Why Quantic Dream chose PS3 for Beyond

“It’ll be years before PlayStation 4 has that audience,” says Cage.

Quantic Dream’s founder and CEO David Cage has explained why the company pushed to see its latest title, Beyond: Two Souls, released on PlayStation 3 rather than the new PlayStation 4.

“We had this discussion with Sony at some point about should we release this game on PlayStation 4, or should we release it on PlayStation 3, and our position has always been that we want to be on PlayStation 3, because we think it’s a very exciting moment for the console as it has the bigger install base,” he told VG247.

“It’ll be years before PlayStation 4 has that audience. In this type of experience, we want as wide a market as possible because you want to talk to the mass market, and not necessarily the early adopters of the new console. We also did the same thing with Fahrenheit on PlayStation 2, and we thought it was the right decision.”

Beyond: Two Souls is due for release this month, and features Hollywood stars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. It reportedly cost £17 million to produce.

 

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Michael Denny Explains Why PS4 Games From Naughty Dog, Media Molecule & Naughty Dog Weren’t at gamescom

While Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, may get the most attention from that particular division of Sony, there’s also Michael Denny, Senior Vice President of Sony Worldwide Studios Europe, who chatted with PlayStation Access at gamescom.

Denny has previously talked about how there’s over 50 external developers as part of WWS, with all first-party developers making PS4 games, but some of those developers – Sony Santa Monica, Media Molecule, Naughty Dog – were absent from gamescom, something Michael explained:

We didn’t announce their titles, as you know. The reality is we’ve announced a lot of AAA blockbusters from first-party and third-party. I think the teams you talk about there, you will have noticed they’ve done some quite big games on PlayStation 3 recently, yeah? So, hence why their PlayStation 4 debuts will come a little later.

So it was that chance to look at  the other side of what PlayStation 4 can offer as well with some of those smaller, innovative titles as well.

The PlayStation 4 launches on November 15th in the USA and Canada, with many other countries getting it on November 29th.

 

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Cerny: 3 or 4 years before devs will get the best out of PS4

The PS4 lead architect says console’s GPU customisation will offer more performance

PlayStation 4’s lead architect has suggested that it could be a few years before we see developers really making the most of the consoles technical abilities, and revealed the PS4 has ten times the power of its predecessor.

“We set our target at 10 times the PlayStation 3’s performance, because that’s what we felt we needed to achieve in order to differentiate the titles,” Mark Cerny told Polygon.

“I believe we are at that level of performance. I mean, the million pre-orders we have is, I think, speaking to that.”

During its PS4 reveal Sony was keen to point out that conversations with developers had played a significant role in the design of the machine with the aim of making it easier to develop for than previous Sony consoles.

“It’s a supercharged PC architecture, so you can use it as if it were a PC with unified memory,” he added.

“Much of what we’re seeing with the launch titles is that usage; it’s very, very quick to get up to speed if that’s how you use it. But at the same time, then you’re not taking advantage of all the customisation that we did in the GPU. I think that really will play into the graphical quality and the level of interaction in the worlds in, say, year three or year four of the console.”

 

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PlayStation Plus subs to generate $1.2 billion for Sony by 2017

Placing multiplayer gaming behind a paywall on PlayStation 4 will level playing field, says research firm

Sony’s decision to place multiplayer gaming behind the PlayStation Plus paywall on PS4 will help the company generate subscriptions worth $1.2 billion annually by 2017.

That’s according to research firm IHS Electronics and Media, which estimates that the console manufacturer only managed $140 million from PS Plus subs in 2012.

The decision to charge for multiplayer gaming will finally put Sony’s service on a level playing field with Microsoft’s Xbox Live Gold, which in 2012 generated $1.25 billion on subscriptions according to IHS.

Sony hasn’t charged for multiplayer gaming on the PlayStation 3, leaving significant cash on the table. Microsoft has been charging a subscription for Xbox Live since 2002 and has made $4.7 billion through subscriptions during that time.

“IHS believes that lower research and development costs for PlayStation 4 hardware, additional revenue streams from online service subscriptions and a more aggressive transition to higher margin digital content sales are combining to strengthen Sony’s games business outlook even in the face of increased competition from cheap Android consoles and alternative devices eating into consumers’ gaming time, including smartphones and tablets,” suggested the research firm.

 

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Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Coming to PS4 and PS Vita in 2014?

Back when Hotline Miami 2 was originally announced, Devolver Digital didn’t mention if it would be coming to PlayStation platforms of any kind, despite the first Hotline Miami coming to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita very recently.

In an update to the description of the Hotline Miami 2 teaser trailer that was posted back in June (via NeoGaf), it says that the bloody sequel is “coming to PlayStation 4, Vita, PC, Mac, and Linux in 2014.”

We’ve reached out to Devolver Digital to confirm this news, but here’s that teaser trailer and the game’s description in the meantime:

A brutal conclusion to the gruesome saga, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number follows the escalating level of violence through multiple factions born from the events of the original game and driven by uncertain motivations. Step into the murderous mind of several distinct characters – each with their own motivations and methods of execution — as storylines intersect and reality slips away into a haze of neon and carnage. Blistering combat, an unmistakable visual style, and a powerfully intense soundtrack will once again push you to the limit and questioning your own thirst for blood.

 

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