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EA LA Describes "Exotic, Tough" PS3 Hardware

Kris Graft's picture

By Kris Graft

July 28, 2008

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PS3 hit the market over a year ago, but it remains a challenge for some devs.

EA LA has explained why it decided to cancel the PS3 version of the highly-anticipated real-time Xbox 360 and PC strategy game, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3.

EA LA producer Amer Ajami explained to Videogamer.com at a recent press event that the PS3 is "very exotic and tough to develop for."

Ajami continued, "We actually announced a PS3 version early on but that was when we were still doing a lot of technical exploration of the architecture. PS3 is a very powerful system but as you guys know, it's very exotic and tough to develop for and our engine really at the time wasn't designed for PS3."

EA said last month that the PS3 version of the game was "on hold."

Ajami brought up the possibility that EA LA could return to the PS3 sometime in the future, although nothing is confirmed.

German's picture
On July 29th German said:

I completely agree with Johnny... and Pug, its easy to say that MGS4 is probe of what can be done on the PS3, but that is MGS4 we are talking about, a title that is sure to sell millions of copies and can justify the extremely high R&D cause it probably cost easily over 30 millions dollars to make. On the case of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 as much as I like the game, is in no way in the same league as MGS4 and its budget is much smaller.

They already got the 360 and PC version up and running with their engine so they can get their investment back and making a PS3 is just not feasible, PLUS what rydamgw and fautsch seem to forget is that the decision to cancel a title does not rest with the developing team of EA LA but with the suits and top management at EA. They could do the game for sure but they told management they will need more PE$O$ to get it done so EA took the strategic decision to pass on the PS3 version, simple as that.

fautsch's picture
On July 30th fautsch said:

I agree with you too German, MGS4 and C&C are not in the same league, neither are their developers, that's the point. In my humble opinion I think Sony (from what I've heard) gives more support to 3rd parties than any other company, I read somewhere that they even send a group of consultants to your shop if you need them and Sony gets on board with your project. Devs like EA like the quick buck, they wouldn't spend a dime on new frameworks or engines until they have proven install bases even as (I just read) they're banging themselves on the wall for not anticipating Wii's success, my point is, it's not the money spend as much as the vision, and I rather have vision. The more you invest intellectually and economically, the better the product, the bigger the success, the bigger the fanbase. simple.

Pug's picture
On July 29th Pug said:

I agree with Johnny... Sony needs to do a better job of supporting devs and providing them with the tools to develop for the PS3.

Developers make games to earn money, not just to keep the gaming community happy... if it is going to take more effort than it is worth in terms of sales to make a game on a given platform, then it is going to get dropped...

The PS3 may be a fantastic piece of kit, but if you won't help devs work out how to use it, then you won't get games on your console... wake up sony!

fautsch's picture
On July 29th fautsch said:

I think MGS4 proved what developers can do with the PS3, the more developers spend time with the ps3 as with the ps2 the line up will get better and better. If EA thinks it's hard to develop for a good architecture such as the ps3 then they should be writing games in actionscript (flash) lol.

Johnny_Barnstorm's picture
On July 28th Johnny_Barnstorm said:

rydamgw, excellent analysis. Wait, no. It wasn't. I think that EA needs to bite the bullet and get a comprehensive engine capable of using the PS3 built, but with that game, in that timeframe, most likely the cost of custom-building a workable PS3 engine was not going to meet the required sales to justify it.

It's not their job to make games for every system out there. They want to make games, sure, but they also have to make sure that the cost to income ratio is balanced. Evidently working with the PS3 for this smaller title would have required too much in the way of r&d.

Sony needs to do a better job of providing good tools to developers that want to use their system, though.

rydamgw's picture
On July 28th rydamgw said:

Well EALA should just suck it up and make the game i mean wut kinda of game developers are u guys that excuse is ridiculous its to hard come on take the time make the game and learn the architecture or give it to some other EA team who knows how to make the game Im astonished at how lame these ppl are its to hard how bout do yur damn job how bout that