade games. I believe Microsoft should do the same thing. This is a positive for Sony's online service.

I also, didn't mention the Sony name, which others have commented on. I'm not concerned about the name, I'm sure they'll come up with something better by launch. If I was trying to find fault with Sony, I would have mentioned the name and left out the 50mb advantage.

Siraris, you're trying to stir up trouble. I believe my post was balanced.

[Kefkataran]

That's the common viewpoint I would imagine. It's a shame that even Halo never managed to achieve any degree of popularity.

There's that, and probably a few other examples of where Microsoft's first-party titles have been extremely successful and maybe even pretty good games (although I'd argue quite the opposite with Halo). Overall, though, in comparison with Sony, I feel like their first-party efforts have been less good. In general, I guess.

[Wyrm]

Why is it that in every post you make, you have to look at the negative side of Sonys offering? You never say, "Sonys offering could be great, because ...." you just say "Sonys offering could be bad because....."

Just because Sony is giving control to the developers, doesn't mean that the games will suffer in quality. Sony has to approve every game that comes out for their console, which means that if the game doesn't live up to their standards, it won't make it out on the system.

Just because someone disagrees with you does not make them a Sony Hater.

90% of your posts are either pro-sony, or anti-whoever isnt pro-sony. You know what that smells like to me? Fan boy.

[GunnyMo]

It really exists!

http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/1039/1557298001275438741_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/viewimage?imageID=1557298001275438741)

You are my new hero, Vandenh. :D

[kickmybum]

Didn't Sony say that their online service was free? But this article said it sounds like it will be subscription based.

[Serapth]

You are my new hero, Vandenh. :D


Why, because the two of you share the same favorite movie? ;)

[Siraris]

Just because someone disagrees with you does not make them a Sony Hater.

90% of your posts are either pro-sony, or anti-whoever isnt pro-sony. You know what that smells like to me? Fan boy.

90% of my posts are pro Sony because I only post in Sony threads. There are very few Wii threads in the news, and I don't follow the 360 much.

And I am not anti-whoever isn't pro-sony at all, everyone is entitled to their opinion, I only have qualms with people who are negative towards Sony without justification or who post falcities.

I just re-read Jacks thread, and it was actually very un-biased. I apologize Jack, I obviously misread what you said originally.

[Jack B]

I just re-read Jacks thread, and it was actually very un-biased. I apologize Jack, I obviously misread what you said originally.

No problem. I don't mind in the least having you look for an unbalanced post from me. It's the best part of Evil Avatar. The challenges are what separates EA from the forums on many other sites... It's harder to get away with things on these forums.

Keeps me on my toes. :)

[DeadScreenSky]

There's that, and probably a few other examples of where Microsoft's first-party titles have been extremely successful and maybe even pretty good games (although I'd argue quite the opposite with Halo). Overall, though, in comparison with Sony, I feel like their first-party efforts have been less good. In general, I guess.
I can agree with the general sentiment that personal taste is king, though I feel the opposite way. I'll take Halo, Crimson Skies, Forza, Amped 2, Phantom Dust, etc. over Jak, Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, etc. (especially since a lot of my favorite Sony published games are second party, like Ratchet & Clank). But your original statement was a little crazy, IMO - MS's first party games on the PC and consoles are widely popular even if you don't happen to like them, so generalizing that it's a good thing that they aren't devoting first party attention to XBLA is silly. (And this is disregarding the fact that it just isn't even true, as other people have pointed out.) Both Sony and Microsoft develop gigantically successful games, with Sony probably being ahead in numbers simply because they are a console generation older than MS.

[Kefkataran]

I can agree with the general sentiment that personal taste is king, though I feel the opposite way. I'll take Halo, Crimson Skies, Forza, Amped 2, Phantom Dust, etc. over Jak, Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, etc. (especially since a lot of my favorite Sony published games are second party, like Ratchet & Clank).

I guess when I said Sony first-party, I was including Sony-published second-party games under that too. I'm a little unclear on the difference between first and second-party titles. If Ratchet and Clank counts as second-party, wouldn't Halo and Rare titles count as second-party, Microsoft published as well? Blargle.

Also, Sony no long has Crash, does it? I thought a different dev made the most recent Crash titles, and didn't one even go to Gamecube? I'm feeling all confused now. Either way, when I talked about Sony stuff, what I had in mind was God of War, Ratchet and Clank, etc.

