Playstation 3 Development Woes Hindered Haze
Former Free Radical dev says the studio ran into technical issues.
August 13, 2009 - Free Radical Design was forced to close its doors last year due to the commercial bomb of Haze, Sony's exclusive first-person shooter. But it appears problems with the title arose from development roadblocks created by the Playstation 3.
Former studio co-founder, Karl Hilton, recently said in an interview with Develop the team couldn't wrap its head around Playstation 3 development software, which caused problems for the shooter.
"Haze had a lot of development issues which meant it wasn't the game it should have been. A lot of them were technical issues; the PS3 is a powerful machine but a difficult one to get the best out of," said Hilton, now of Crytek UK.
"We hit a few stumbling blocks on it that meant we spent more time trying get the game running properly and less time to design the game properly."
Hilton later admitted he thinks the Playstation 3 can perform better, even citing for a fact the company's own Cryteck engine will push the console to new graphical leaps.
"I don't think we've seen the best out of the PS3 at all, and I definitely think one of the best things about Crytek and the CryEngine is that we're now in the best position to get the most out of the hardware," he explained.
"We know the PS3 can do amazing things, and no one has pushed it as far as it can go, but I think the CryEngine gives us a great head start on it."
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/101/1013673p1.html
So, this article confuses me. First of all, if you were having so many problems with the ps3 version of the game, why drop the 360 version, you would think they would of dropped the ps3 version. Second of all, why do some developers have no issues programming for the ps3 and others do?
I don't think it really boils down to being lazy, as much as intelligence and skill. Free Radical had some talent in game design (their original core team was a splinter from rare who worked on goldeneye). Another factor could have been time. Obviously titles like Killzone and Heavy Rain have had huge development cycles, but Haze wasn't that lucky. Do you think they were too rushed to get it out?
My question for you guys, do you think Free Radical didn't have the talent to be capable of making a great game? or did they just not have enough time to make their game great?
