UK development community talks PS3 launch

Following the finalisation of the PS3's European launch details, those members of the UK development community who haven't been gagged by non-disclosure agreement's have offered GamesIndustry.biz their thoughts on Sony's new console.

While the initial delay of the system in Europe came as a blow to those expecting a worldwide release, Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson believes the five month gap between US and Euro launches will benefit consumers.

"I'm excited by the amount of quality in the launch titles for Europe, and the five month delay has certainly helped from that perspective," offered the Football Manager boss.

With European consumers able to get their hands on big name titles such as MotorStorm and Virtua Fighter 5 during the console's launch window, the games will help sell the machine to early adopters undeterred by the GBP 425 asking price.

"Cost could become an issue later on in the cycle, and a good online system will be important, but for early adopters, it'll be all about the games," said Jacobson.

Performance and price may have been under the microscope since Sony first announced the PlayStation 3, but once developers have gotten hands-on with the machine, they're more than happy with the results.

"It's not been the smoothest of run-ups to launch so far but the technology, once you get to grips with it, is fantastic," revealed Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion.

"Most first generation games will have developers just getting things running well enough to satisfy Sony. In my opinion its the second wave of PS3 games that will begin to tap into its power," he added.

Kingsley isn't the only development veteran confident his studio can do justice to the Cell architecture.

"Largely speaking, we've had little problem adopting to the PlayStation 3," commented Martyn Brown, studio director at Team 17.

"Then again, it would be foolhardy to assume we are 'bashing the metal' on the hardware with Lemmings as much as something like Heavenly Sword or MotorStorm."

Brown revealed that rumours that the Cell architecture would lead to programming difficulties were unfounded.

"There was a lot of rumour-mongering prior to the PS3 development hardware arriving that it would require huge teams and untold complexities," he said.

"There's certain elements of that which ring true, but only for titles that are wildly ambitious in terms of range and content detail, but as for day-to-day development, we've more or less taken it in our stride," he said.