Thursday, June 29, 2006

´Theseis´ cancellation misrepresented?



News that game developer Track7Games has cancelled a PS3 title because of spiralling development costs were misrepresented, says the development studio.

Originally, PS3Land.com reported the following story yesterday:
Track7 Games has contacted PS3Land to inform us that Theseis for PlayStation 3 has been cancelled.

The developer blames the problem on the exceptionally high cost of developing for PS3.

For now, the game will only be released on Xbox 360 and PC.

"If Sony were to offer us assistance in producing a PS3 version we would be more than happy to oblige!" said Vicky Valanos, Managing Director.

I asked the studio for confirmation of this story. Vicky Valanos just mailed me this reply:
track7games would like to respond to the erroneous article that appeared this morning June 29, 2006 on PS3land.com

track7games would like to clarify that they never cancelled something that did not exist in the first place. We plan to develop “Theseis” for PC and Xbox360 in the near future. As for the PS3, we simply made a strategic decision to not move ahead because we deemed it not probable at this time. We are however, open to discussions to develop “Theseis” on all next gen consoles.




In my personal opinion, the studio´s reply is hardly a rebuttal. If anything, they claim that the game was not already in development for the PS3. However, a decision was made not to develop it for that platform. And the budget could very well have been the deciding factor.

Deeming development ´not probable´ and being ´open to discussions´ about PS3 development really seems to hint at financial disagreements. What other discussions are there in this field? They wouldn´t want to complain about the SDK´s colour, would they?

So, after all, this could be a first confirmed case of third party support for the PS3 slipping due to higher development costs.

Sources: PS3Land.com, Track7Games
Thanks to: Joystiq

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whats up with all those interviews you promised?

Falafelkid said...

I am working on it, but I have very little time right now. It could well be that they will have to wait for another few weeks, I am afraid. I will also have to seek permission from my boss before I can upload the footage to YouTube or Google Video. However, I should be able to transcribe sound bytes very soon, just so you don´t have to wait too long ;)

Anonymous said...

:-)

I'm really hiped for those interviews, you promised a lot^^

Anonymous said...

I'm actually surprised people are jumping ship to the 360/Wii/PC rather than the PS3. It's a (supposedly) phenomenally powerful piece of hardware, and I'd assume most companies would be prepared to spend some more cash to make their games apparently better with the Cell chip. However, it could be that the Cell isn't as powerful as Sony boasted it would be back in E3'05, and that spending so much money to develop a game on a console that may only be a little more powerful than the 360, which is much cheaper to develop for, as well as the PC.

Anonymous said...

I don't know which is worse, that the dev cancelled development becuase it got too expensive or that it never even started development because it was too expensive. There is not positive side to this for Sony.

Anonymous said...

"It's a (supposedly) phenomenally powerful piece of hardware"

and sony something similar about the ps2, that should clue you in.

Anonymous said...

LOLZ!!

Metaldave said...

This is a busy time for a lot of people, but its to have you back after 11 days between posts.

Anonymous said...

hi!

so, if anyone thinks a secret is hidden under the frontflap, think again! finnaly, heres the proof that there is nothing special behind it:

http://pix.nofrag.com/9a/07/
d7464ad8137c4dbad56649fc63b1.jpg

the sync button is for syncing the controllers, and a sd card slot. no projector and other stupid ideas...

Anonymous said...

to : 9:17 AM Anonymous

Ps3 too pricey. Cell is powerful. not as much as sony boasted but it still powerful than other.

But playing don't need powerful. except it have some point on gameplay.

Actually. We never have most powerfull console that win any console war.

Why ?
Answer is price. try think this. you have $600

You may buy a $600 for a console.
or
Pay $200 for a console and 8*$50 for games.

"no-one" will buy ps3 and it's games for years or until it can reduce price $3-400 is a limited for a console.

After make game for ps3 but it's can't sell. It's will just port. and nomore cash for expensive to make - non profitable console.

Anonymous said...

well said...I think.

Anonymous said...

*****IALS BLESSINGS*****


-----------------------------------
GUESS-ITS-THE-IALS-BLESS-MESS-CESS
-----------------------------------


To all Wii-Trife-life-coevals in the everyday struggle:


feel good and dream on!
Dream on and on:


Wii games will (not) simply look like GameCube titles using a unique control method. Nintendo already told us that the hardware being used at E3 was not finalized. Moreover, during the show GameDaily BIZ met with ATI, which is providing the "Hollywood" GPU for the Wii, and John Swinimer, Senior Public Relations Manager of Consumer Products, emphasized that the Wii architecture is capable of producing far better results than what we've witnessed thus far. "I think what you saw [on Wii] was just the tip of the iceberg of what the Hollywood chip can bring to the Nintendo Wii," he said.




