Elite / Frontier I hope it is true that Elite 4 comes to PS3

[reddragan]

Unfortunately I cannot afford a Gaming PC rig that would likely to take Elite 4 to it's maximum potential when it is released, so I really hope that with Frontier Developments now making games for consoles that this game is ported over to the Playstation 3. It will be closest I will get to witnessing/experiencing the beauty that this game deserves to seen in.

Also, I would love it if Elite 4 had online play, I would love to go head to head with other players over a massive online universe.

But additionally, Elite has always been revolutionary. My memories of it are wonderful, but what can FD do to continue defining gaming.... well it is obvious no?

Cross platform online gaming!! I understand that it has been done before but I also understand it was quite a failure and poorly implemented. If anyone can pull it off I am sure only Frontier Developments is that company.

Please Braben, I plead with you, can you please bring Elite 4 to the Playation 3 and PSN... I would love to play against the other PS3 owners and PC owners and possibly even Xbox 360 owners. This game would be an absolute monster in terms of sales.

Any agree? Afterall... it maximises the user base and the competitiveness. Also these consoles can now use Keyboard and Mice with their USB ports. Level playing ground at last!!!

 

[darkone]

I am with you on this RedDragon I would also like to see any space game come to the PS3 since we have none. It is a viable platform and does support keyboard/mouse, joystick and gamepad.

I would like to say this is a no brainer because multi-platform = more money. But it also = more development time. But developers also have to face the facts that console gaming is on the rise and in some areas have totally taken over. You can reach more people on a console personally.

For example I play Little Big Planet with the kids and say on a Tues night you will see between 10-20k people online playing. Most MMO's don't even have 10-20k people playing in a day.

 

[DraQ]

Personally I'm not interested for two reasons:

1) I don't own nor plan to own a console.

2) I think that Sony should be boycotted into bankrupcy after their DRM fiasco, though admittedly the fact that sequel to the PC only Drakan was PS2 only may affect my decision.

 

[darkone]

Currently (least in a 2007 report) and its probably worse now. That PC game sales only accounted for 13-14% of total video game sales worldwide. So if you disregard the console entirely you would be foolish and throwing away possible income for your company.

 

[Steve O B Have]

If it did come to the PS3 I imagine it might make the possibility of it working on Linux a little closer altho I'd imagine trying to port the game across would cause something of a headache with so many different versions of the OS out there and so few users to justify it (sorry broken record there). Personally I have no issue with it being out on the PS3 because realisitically, with the ETA for E4 being somewhere in the realms of 1.5 - 2 years away, (optimistically) the PS3 is going to be as cheap as chips as is the XBOX 360.

Having said that I personally hope that it is primarily a PC game and it is then made to work with the consoles and not vice versa.

Keeping in mind the online infrastructure that exists for the XBOX 360 and the PS3 it makes some sense for the game to cater to the console market. I'd imagine that it makes some sense from a developers point of view to make use of an existing infrastructure rather then attempt to supply your own.

Imagine the prohibative expense of setting up a Direct to Drive system and the enormous bandwidth required on the release day/week/month, and then think of people like Microsoft and Steam etc that already have these systems in place for worldwide distribution...

Currently (least in a 2007 report) and its probably worse now. That PC game sales only accounted for 13-14% of total video game sales worldwide. So if you disregard the console entirely you would be foolish and throwing away possible income for your company.

Eggzakkery - it's foolish for a games house to ignore the console market.

 

[DraQ]

Eggzakkery - it's foolish for a games house to ignore the console market.

Careful there, or you might end up saying that it would be foolish to ignore the huge nextgentards market and not make E4 a dumbed down generic *pew-pew* space shooter.

Given that for the first time combined niche markets outweigh the mainstream one, it might be a good idea to design carefuly tailored sure-fire niche hits that will continue selling for years rather than trying to compete for oversaturated mainstream market.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Careful there, or you might end up saying that it would be foolish to ignore the huge nextgentards market and not make E4 a dumbed down generic *pew-pew* space shooter.

eh - it is what it is... no matter which way you describe it, it doesn't change the end numbers.

Given that for the first time combined niche markets outweigh the mainstream one...

Which niche markets are these?

 

[DraQ]

Which niche markets are these?

Niche markets in general. I can't link you to the paper as I read it quite some time ago.

Edit:
I found the wiki article with necessary citations, however.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Niche markets in general. I can't link you to the paper as I read it quite some time ago.

Edit:
I found the wiki article with necessary citations, however.

Hmm I'm not entirely sure you can apply that to targeting the development of games at various markets. I don't see the sense in spending all your money on trying to develop a vast number of versions for individually small sections of the market when you can spend less money and less resource on targeting two or three really vast markets...

To be honest I don't really understand the Long Tail thing entirely but I'm struggling to find the correlation.

 

[DraQ]

Still, you probably can agree that designing, for example, RPGs so that they appeal to the FPS crowd rather than fans of the genre is somewhat loopy practice.

