Sony hints at PS3 homebrew kit
Published Apr 23 2007, 12:25 BST | By David Gibbon
Sony Worldwide Studios chief Phil Harrison has opened up the debate over homemade video games after he stated he is keen to offer such an opportunity to PS3 owners."I fully support the notion of game development at home using powerful tools available to anyone," Harrison said in an interview with Slashdot.
"We were one of the first companies to recognise this in 1996 with Net Yaroze on PS1. It's a vital, crucial aspect of the future growth of our industry."
The Sony boss also commented on his early involvement with games, which began in the 1980s as he experimented with Commodore 64 games that appeared in gaming mags. Harrison said, "You'd spend hours typing in the code, line-by-line, and then countless hours debugging it to make it work and then you'd realise the game was rubbish after all that effort!
"The next step was to re-write aspects of the game to change the graphics, the sound, the control system or the speed of the gameplay until you'd created something completely new.
"If we can make certain aspects of PS3 open to the independent game development community, we will do our industry a service by providing opportunities for the next generation of creative and technical talent".
Sony's announcement of its interest in homebrewed games comes after Microsoft launched its XNA package, allowing users to develop games on both PC and Xbox 360.