§§§§§§§§§§

THE INFAMOUS ANONYMOUS LIGHT SHEDDER

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or is the Dream Team scenario being played again.

This time, it seems for different reasons. Nintendo lost its developers due to difficulty of programming, Sony might lose its because of hefty pricing.

There are a lot of factors to consider, and for a while, I was with the Sony-must-and-will-die bandwagon. However, after reading up on Kojima's recent interview, this may seem like a natural progression for a business that has expanded to such an extent.

Again, is Sony losing its mass market appeal, I do not know, but one thing's for sure, they aren't aiming for the same consumer. Will this work? I've seen crazier things happen. Like gravity, and the 11th dimension. Again, similar to M-theory, I hope this works out for Sony.

-darkforce567

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but you have to consider, what is the processing power actually being used for, considering the huge budget? I agree with darkforce567 in that less developers will develop for the PS3.

I agree with Bozon's, from IGN, blog that the graphical leap thus far isn't anything special. I also envision the case of a group of games, early on in the PS3's lifetime, that will use it appropriately utilize that massive beast. A case of single hit wonders, somewhat like Halo. Kinda like a more successful N64.

All in all, I think that the developers are still too scared to completely leave Sony out of this equation and are still waiting and holding on to a last bit of hope that they can find a way to develop for it. Until someone like SquareEnix or Konami stops supporting the PS3, Sony's in pretty good shape.

-cabman

Anonymous said...

***IALS WRATH OF THE MATH LESSON***



PS3 = lacking

Wii = lacking

Wii + PS3 = Next Generation



-IALS

Anonymous said...

and another question,

15. IS FALAFELKID STILL UNDER NDA?

-FlyingSquirrl

Anonymous said...

****THE QUESTION REMAINS VOL.2****




16.NINTENDO REFUSED TO SHOW SCREENSHOTS AT E3.WHY?



17.WAS IT DUE TO THE UNFINISHED STATE OF THE SOFTWARE?



18.WHY DIDNT NINTENDO PROVIDE DEVS WITH BETA KITS EARLIER THAN SHORTLY
BEFORE E3?




19.ONLY BECAUSE THEY WANTED THEM TO
COME TO TERMS WITH THE Wii MOTE AND THE HIGH LEARNING CURVE INVOLVED?



20.IS NINTENDO ONLY STRIVING FOR SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT SIMILIAR TO GBA COMPARED
TO DS?



21.WAS THE HARDWARE STILL BEING WORKED ON AND NOT FINALISED AT E3?



22.DID FALAFELKID EVER CONTACT ATI FOR CLARIFICATION?



23.ARE THERE ANY VISIBLE DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN Wii GAMES AND GAMECUBE GAMES



24.IS NINTENDO TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE ON US BY SELLING US A GAMECUBE
WITH A NEW CONTROLLER?



25.WOULDNT THAT BE EVEN MORE REDICULOUS THAN THE PS3 500$ PRICE?



26.IS IT CLEAR TO NINTENDO THAT THEY COULD STEAL A LOT OF PS3s THUNDER BY
MAKING Wii AS POWERFUL AS ITS SUPPOSED TO BE?





AND THE ULTIMATE AND FINAL QUESTION:



***********************************

DOES NINTENDOS DESTINY LIE IN THE HANDS OF HOLLYWOOD,ATI AND THE BRAINS BEHIND IT,AS THE FUTURE UNFOLDS?????????????????

***********************************





------------------------------------
YOU CAN NEVER ESCAPE YOUR FAITH
------------------------------------







____________________________________

THE INFAMOUS ANONYMOUS LIGHT SHEDDER
____________________________________

Anonymous said...

27. WHY DID FALAFELKID SAY THAT THE RED STEEL SCREENSHOTS WERE 'TENTATIVE ONLY'?

"Since GI took the liberty of publishing the story already (ahead of the arranged embargo, as far as I know), allow me to point out that what you see in those scans are ´tentative screenshots´ if you will. I can´t go into detail, but it´s not certain that we´ll end up with those graphics precisely. Then again, ´Red Steel´ will shine by gameplay merit alone. Trust me."

-FlyingSquirrl

Anonymous said...

@flyingsquirrl

They used target screens made with PCs
to give us an idea of how it could/ should look because they hadnt received final kits from Nintendo.
In fact its quite strange that it took Nintendo so long to provide them with proper kits.
It makes me wonder if it was due to the development of the controller.
Maybe it took more time than was calculated!

