Bloomberg: Third Parties Query PS3 Support

A news story on financial website Bloomberg.com has suggested that third party support for the PlayStation 3 may be hampered because of a lack of available development kits and technical information. Bloomberg quotes THQ CEO Brian Farrell as saying that there will be no version of The Sopranos for the PlayStation 3, due to a lack of information on the final technical specifications and development kits from Sony. “A lot of developers have not gotten the kits,'' Jeffrey said. “There certainly will not be a lot of titles available [at launch].'' Sega of America president Simon Jeffrey is also quoted as saying that the first wave of PlayStation 3 games will not use all of the power of the console’s new Cell processor, although this is almost a given for the launch titles of any new format. “Developing for Sony's platform is incrementally more complex than what you're looking at for Microsoft or Nintendo,” said Mike Hickey, a video games analyst for Janco Partners to Bloomberg. “With costs that could go over $25 million a game, you're not seeing third-party content where it needs to be at this stage to have a successful launch.” Activision CEO Robert Kotick, though, appears to be more positive, with Bloomberg quoting him as saying: “While we may not have the final, final hardware, we know what the processor's capacity is. We have active development under way.'' He did state however that the first wave of games for the PlayStation 3 wouldn’t use more than 20 percent of the Cell chip’s capabilities. “This is the most sophisticated piece of consumer hardware ever”, he added.