AHEAD OF THE GAMES
Companies such as Sony want more developers to create games for their consoles to compete with mobile games and other devices,
Paul Winterhalder of bitHeads sees the newly released PlayStation 4 open new doors for local video-game developers.
Sony Corp.’s newly released PS4 opens new doors for local video-game developers, says one of Ottawa’s leading companies in the field.
The move demonstrates the push that major gaming companies are making to loop independent developers into the creative process, as console makers increasingly find themselves competing with mobile games and devices.
Everything from the design of the unit through to the internal specifications has been upgraded to ensure that developers can access the new hardware and create software, games and services that appeal to the masses, according to Paul Winterhalder, chief development officer at bitHeads.
“What they’ve done with (the PS4) makes it super easy to get up and running,” he said. “With the PS3, we’d spend all sorts of time optimizing. The new architecture is simpler and it’s got a lot more memory.”
BitHeads, and its subsidiary, PlayBrains, has worked on several titles that were released on the PS3.
The company employs about 90 people here in Ottawa. One of the company’s games, Sideway, was the featured download on Sony’s PlayStation Network in October 2011. (The game is about a kid trapped in a make-believe world that he has the power to shape, thanks to the help of a can of magic spray paint.)
Winterhalder said the PS3’s main processor, a proprietary microchip called the Cell Processor, was finicky and hard to develop for.
He also said the way the system managed its memory and resources made software prone to crashing and required developers to spend far more time optimizing their software for the PS3 then they would on other platforms.
The gruelling task of developing for the PS3 acted as a deterrent for many, pushing them to other platforms, such as Steam, an online store for PC games, Apple Inc.’s App Store or even Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox Live service.
Winterhalder said that, with the launch of the PS4, Sony has been trying to strengthen ties with independent developers, in hopes of seeing a deluge of new and interesting titles for the system.
While the consoles all have large developers, such as Electronics Arts and Ubisoft, developing bigbudget titles, such as Assassin’s Creed IV, for their consoles, smaller games released by independent game makers have become a major draw for consumers.
In 2011, a small company from Stockholm released a game called Minecraft, which allowed players to build anything they wanted in a virtual world.
The world is populated by monsters that reveal themselves at night, forcing players to build shelters and villages.
The title, available on PC computers, quickly became a favourite, selling millions of copies. It was later redesigned for mobile devices as well as the Xbox 360, where it became a bestseller. To date, more than 12.7 million copies have been sold.
Rovio Entertainment Ltd. saw similar success with its Angry Birds franchise, which became an overnight smash hit with console makers rushing to make the game available for their machines. The game has been downloaded more than 500 million times since it was released in 2009.
Console makers are keen to court independent developers, such as Ottawa’s BitHeads, to try and compete with mobile devices, which have become the go-to method of publishing for a vast majority of small game companies. Apple Inc. and Google Inc. have bent over backwards to make their application download services easy for developers to access and publish software to.
The effort has paid off, as by 2015 mobile video game sales are expected to surpass the combined sales of both PC games and mobile console games.
Console game sales are safe for now. They are expected to hit $93 billion US in 2013, according to researcher Gartner, rising 18 per cent over 2012.
However, if console makers such as Sony want to continue to lead the games industry, they will need independent developers on side.
“In the Apple world, they just go ‘Here you go; develop for it,’” said Winterhalder. “The console environment is going to have to adapt more of the conventions of the mobile environment.”
Winterhalder said the PS4 is a good first step toward helping to bridge that gap. He said Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One and even Nintendo Inc.’s Wii U console have all made significant strides when it comes to appealing to developers. All the companies have released hardware that is easy to design for and all are offering software and development kits to independent game companies in hopes of attracting the next big smash gaming hit.