-IALS

Anonymous said...

For question #10, I assume that question is in reference to the quote:

ATI's John Swinimer, said in an interview that "I think what you saw [on Wii] was just the tip of the iceberg of what the Hollywood chip can bring to the Nintendo Wii."

Remember that an iceberg only is 10% above water; hidden below the water's surface is 90%. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceberg)

-FlyingSquirrl

Anonymous said...

If the Software Side of Graphics is Complete, what could be done from the Hardware Side?

Let's think about this for a second. What systematic techniques exist for improving graphics without additional programmer/graphics designer hours? We're already being shown screenshots and video of Wii games. How could the graphics improve without any more work?

The only two techniques that I can think of that could be applied to existing games (without changing graphics data) are

- "nurbs" (use existing vertex information to make smooth curves) and,
= some form of 3D (use the existing Z-buffer information to make something fully 3D).

Is it true these techniques could be done automatically in hardware? Are there any others?

Anonymous said...

-FlyingSquirrl (forgot to sign post)

Alfonso said...

What happened to cubed3.com ?

Anonymous said...

As much as I would like them to use something like nurbs I dont think its going to happen.
Since Wii games at E3 were merly on the same level as Gamecube it leads me to the conclusion that Devs are just starting to recieve final hardware and
are busy rightnow improving the engines they got cause everything else would be unacceptable.
I think modern timely graphics and technology need to be taken for granted.Its a natural evolution.Theres no need to deny it.
People want to be entertained with magnifiscent,thrilling,vivid worlds.
You have to deliver in that sector nowadays if you want to compete no way around it.Theres certainly more room for innovation and improvement
as Nintendo has prooved but sacrificing one aspect for the other
is almost like shooting oneself in the foot.Again modern technonlogy is something that should be taking for
granted nowadays you cant forgo it if you want to compete and survive.
Its common sense its what the majority of people accept.If Nintendo doesnt come to terms with it I guess theres no room for them anymore.


-IALS

Anonymous said...

should be taken

Anonymous said...

"It's a (supposedly) phenomenally powerful piece of hardware"

So is a cluster of 10 computers. The problem is to develop for it. To have full use of all the processing power in a PS3 you'd need to program in multiple threads, and if I'm not mistaken horribly, it's alot harder to make everything to run smoothly in 7 threads than in just 1. The thing is that it probably takes alot of energy, time, sweat, blood and tears to squeeze out all the processing potential from a 7-cored CPU.
As John Carmack said in a G4TV-interview; with equal amounts of development-time a game made for the 360-platform would be very identical as the same game made for the PS3. But all in all the PS3 has alot more of power than the 360.

But I think that the reasons behind the fact that Nintendo haven't given out finalized Dev-kits yet is the fact that I think that the Wii will be more or less an overclocked Gamecube. Using the same architecture CPU and a similar graphics-processor as the good 'ol Cube. I base this almost solely on the fact that it will be able to play gamecube games, which in my book means that either it emulates the GC or has the hardware from a GC in it. And if I'm not totally barking up the wrong tree, for a system to accurately emulate another processor you'll need a much more powerful processor in order to emulate the less powerful one. And since the Wii supposedly is around 3-4 times faster than the Gamecube, I can't see that the Wii would be able to emulate the GC in full speed if the architectures of the processors aren't very (or even the same) between the systems.

And if I'm totally spewing crap out of my mouth, just disregard my comment (because these are my own theories that I've thought of with my rather limited knowledge of programming).

// Jannibal

Anonymous said...

is it just me, or does it seem that the day of "exclusive" releases are over?
ps2 had a lower price point, was easier to develop for, AND had a bunch of exclusive games... but i think with all the similarities between 360 and ps3 that most games will end up cross-platform. just seems like 360 is taking the stance that they can take any port of any ps3 game and display it almost just as well...
i think ps3 will see very very few exclusives this round, especially if sony can't fulfill their promise of "6 million ps3s sold (before march 31st '07)"
i believe they're not even going to get CLOSE. not even close. they'll be lucky to sell 1 million of these things... and mgs4 will be lucky to sell to even as much as HALF that audience.
i doubt kojima has put so much time and effort into mgs4 to have it disappear after selling less than 1mil copies, only for late ps3 adopters to simply "wait for mgs5". that's probably not part of his plan ;)
we'll see... but i just somehow foresee the ps3 launch looking very similar to 360s if they do it this christmas... and if they delay the launch again? that'd be just awesome :)

-"superfan" tactics.

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