Platinum soothes Bayonetta PS3 worries
Console quirks to blame, says Minami.
PlatinumGames boss Tatsuya Minami has attempted to ease fears that the PS3 version of Bayonetta won't match up.
Writing on PlatinumGames' website, he put eventual differences between PS3 and Xbox 360 down to console "peculiarities", and said demos of both versions will do the talking at the Tokyo Game Show next week.
"With Bayonetta, we created the Xbox 360 version of the game first, and then handed off all the data and other assets to SEGA so they could begin the process of porting Bayonetta to the PS3, giving them advice regarding the porting process along the way and overseeing the progress to ensure that the PS3 version would be the best it could be," wrote Minami.
"The goal was to release the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions to gamers day and date, and even though there have been trials and tribulations along the way, we are incredibly pleased to be able to present two playable versions of the game on the Tokyo Game Show floor."
Concerns arose after PlatinumGames showed the PS3 version for the first time in Japan last month. Eye-witnesses - like 1UP - reported a clear difference between console demos, calling the PS3 game "very blurry" with an unstable framerate.
"As the developers of Bayonetta, we have overseen both versions, and I would like to make one thing clear. The Xbox 360 and PS3, as hardware platforms, both have their own distinct differences and peculiarities, and these characteristics will naturally give birth to differences in the final product," Minami explained.
"However, all involved endeavoured to exploit the specific traits of each console to create an enjoyable experience. We feel the best way to evaluate this is by actually playing the game for yourself and coming to your own conclusions.
"Bringing Bayonetta to users of both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 is something we feel to be very important, and I feel passionately that we have fulfilled our responsibility in that regard," he added.
Bayonetta launches on PS3 and 360 in late October across Japan, although the West won't see the action game until early next year. And look good Bayonetta does, as recent media and hands-on impressions will testify.
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Comments (60) Latest comment 2 years ago
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The number of third-party devs who treat the PS3 with the respect it deserves (equal respect, IMO) is a shame. I count Infinity Ward, Criterion, Rocksteady and not much more.... Anyone else I should be thinking of?
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This game looks fantastic from the trailers btw.
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i'd have to disagree. performance issue on whatever console aside, bayonetta is easily among the worst character designs this gen.
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Or maybe Sony should treat the devs with some respect instead of saying they "made it hard" on purpose. If you build it (properly) they will come.
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Oh - never heard that one before. You must be really intelligent.
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Seems from what I hear that devs are keen to get their software working well on Xbox and then see the PS3 port as something else that has to be done but something that is not too important.
Am I wrong?
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Why do I then give a shit, you ask? Cos in this day and age, you're a fucking shit developer if you can't bring your PS3 version up to snuff with your 360 version!
I like Clover (Okami was great) but enough is enough! It's time to call a spade a spade! These guys are fucking shit and that's that! End of story!
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But, whatever console you own, I think we can all agree that this sounds more like 2007 standards of porting, not 2009! And that is not just unacceptable! It's an outrage!
These guys are Japanese too! Don't they even give a shit about the PS3? And they better not tell me it can't be done (other, better, devs than them have achieved cross-platform parity in their releases)!
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Given that it's supposed to be released next month, I really hope so...
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the 360 version WILL be the optimal version,
there will be NO benefit to getting the ps3 version aside from the controller,
and possibly there will be a mandatory install which will as usual bring no benefits to the table.
of course none of this means that it wont be a very good game on the ps3 and it will probably greatly outsell the 360 version in its native Japan. but if it irritates you greatly that you are not playing the game the with the same visual fidelity as the devs intended for it to have then you will have to get the 360 version as for me i know from dmc4 that for these style of games the 360 controller is not where its at and it could slightly impair my playing performance so i will get the ps3 version with its lamentable graphical weakness by comparison
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/not buying
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you clearly know fuck all about game development.