But your original statement was a little crazy, IMO - MS's first party games on the PC and consoles are widely popular even if you don't happen to like them, so generalizing that it's a good thing that they aren't devoting first party attention to XBLA is silly.

I didn't really say it's a good thing they aren't devoting attention to it, I just said it doesn't really bug me. I'm down with some of Microsoft's published titles, just less than with Sony and more that I dislike or am unimpressed by.

[Serapth]

I think second party just means published by the first party ( and thus obviously exclusive ). For example, PGR is a 2nd party title, but Bizarre can still work on other games for other systems.

[Kefkataran]

I think second party just means published by the first party ( and thus obviously exclusive ). For example, PGR is a 2nd party title, but Bizarre can still work on other games for other systems.

Yeah, so that would make stuff like Halo second-party, right?

[Chalex]

Yeah, so that would make stuff like Halo second-party, right?Bungie is fully owned by MS therefore making it a first party studio (ditto for Rare).

[Serapth]

Yeah, what he said.

Heres a perfect example for getting it clear in your mind.

Up until recently, Lionhead was a second party studio of Microsoft. Now that Microsoft bought them, they are a first party studio... oddly enough, even if they continue to release games for the PC. 1st party is defined by ownership, 2nd party is defined by publishing/financing agreements and 3rd party is basically all the free agents out there.

[DeadScreenSky]

I guess when I said Sony first-party, I was including Sony-published second-party games under that too. I'm a little unclear on the difference between first and second-party titles. If Ratchet and Clank counts as second-party, wouldn't Halo and Rare titles count as second-party, Microsoft published as well? Blargle.
Others explained this fairly well IMO, it all boils down to company ownership. Bungie and Rare are owned by MS, Naughty Dog is owned by Sony, Insomniac isn't. But I think MS comes out even better if you count second party. Then you include the Rallisport Challenge series, Bioware's console titles, PGR series, Kingdom Under Fire, Outrun2, Fable, Rise of Nations/Legends, and a huge number of other titles (I'm pretty sure they published a couple of Team Ninja's titles in the West). IMO MS makes far heavier use of second parties than Sony does, presumably because they are newer to the whole console manufacturing job. We've seen a lot more MS developer purchases for the X360.

Also, Sony no long has Crash, does it? I thought a different dev made the most recent Crash titles, and didn't one even go to Gamecube? I'm feeling all confused now. Either way, when I talked about Sony stuff, what I had in mind was God of War, Ratchet and Clank, etc.
Yeah, Vivendi Universal bought Crash. I was referring to the PS1 games (back when the series was successful :D).

I didn't really say it's a good thing they aren't devoting attention to it, I just said it doesn't really bug me. I'm down with some of Microsoft's published titles, just less than with Sony and more that I dislike or am unimpressed by.
"Less than disappointed" seems to mean something like "happy/pleased" to me, but I'll admit maybe I inferred too much...

[Zechs01]

I thought their Online Service was called "HUB", because i got an email from Playstation saying thats what it was.

[Kefkataran]

Bungie is fully owned by MS therefore making it a first party studio (ditto for Rare).

Argh. Yeah, I got it. It's just confusing because I don't have a good grasp on who's owned and who isn't. Whatever. Second party, first party, same deal.


"Less than disappointed" seems to mean something like "happy/pleased" to me, but I'll admit maybe I inferred too much...

You did. I meant not disappointed at all.

[Evil Avnovice]

Unless Sony's going to do something better that Microsoft hasn't corrected or thought of, I'm still waiting for them to throw their hands up in disgust after awhile and blatanly rip off Geometry Wars and a few of 360 Live's key features.

And I wouldn't be surprised if someone over yonder wanted to push something on us that was costlier than some of the recent downloadable content at 360 Live Marketplace and not as feature-laden.

[Eran Hawke]

Has anyone ever noticed that Sony keeps trying to make 'killer' devices and services? Ipod kiler, Live killer, itunes killer, tilt-controller, MP3 killer (Aatrac) etc.

It seems to me that rather than doing something new, they wait for someone else to innovate and then try to swoop in with their own version, expecting everyone to hop on board.

Sony is a follower.

[mister_slim]

Has anyone ever noticed that Sony keeps trying to make 'killer' devices and services? Ipod kiler, Live killer, itunes killer, tilt-controller, MP3 killer (Aatrac) etc.

It seems to me that rather than doing something new, they wait for someone else to innovate and then try to swoop in with their own version, expecting everyone to hop on board.

Sony is a follower.
And they copied that business model from Microsoft, too.