It’s been reported that Sony has cut the price of PlayStation 3 development kits in a bid to ‘’contribute to cost-saving measures of the development community”.
In the official announcement Sony said, “As more and more new titles are developed for the PS3 format, SCEI will significantly reduce the price of the Reference Tool in order to contribute to the cost saving measures of the development community.”
“Along with this boost to the PS3 game development environment, SCEI will further reinforce its support system to the development community, and continue to further expand the PS3 platform.”
Official Press Release follows.
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT BOOSTS PLAYSTATION®3 GAME DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
Strongly Supporting PS3 Game Developers by Contributing to the Improved Efficiency of
Game Development
Tokyo, November 19, 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that it would enhance the game development support environment for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) by integrating programming tools developed by SN Systems Limited (SN Systems)(*1), as part of the PS3 Software Development Kit (SDK)(*2).
By building on the well-established line-up of SN tool products, including the core programming tool ProDG, and offering it as part of the PS3 SDK, SCEI is committed to strongly supporting the game development community. Additionally, SCEI will enable the Debugging Station for PS3 (DECHA007J/ DECHA007A) to take part in the programming process, effectively assisting PS3 game title development on the Reference Tool (DECR-1000/ DECR-1000A) (*3).
Along with these measures to improve efficiency in PS3 game development, SCEI has also almost halved the price for its PS3 Reference Tool, effective immediately. The Reference Tool will now become available at JPY950,000 in Japan, US $10,250 in North America and €7,500 in Europe(*4).
The distinguished high-quality line-up of SN Systems’ programming tools to be integrated into the PS3 SDK include(*5):
1. ProDG:
Effective immediately, ProDG, a highly regarded and powerful programming tool developed by SN Systems, renowned for its highly customizable superior user interface, will become available free of charge as part of the PS3 SDK. Additionally, through the improvement of its functionalities, ProDG, which used to be available for use only on the Reference Tool, is now available for use on the Debugging Station as well, contributing to reduction in development costs.
2. SN Distributed Build System (SN-DBS):
On October 12th, license and support fees for SN-DBS were eliminated. SN-DBS is a distributed build system that improves productivity by dramatically reducing compiling time by distributing source code builds to multiple PCs on a local area network, allowing them to process in parallel. Compiling time is reduced by approximately 80% when using 6 PCs.
3. SN LINKER:
A program that is used during the building process for linking compiled programs. Compared to the existing linker, linking speed is significantly improved and can be up to eight times faster. The release of this program has already started through the SDK’s system software update released on November 2nd.
4. SN Compiler (SNC):
A new compiler that will be provided as the standard compiler for PS3. It is optimized for use for PS3 by adopting the industry standard C++ front-end and will significantly elevate game quality as well as improving productivity through its improved code generating efficiency. Release of the beta version of SNC will start from mid December as part of the SDK.
In addition to the provision of these powerful tools as part of the SDK, SCEI has also added the capability for the Debugging Station to take part in programming, thus assisting PS3 game title development on the Reference Tool, instead of using it only as a quality assurance system for games under development. Game developers are able to power up Debugging Station by simply updating to the latest version SDK provided on November 2nd. Adding this new capability to assist game title development will contribute to cost efficiency and overall productivity.
The PS3 Reference Tool is optimized for the creation of entirely new interactive entertainment that is only available on PS3, taking full advantage of state-of-the-art technologies such as Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) and RSX®. As more and more new titles are developed for the PS3 format, SCEI will significantly reduce the price of the Reference Tool in order to contribute to the cost saving measures of the development community.
Along with this boost to the PS3 game development environment, SCEI will further reinforce its support system to the development community, and continue to further expand the PS3 platform.
(*1) SN Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of SCEI, acquired in 2005.
(*2) Software Development Kit is a software library for game developers. Developers are able to obtain this library by signing a license agreement with SCE and by purchasing tool products.
(*3) A game software development tool for PS3.
(*4) All prices are exclusive of tax.
(*5) These SN Systems tool products are provided free of charge.

I am glad to here it, hope it helps the small companies get on board
Comment by MR Orbstah — Nov 19, 2007 @ 1:20 pm
wow i did not understand one word of that statement other than “free”
Comment by Paul — Nov 19, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
Nice
Nothing like a bit of good Sony news to get me through this rather murky Monday.
Hopefully this will result in a couple more Media Molecule-types able to afford to flex their creativity. Game diversity has always been a key Sony pull for me.
No matter what genre of games you enjoy, after a bit of time you can always find 6-7 games in that genre that appeal - with several smaller developers carving a niche.
Comment by mrsatansdojo — Nov 19, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
Can I get one?
*puppy dog eyes sony*
Comment by JohnSketch — Nov 19, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
“Compiling time is reduced by approximately 80% when using 6 PCs.” PCs!?!? wouldn’t it be faster (and cheaper) if the build system was configured to run across a cluster of PS3s running Linux?
Anyway, good news about the devkit. Personally I’d like Sony to release a cut-down version of the toolchain for free (or very cheap) for bedroom / lounge coders to write small games which could be distributed on the PSN.
Comment by reakt — Nov 19, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
“SONY HALVES COST OF PS3 DEV KIT”
Desperate times call for desperate measures…
Comment by Zed Zee — Nov 19, 2007 @ 4:25 pm
I agree with reakt about a cut-down free version to encourage the indie coder.
Ok so you can pick up one of these dev-kits for around £5000. Can I just whack it on my PS3 and start coding or does that include a special PS3 dev machine as well?
Comment by Savage — Nov 19, 2007 @ 6:43 pm
It would be really cool if Sony Released something like XNA. Most of the stuff developed for the 360 using XNA is complete pap. But some of it is pretty good and it is a nice, free way for developers to get exposure to the hardware without risking any money.
Comment by Charli3 — Nov 20, 2007 @ 1:00 am
@Charti3
I would imagine that something is in the pipeline. Both PS1 and PS2 had ‘home dev’ kits.
Comment by mrsatansdojo — Nov 20, 2007 @ 9:43 am
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