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if she winks like sarah, i might change my mind
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But really people! Stop making excuses! There is no such thing as uninterested developers! They ALL put AS MUCH LOVE AND EFFORT AS POSSIBLE in their work to get the most out of the CrapStation!
Your experience playing games like DMC4 or Batman was an illusion, forget about it!
Just accept the reality: the PS3 is shite!
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Genius.
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It's difficult to develop for, this has come straight from the horses mouth (Sony)
It's nothing to do with "lazy" or "shit" devs, Valve's stance is testament to that. Sony made the PS3 needlesly complex to develop for, accept it and get over it.
@cianchristopher
The devs you mentioned were probably heavily helped by Sony (above the normal level) - this shouldn't be a requirement to have equal performance across platforms.
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@Topkatt - give him an hour then we better call the police.
Edit: someone stole my ' key
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Or have you even considered that Clover is a small developer with limited resources where concentration on one Platform is all they can do at this point. If you do not have a huge team to devote to the PS3 or have 3 years to just get your engine up to snuff on the PS3 sometimes you have to make concessions. Have you considered that they may have their own custom engine and did not have the time or resources to spend developing for the PS3 since we all know that it does take a lot of time and resources to get a proper running PS3 engine working. Have you forgotten the trouble other developers have had with the PS3 in getting it up to speed. Even for big time developers, they have needed to devote entire teams to get the PS3 code in proper shape. For smaller developers you have do what you can and sometimes its best to have someone else handle the port if they have experience PS3 coders.
Last but not least, it always seem easy to blame the Developers but maybe you should think about putting some if not the majority of that blame on Sony. Piss poor support, crappy if not noexistant tools and library's to use and just plain disrespect for developers when giving them the tools they need to harness the power from their hardware which would reduce development time and give smaller developers a chance to put out a PS3 game without having to go through a bunch of crap.
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It always reads to me like Sony's primary concerns were to make a technically powerfull console and blu-ray machine first and foremost, with scant consideration given to the interpolation of it's software. You only have to look at Sony's problematic piece meal intergration of the PSN to see evidence of that.
I suppose Sony's problems stem from it's legacy of strictly being an electronics manufacturer, without the benifit of any software development experience to back it up. Maybe they'll get things right for PS4, and hopefully they'll do the right thing and farm out software development to a dedicated third party that knows what it's doing.
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+1. You saved me some typing.
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Today, the PS3 install base is smaller than the competition. The 360 came out a year ahead, is the lead system for the majority 3rd party developers. Its ease of use and support from MS is top notch.
So what you can take from this is that if you are not the first console out of the gate and you have a very complex development for the hardware, you best make it easy for developers to code for your platform. Coming out a year later than your competition with the most complex hardware to get the same performance as your competitor is not a smart move.
Piss poor support and resources is also not the best way to make developers happy.
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I agree that the PS3 is difficult to code for, and that Sony's development tools have been put to shame by MSs. But, in fairness, Valves stance is in no small part testament to a fat tosser called Gabe Newell's long standing ties with MS;
http://en.wi kipedia.org/wiki/Gabe_Newell
Surprising that an ex-Microsoft employee should be by far the most vocal decryer of the development process on the PS3 in the game development community. No, hold on, not surprising. Really fucking predictable.
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yea, generic it is....a woman clothed with her hair and also shoots angels with guns attached to her feet has been done over & over again.
Develpoers are such copycats
/sarcasm ends
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Me as a consumer and gamer I can see your point 100% but you can NOT blame the developers cauethey simply dont force you to buy their product. If you dont like the fact they look worst and they always will ( crossplatform ) in this gen since its been going that way for about 3-4 years, buy the damn titles for the 360 or dont pay for them. Or simply go buy them pretending you bought a console that was worth its money if you bought it before the slim/pricedrop, cause not only wasnt worth but also had less quality tittles and had and always will have worstcrossplatform. Wanna be mad at the developers? For all they care you dont buy their games till youget bored of not playing and buy it on the console you prefer. One way or the other you will end up paying for it if you like it.
