It’s no secret that the PS3 is pricey to develop for — the average dev kit would set you back a cool $10k — and that likely hinders a lot of devs from making games for it. However, Sony has decided to take action. Edge Online reports that the new DECR-1400A debugging Reference Tool retails for about $2000 in North America, marking a significantly more affordable way to develop for everyone’s favorite console-turned-George Foreman Grill.
Sony commented on the new tool:
“Having the same form factor as the commercially available PS3, the new Reference Tool models allow advanced game programming and more efficient computer graphics rendering.”
Interesting. It makes one wonder, though, why the original options were so much more expensive in the first place. I assume they allow one to do much more. Does this mean the games we see made with the DECR-1400A will be of lesser quality? Sony is also talking about an optimised PS3 compiler and a new range of software tools. This could really result in more of the types of games that most fascinated me on the PS2, which is an exciting prospect indeed.
[Thanks, Brian]
