Phil Harrison Answers Slashdot Questions: Homebrew and More... Options

[PS3Scene]

Phil Harrison Answers Slashdot Questions: Homebrew and More... Posted by XanTium | 20-4-2007 15:54 EST

From slashdot.org: [QUOTE] * Q: If someone manages to get homebrew games running on the PS3, will there be firmware updates to stop this kind of development, to protect your software developers, or is homebrew something you are planning on and even encouraging? Is there a chance that the policy of restricting access to PS3 graphics hardware (via the hypervisor) could be revised to encourage us homebrew developers? How does this strategy differ from your strategy with PSP homebrew? Has Sony considered offering kernel patches and an RSX optimized OpenGL library for PS3/Linux? * Phil Harrison: Now, let me first say that Homebrew is sometimes a misused term and so for the purposes of this answer I will exclude pirates and hackers with illegal intentions from the definition. I fully support the notion of game development at home using powerful tools available to anyone. We were one of the first companies to recognize this in 1996 with Net Yaroze on PS1. It's a vital, crucial aspect of the future growth of our industry and links well to the subtext of my earlier answers. When I started making games on the Commodore 64 in the 1980's, the way I learned to make games was by re-writing games that appeared in magazines. Really the best bit about a C64 was when you turned it on it said "Ready?" with a flashing cursor - inviting you to experiment. You'd spend hours typing in the code, line-by-line, and then countless hours debugging it to make it work and then you'd realise the game was rubbish after all that effort! The next step was to re-write aspects of the game to change the graphics, the sound, the control system or the speed of the gameplay until you'd created something completely new. I might share this with a few friends but not for commercial gain at that time. But the process itself was invaluable in helping me learn to program, to design graphics, animations or sounds and was really the way I opened doors to get into the industry. Now, those industry doors are largely closed by the nature of the video game systems themselves being closed. So, if we can make certain aspects of PS3 open to the independent game development community, we will do our industry a service by providing opportunities for the next generation of creative and technical talent. Now having said all that, we still have to protect the investment and intellectual property rights of the industry so we will always seek the best ways to secure and protect our devices from piracy and unauthorized hacking that damages the business. [/QUOTE] Full Story: slashdot.org

[twistedsymphony]

I just finished reading this on slashdot and I'll post here the same thing I posted there:

The response to the first question was fantastic, and dare I say after question 2 I gained a shred of respect back for 'ol Philly. The Blu-Ray question he started honestly and ended up with a sales pitch by the end and it was back to the old PR side stepping from then on out with Mr Harrison taking on the role of Michael Flatly.

On one hand it's aggravating not being able to get a straight answer out of these guys. We know he's capable of speaking honestly after reading the first couple of questions. On the other hand, what did we expect? If he really felt that Blu-Ray was a bad idea or that homebrew should be supported do you really think he'd speak his mind on the issues considering his position within Sony?

[ConteZero76]

Right now BD is probably the strongest PS3 point.
Games are well beyond 9Gb (and growing), a larger support gives access to better video and audio (video for cutscenes, audio for the entire game) and you can gain something using uncompressed textures and such.
Kojima is asking for a 2 layer BD for his game and most games are getting larger (including both useful and useless stuff inside).
Yes, you're paying for BD, but it's a good idea just like having a DVD reader back when PS2 was introduced.
It's all about life cycles...

[thax]

If the Blueray drive is the strongest point then the PS3 is in serious trouble.

[ConteZero76]

You'll get Blue Dragon for XBox360 on three DVD this year...
How long could it be before more and more titles shift to multiple DVD ?
XBox360 is less than two years old, it still have to last at least three years...

[d-range]

Hmm his answer started out very promising, and interesting indeed. Too bad in the end he doesn't really say if or when they will further open up the PS3 for homebrew. For me it would be a definite plus and an incentive to get a PS3, if it was possible to write native code for it with full HW access. Be it using Linux or (even better) using the same SDK's used for writing commercial games.

[twistedsymphony]

Right now BD is probably the strongest PS3 point.
Games are well beyond 9Gb (and growing), a larger support gives access to better video and audio (video for cutscenes, audio for the entire game)

At present only 0.01% of "HD" Generation games break the 9GiB mark... it's an epidemic I know

[ConteZero76]

At present only 0.01% of "HD" Generation games break the 9GiB mark... it's an epidemic I know

You know, I was talking about PS3 games.
Anyway... for example Darkness for PS3 will feature entire films in TV sets inside the game, you can watch nosferatu.
Not that much of an improvement, but still something for this early stage.

[timstim]

seems to me he did answer quite clearly NO!! he did it the way a salesperson does. relate to the person or persons then let them down eazy so they get pissed at the company and not you