To me this game still looks weird. Its the kind of game that takes a lot to get me interested. If its fun and needs some skill and not too gneric I miht as well buy it.
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Now, one of the versions is probably going to sell poorly as a result. Then again, maybe not.
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This Gen you see that Sony just put together hardware and throw it out their for the developers to figure out how to code for it. When big time engine developers like Epic says "WTF" they send in a team of IBM engineers to help them get their code up to snuff and thus we have a game like Batman which have few faults between the PS3 and 360.
The question to ask is how many developers get this type of support. If you are a small developer and you started your project 2 years ago, how much support did Sony provide. The situation is gamers do not know anything besides the little piece of information they read from sites like EG but they are quick to judge and even when they are found wrong they look for something else so they can feel justified in supporting their favorite platform.
Personally I wish people would stop trying to blame the developers all the time and understand there are a lot of things that go into the development of a game and it's not always the most obvious choice that is at fault when something goes wrong.
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The next level had you fighting on the walls and ceiling of a huge Chapel, all in all it was quite mental.
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So . . . you agree with Gabe Newell's criticisms ("I agree that the PS3 is difficult to code for, and that Sony's development tools have been put to shame by MSs"
You know what else is fucking predictable? An ex-Microsoft employee saying "2 plus 2 equals 4". Also, "the sun is hot" and "water is wet". Fucking predictable biased MS people, making accurate statements you agree with.
Do you realize how stupid that sounds?
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That was not Gabe Newell's criticism. He dismissed the hardware design altogether as useless, and used a far more arrogant tone.
If anything, all he accomplished was to feed the image of the "lazy developer".
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To quote the wikipedia article on the subject
Newell was once quoted as claiming that developing processes for the console in general was "a waste of everybody's time" and "a disaster on many levels ... I'd say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a do over. Just say, 'This was a horrible disaster and we're sorry and we're going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it'."
A bit overboard, no? Other developers could have come out in support of what he was saying. None did. Do I agree that the PS3 is difficult to code for? Yup. Do I agree with this whingy diatribe? Nooooooo!
So ultimately you didn't bother to have a look into what he said before forming an opinion on it. Pretty fucking predictable
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/Rolls eyes
Also, his 'arrogant' tone changes from interview to interview, article to article. Almost as if he was just getting sick and tired of answering the same question - "Why don't you support the PS3?" - over and over again.
He's obviously a massive MS fanboy seeing how Half Life saw console release on Dreamcast (it was finished, I've played it) and PS2, not Xbox.
Good god, people can't hold personal opinions on their own job without being fanboys of some description according to some people.
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So you object to the tone?
Why did he say it was a waste of time? Because its a pain in the ass to program for, and in terms of dollars spent developing for the system versus dollars to be made selling for the system, it was a waste of time. Sony should just call a do over . . . and make a system that was easier to code for. Did you really think he wanted them to start over and make the exact same system?
Do you honestly think his comments didn't boil down to the system was prohibitively difficult to code for, and that part of that difficulty stems from a lack of Sony developer support? You thought he was saying "The system is Aces, but Sony is Teh Devil!!"? Really?
Well, let's clear this up. After all, Wikipedia quotes him saying bad things and being rude. Huh . . . what's this little blue number next to the quote? Oh, it's a reference to the actual full quote!! How nifty. Wonder what he said there? Why don't we take a look?
"'I think [PS3 is] a waste of everybody's time," he said. "Investing in the Cell, investing in the SPE gives you no long-term benefits.'
. . .
'There's nothing there that you're going to apply to anything else. You're not going to gain anything except a hatred of the architecture they've created. I don't think they're going to make money off their box. I don't think it's a good solution,' he continued."
So he doesn't like it because the architecture is difficult, and since it's such a unique hardware design spending years becoming proficient in PS3 coding will be worth crap on any other system -- a losing investment of time, money and effort. I womder why it takes so long to get proficient coding for it? Maybe . . . just a guess here . . . because thew Sony developer support is lacking?
