http://gamers-creed.com/?p=320
Overgame : Why being so mysterious about a title that will most probably be Heavy Rain ?
Guillaume de Fondaumiere : We thought it wasn't necessary to announce the game's title yet. Mostly because we won't show anything until a few weeks.
During E3 ?
No, it will be a little bit later than E3, a show relatively important for japanese people, if you see what I mean. So not far from now. There is still no official confirmation that this game is HR.
You hinted the console's power earlier. Did this factor have something to do with your decision ?
Indeed. We have a big faith in the PS3, that's obvious. It is the powerful console on the market now, and for the kind of games we create, we needed this power to achieve our ambitions. So the choice was pretty simple.
Exclusive games are now more and more rare, however...
As a developper, our choice was the following. Either we worked with a general publisher, like Ubisoft, EA, THQ or Sega. Or we worked with a console manufacturer, and actually we had the chance to choose between both. Then we made a strategic choice regarding the potential partners that came to us, that invited us, and with who we talked - sometimes for a long time - to be sure that we were on the same wavelength and that we had the same ambitions for this title. In the end we chose to entrust this project to Sony.
Exclusively, then.
Well yeah, as soon as your start working with a console manufacturer, you're automatically tied to one platform. Except Microsoft maybe, who are more on an xbox 360 / PC orientation.
We still feel that the trend now is multiplateform. Aren't there any risks to choose an exclusive deal ?
When you're an editor, this question is actually meaningful. Developing on several platforms is theoretically less risky. In fact, you still have to carefully analyze the porting costs, if you can port, between two platforms that are very different - I mainly speak about the 360 and the PS3.
Then, you can do Wii and PS3 but for me, it would be like doing Game Boy and 360 ; there is a huge gap. You can't imagine using the same elements. For the 360 and the PS3, you can still have a common graphical basis. But still, it's only a graphical basis because the architecture is really very different. To be clear, let's say you have a 15 million budget on a PS3 title, adding 2 million for a 360 port is clearly not enough. Or, the game won't match the quality of games developped especially for the 360.
One should not forget that we make games in a concurrential environment where there always is a main version, and less pushed versions that are simply ports. Games that sell on a system as well as on another system are very rare, and it's the same for the gfx or performances.
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Should I deduce that you plan to use all the PS3's potential ?
That's the goal, obviously. Our choice makes us entirely focus on the PS3, then gives us the possibility to push way more than if we were working on two different platforms. Working on two different platforms, this means a choice : either you plan to aim two markets at a lesser cost, but then it's a lesser game, or you want to make two quality versions, but then you have two games that are not fundamently different but that are going to cost one as much as the other.
So even if many people are still very skeptical for the PS3's future, you still have faith in Sony
Yes, obviously. Skepticism doesn't worry us at all because I think that other people would have told us that they were skeptical about 360's chances if we had chosen this console.
Today, the console that seels the best is the Wii. Great. Now, if I don't release my game today, I'll do in two years. How will the market look like in two years ?
I have the feeling that analysts still have very different opinions on 360's and PS3's positions in two years. There still are people that think that the Wii will still be the console with the bigger install base ; I doubt it. And between the 360 and the PS3, I think the PS3 is gonna win. But anyway, my opinion, for this gen, is that we will have a market with three important actors, and I think this is a very good thing. It will be much more balanced than last gen.
