Sony buys SN Systems; signs key middleware products for PS3

British company SN Systems, the world leader in development tools for videogames platforms, has been acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of a drive to sign up key development tools for the PS3 platform.

Bristol-based SN is the creator of the ProDG tool, which will now become a core part of the PlayStation 3 Software Development Kit, along with many of SN's other tools such as its compiler, linker and IDE.

"It's a great pleasure to have SN Systems on board PlayStation," according to SCE's CTO, Masa Chatani. "For more than ten years, they have pioneered the development of great tools for PlayStation content creation. By combining our experience and skills together, PlayStation will have even more sophisticated tools to deliver to content creators around the world."

The announcement came as Sony revealed a raft of other middleware deals, which sees it signing strategic licensing agreements with key engine and middleware providers Epic Games, Havok and Ageia.

The deal with Epic will see the Unreal Engine 3 evaluation version being shipped with the PlayStation 3 SDK, with frontline support to be supplied by SCE, and SCE being granted sub-licensing rights for the engine.

A similar deal has been signed with both Ageia and Havok, who are providers of highly advanced physics middleware; both of their evaluation kits will ship directly with the PS3 SDK.

The various deals will provide serious strength to the PS3's arsenal of development tools - with the company determined not to repeat the mistakes made with PlayStation 2, which was seen as being incredibly tough to develop for when it first arrived.

Microsoft has repeatedly lambasted Sony's platforms for being difficult to develop for in comparison with the Xbox platforms - a charge which the provision of a strong middleware line-up from the word go will go a long way towards answering.