SCEE’s George Bain has announced the end of the content approval process for the PS2, which makes it effectively an open platform for developers and publishers. Apparently this is a move designed to invigorate emergent markets like India and Russia by making it easier for developers to take low cost titles to market. Of course, it also means that all of you lot can start making games for the PS2 as well…
In the same announcement Bain declared that the content approval system on the other PlayStation platforms would be streamlined into a single portal, and subsequent DLC would not require approval at all.
More info on all that here.
Extreme coolness. I can’t wait to see what people can dream up.
Comment by Tony — Oct 30, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
Good news, now I’m just hoping someone makes the Killer Zombies vs enraged Apes game I’ve always drempt about.
Comment by E-ROLE — Oct 30, 2008 @ 9:07 pm
If the PS2 SDK remains expensive, the likelihood of *indie* developers jumping in will still be slim. Let’s hope they make is relatively painless to make PS2 games.
Comment by Savage — Oct 30, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
…the convergence of the current independent regional approval process for the PlayStation Network titles should also mean an end to the US ‘Store having access to Playable Demos weeks in advance of Europe (if the localised release date for the full commercial release falls within the same period).
Also, it is not just the Software Development Kit that is expensive. The hardware to write test copies & then subsequent master copies of the PS2 discs isn’t cheap.
In any respect, what region code would Indian & Russian software developers master their game titles for?
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Oct 30, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
Wicked! Definitely the way to go! Can’t wait to see the results!
Comment by LBP Blog — Oct 31, 2008 @ 1:12 am
That’s one less excuse for SCEE to use as to why our PSN Store is always the poor relation to the US store…
No content approval for DLC is interesting, obviously that is Sony’s first play in the emerging 3rd Party DLC battleground!
Comment by Apnomis — Oct 31, 2008 @ 10:24 am
This is very cool. Viva la revolution!
Hopefully this will spark of a resurgence of some of the bedroom coders from the Amiga era.
Looking forward to the idea of some interesting indie and scene coders pushing the last drop of juice from the PS2
Comment by lxd — Oct 31, 2008 @ 10:49 am
Great but will this mean that the PS2 capabilities of my backward-compatible launch-unit PS3 are also open? I hope so as the PS2 got traded in a long time ago!
Comment by reakt — Oct 31, 2008 @ 11:42 am
I’d love to have a go at developing something… anything for the PS2. I’m a graduate trying to get a job in the games industry. I guess this news doesn’t make it any easier / cheaper for me to get started, just possible to take my ‘game’ to market?
I’d be interested on any more info relevant to the budding hobbyist / enthusiast games developer.
Comment by Obli — Oct 31, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
I really hope this means that the PS2 will become a stronghold for indie developers, there are some seriously awesome games floating around on the internet.
Hopefully Sony can provide both the financial support for these guys as well as the financial/industry backing. Fingers crossed this means that Sony will be able to hire/employ developers they see have potential. Who knows, I really hope one day I’ll be playing a game made by ‘Obli’ or see a ‘I started developing games because of Sony and Threespeech’ in some game dev’s blog someday
Comment by SinsToJudge — Nov 1, 2008 @ 4:19 am
It only means that an indie dev with the funds to buy a PS2 SDK can publish their game without having to buy a license. Don’t expect the PS2 to be the next Dreamcast just because of this.
Comment by tearsofash — Nov 1, 2008 @ 10:20 am
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