Now I'm confused. That's what you said, isn't it? That's what I pointed out above, didn't I?
Oh, now I see. Gabe was rude about it. He could have said it in a way that didn't cast aspersions on the honor of Sony. Well now I understand. Your posts clearly demonstrate how import being polite and not getting insulting is. Now the difference is clear.
I just thought of something else that's fucking predictable: Sony fanboys acting like idiots. Now THAT'S fucking predictable.
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Quite the opposite. He send a clear message to console makers that the software people make your games and that they should have a well designed console. If not... no support. If more devs would have the balls to say this, we would have more and better games.
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Calling other people's hard work a piece of junk is not courage.
Carmack sent clear messages to both Sony and Microsoft as well (he criticized the Cell as academically interesting, and Microsoft for not having adopted HD DVD as standard storage), without sounding nearly as extreme. The difference lies in the arrogance.
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How long is PS3 going to be difficult to develop for?...the way things are going it will be forever excuse for developers and fanboys.
Although i understand why devs are saying this,it is not politically correct to say PS3 sucks.
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Dizzy and others,
you seem to be under the impression that 'Sony made it hard to code for on purpose'. They didn't. They created a machine they thought would get the best out of games, for us, the consumers, and it does...if the developers can be bothered to jump through the hoops.
The ps3 isn't particuarly mind-bending to code for, it's just the Xbox uses already old-hat and familiar methods. It's just the path of least resistance.
Does that autmatically make it the best way forward? No, definetly not.
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Basically playing Sega's Bayonetta will be like playing Wii Okami, or worse, Wii Dead Rising. An inferior port outsourced to a less talented Sega team.
No thanks.
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Eh? Valve converted nothing themselves, Sierra got gearbox in to develop the PS2 and Dreamcast versions, prior to the Xboxes release. Frankly I doubt he got all that much say in what platforms it was released for. After all, it's not like Gabe was mad keen on the PS3 version getting released this time around.
And obviously it's beneath Microsoft to use FUD to discredit a competitors platform, since they've never used that tactic in the past /rolls eyes
@busboy
"Because its a pain in the ass to program for, and in terms of dollars spent developing for the system versus dollars to be made selling for the system, it was a waste of time."
Yeah, clearly it's a waste of time, it's not as if other games companies manage to turn profits by developing for the PS3, and hence usually don't bother. Oh no, wait, they all fucking do. It's only a waste of time if you don't make a profit. Last time I checked Valve where a business, not a charity.
"So he doesn't like it because the architecture is difficult, and since it's such a unique hardware design spending years becoming proficient in PS3 coding will be worth crap on any other system -- a losing investment of time, money and effort"
And why would it be a losing investment? It's a losing investment if you produce a half assed pile of shit like the orange box on the PS3, otherwise I think 24 million console owners represents a market large enough to be worth investing "time money and effort" in. Street Fighter 4 shifted more copies on the PS3. So did Resident Evil. So has Arkham asylum.
And whether the time you spend getting to grips with the hardware will eventually go down the drain at the end of this generation rather depends on what direction console architecture takes next generation, and whether you think having to program with a tricky architecture is not going to be a learning experience in and of itself.
I'd probably take his criticisms more seriously if they came from someone like Hideo Kojima or someone else with a wealth of experience coding for different architectures. All this fat ponce has first hand experience of coding for is x86, x64 and the 360 - ie platforms with nice friendly established development tools. On this, one of his first forays out of his comfort zone, he threw his toys out of the pram.
I said I agreed that the PS3 is harder to code for. That's it. That all programming for the PS3 was going to get you was "a hatred of the architecture they've created"? You think that's reasoned opinion and not blathering hyperbole? How about the PS3 being "a total disaster on so many levels?"? Yeah no, you're right all he was trying to get across there was that the developer support was lacking.