 

[Spacegamer]

So how much do game cost to make nowdays.

I did read that the first Gears of War cost Epic 15 million dollars and apparently thats cheap.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Still, you probably can agree that designing, for example, RPGs so that they appeal to the FPS crowd rather than fans of the genre is somewhat loopy practice.

Well I guess depending on what your target audience is... I myself am currently enjoying Fallout 3 which I think may fit under the FPSRPG label. I do see where you're getting at tho and to a certain extent agree. I still love a decent RPG dungeon crawler... and they're so hard to find these days.

 

[Seeker]

PS3? More like PS4....

I think asking if Elite 4 will be available for PS3 could be a redundant question, taking into account the development time & the fact that Braben wants it perfect (or as near as) we are probably looking at Playstation 4

Obviously I hope Im wrong but I wouldnt bet my mortgage on it!

 

[Steve O B Have]

I think asking if Elite 4 will be available for PS3 could be a redundant question, taking into account the development time & the fact that Braben wants it perfect (or as near as) we are probably looking at Playstation 4

Obviously I hope Im wrong but I wouldnt bet my mortgage on it!

Yeah there is rumour for the PS4 and XBOX 720 to be rearing their heads late 2011 or early 2012 - it does paint and interesting picture for the development situation. I guess to a certain extent it would depend on how drastically the platform development differs from one generation to the next.

 

[Callum Rowley]

So how much do game cost to make nowdays.

It pretty much depends on the game, the platform and the company. The costs can vary quite dramatically depending on how many people are working on it, the technology being used (whether you're developing your own tech, licensing it or using in-house tech used from previous games etc.) and the type of game - MMO's for example (in my experience) are typically more expensive than your average game, as they have associated operational costs, and tend to be larger - therefore take longer to develop.

 

[Callum Rowley]

Yeah there is rumour for the PS4 and XBOX 720 to be rearing their heads late 2011 or early 2012 - it does paint and interesting picture for the development situation. I guess to a certain extent it would depend on how drastically the platform development differs from one generation to the next.

Didn't Sony say they wanted the PS3 to have a 10 year lifespan? I can't see a PS4 rearing it's head in 2012 - especially as they've only just started focusing all of their attention on the PS3, opposed to both PS3 and PS2.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Didn't Sony say they wanted the PS3 to have a 10 year lifespan? I can't see a PS4 rearing it's head in 2012 - especially as they've only just started focusing all of their attention on the PS3, opposed to both PS3 and PS2.

Yeah that is the current official line from Sony, but do you think that could change if Microsoft gets a new console out in 2-3 years? Having said that the PS2 had an extremely long life span and the consoles really are dictating the current games developing environment.

Reading up a bit more Microsoft have projected the lifespan of the 360 out to 2015 so it looks much like you're right. The 2012 thing is obviously just someone dreaming... It's amazing to look back at the initial release games on the PS2 and the current state of PS2 games - there is something to be said for developers really learning to use the consoles power.

 

[Callum Rowley]

Reading up a bit more Microsoft have projected the lifespan of the 360 out to 2015 so it looks much like you're right. The 2012 thing is obviously just someone dreaming... It's amazing to look back at the initial release games on the PS2 and the current state of PS2 games - there is something to be said for developers really learning to use the consoles power.

Absolutely. God of War II still looks great on the PS2.

I think Microsoft will need to release a new 360 to stay competitive till 2015 (perhaps with built in wireless and blu-ray support), surprised they haven't yet soaked up the idea of releasing a 360 lite. Seems to have worked wonders for Playstation.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Absolutely. God of War II still looks great on the PS2.

I think Microsoft will need to release a new 360 to stay competitive till 2015 (perhaps with built in wireless and blu-ray support), surprised they haven't yet soaked up the idea of releasing a 360 lite. Seems to have worked wonders for Playstation.

As opposed to a complete re-work of the XBOX? Do you mean just as beefed up version with the added WiFi and BD?

I agree but they have done phenominally well with their pricing, although they have had to with their extraordinary failure rate. Capability wise I'm given to understand that they are much of a muchness with only the 720p vs 1080p being the major difference. Do you not think that they will have to address this further down the line?

You'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge when it comes to these consoles but couldn't they potentially upgrade the CPU and GPUs on them at a later stage? I know they have changed both of these to a cooler running version already...

 

[Callum Rowley]

You'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge when it comes to these consoles but couldn't they potentially upgrade the CPU and GPUs on them at a later stage? I know they have changed both of these to a cooler running version already...

I'm pretty sure they could. I think the biggest issue with console's at present (which could actually hinder the release of an upgraded/beefed up Xbox 360 release) is they need to consider those who still have their original Xbox 360's and make sure games are compatible with those.

So I'm not entirely sure what the next steps would be in making sure your console lives through your projected lifespan. As making major enhancements would affect the above.