I’d also add the slow start that the Playstation 3 got with the initial price tag was a misstep. I think they sort of done a really good job of turning around with the Kevin Butler ad campaign, but the impression was that the console was for the high-end tech enthusiast and not for the mainstream. Now, the momentum that Playstation 3 has got is amazing, the worldwide install base gap has closed some, and it’s got to be close to insignificant at this point.
You look at the hardware itself, and it’s got amazing legs. The games that are continuing to come out are just pushing the hardware further. As a developer, it’s a luxury to be able to work with such a high-tech gadget. The Cell processor just seems like this bottomless pit of processing power. I am finding more, and more things we can do with it.
So, on that note: What is Naughty Dog as an organization thinking about 3D? How are you approaching it? It seems like you’re going to have to contend with it one way or the other. And people maybe expecting Uncharted 3D to be the next title in the franchise. But how are you coming to grips with how to implement it?
Sony is really good about not twisting our arms and forcing us to adopt to a technology that isn’t right for our game. But they also do give us early access to all of these new ventures. We had an early prototype of a 3DTV that we got to play with. At first, we just sort of experimented with it. We kind of got a prototype up and working. And we’re like, “OK, that’s cool, but it’s going to require a lot of effort to do well.”
Then we started seeing demos that other developers had been working with it longer, had put out. The MotorStorm Apocalypse team, the Evolution guys, they have really, really done amazing things with it. As soon as we saw that, we realized that if we put more effort than just sort of flipping the switch, 3D could be a really, really experience-changing technology. We can’t commit to supporting it in our next game. Not yet, anyway, but I sure want to. It’s really, really cool.
Do you feel like video games maybe better suited to deliver an immersive 3D experience than movies, just because operationally it’s different. You create the content differently. You don’t need a stereoscopic camera to shoot anything, it’s just a matter coding it differently.
Sure. There’s pros and cons I think that both mediums have. In games, yeah, we can put in our virtual cameras and implement it in various stages of production, but there are real-time performance costs that we’ve got to contend with. Like you said, movies have to sort of really build a 3D architecture from a flim’s initial stages, because it has to be shot with the right cameras. But, once it’s shot, it’s shot. And it’s in 3D permanently, and there aren’t too many continuing performance concerns. In a game, the processing required by 3D can make a game chug or it may not render well. Game developers may not have to buy new cameras, but each medium has its pros and cons, as far as creating 3D content. Video games are an interactive experience that can draw you into the experience and 3D could be the next big jump as far as immersing you further. Because you’re actually interacting with it, as opposed to watching it passively like a movie.
OK so, I guess the last thing I wanted to follow up on: what is the team working on that you can talk about?
Yeah, nothing specifically other than to tell you that we are very, very hard at work and have been for quite some time.
We are our own toughest critics, and looking back on what we’ve done on our past games, just sort of really analyzing on how we can improve the experience some and in the two major areas that we find inspiration that’s pushing the story-based, the narrative-based gaming forward and then really starting to embrace online play in a bigger and better way and see how that can engage our community of fans even more.