Probably the most damning of all his fatuous comments is "I think It's really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted". Really. They delivered what I wanted, and many others. I think his problem is that they didn't deliver what Gabe Newell wanted.
Now read that last bit again. It's linked from the wikipedia page, and you seem to have got the hang of that. "I think It's really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted". Customers. Not just developers. So his problem with the PS3 clearly wasn't just that it was difficult to code for, he took time out to make it clear that he thought it was an all round faliure.
Frankly him being rude is neither here nor there. He was either being brainless and lazy, and unable to see past himself, or a shill. I'm not keen on either.
And enough with the predictable bit, it's getting old.
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What do customers want when they buy a video game system? They want to play games. Having a system that makes creating games prohibitive for developers means fewer games. Customers get less of what they want -- games.
He's certainly not the first person that has made this argument. Whether you agree with the idea that the PS3 was/is "over-engineered" is not the question here. Is Gabe Newell the only person that has argued against the "all that and the kitchen sink" design style of the PS3? No.
But all of this gets off your point. You insinuated that he made his claims because he's an ex-Microsoft person. That his criticisms aren't just rude, but motivated by partisan loyalty. And that is just stupid. "Ex"-employee means that he's not getting a paycheck from MS anymore. What would he gain screwing his own company by losing money? Only fanboys have that kind of corporate loyalty. If Gabe thought that PS3 development was financially worth it for the company, he'd do it. It's a business -- the goal is to make money. Shorting the PS3 out of partisan spite doesn't get him a nickel.
The fanboys were offended when Square-Enix announced FF13 on the 360. How dare they! They dare because they see it as a way to get paid. If they thought that they would make more money staying Sony-exclusive, they would in a heartbeat. If they thought they'd make more money as a 360 exclusive, they would in a heartbeat.
This entire thread is about Platnum not doing the PS3 Bayonetta conversion themselves. Are they not doing it because they have loyalty to MS? Or are they not doing it brecause it's not financially worth it to them? They see it as cheaper (and therefore more likely to result in an eventual profit) to contract the work out. Spending the time, man-hours, effort, resources, and skills to make it themselves is apparently so prohibitively expensive that farming their own game out makes more sense to them. Hmmm, what other developer whose name is related to plumbing came to an identical conclusion? But Valve's decision must be biased, right? I wonder what Platnum's excuse is?
You disagree with Gabe and think that its worth it for him and the company to develop for the PS3. That's a business decision that different companies can come to different conclusions about. It's (essentially) his company. Some companies (Sega) think that there's profit to be made in "hardcore" titles for the Wii. Other companies think that the market isn't there, despite the installed base. Are they not making Wii games to spite Nintendo? Are they refusing to make anything more complicated than party games because they're loyal to past employers? Or are they doing it because they don't think the payoff will equal the cost?
Disagree with Gabe's opinion, but trying to smear him as a Microsoft flack is childish. He doesn't have an axe to grind. You, apparently, do.
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Disagree with Gabe's opinion, but trying to smear him as a Microsoft flack is childish.
You keep on using that adjective. Why is it necessarily childish? Is it outside of the realms of possibility that he is a MS flack? Have MS not extensively used and not continued to use third partys to discredit competitors platforms? Ever heard of SCO? No, no you're right, clearly it's insane to think that a Microsoft Millionaire who described themself the "producer" of windows, and has since produced a line of MS exclusive titles would hold any kind of loyalty towards MS. Totally insane.
Not that I'm saying it's just MS that engages in this kind of shit. But it does go on.
We have someone who fits the MO of a flack (ex employee, owns a company now concerned solely with making games for his ex employers platforms) and a company with a loooong track record of using fud and flacks to slag off competitors platforms. And someone who makes a business decision that, on the face of it, was so dim and short sighted as to begger belief. Who failed to do what many other developers of comparable or smaller size have managed to do. Who was too incompetent to do what Bethesda, for example, managed with such ease at around the same time, with much the same tools. But somehow you're sure he's not a flack.
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