EA: PS3 Dev Difficulties Still Impacting Release Dates

In today's press and analyst financial conference call, Electronic Arts executives weighed in on the matter of PlayStation 3's development difficulties as they relate to multiplatform releases.

Likely in reference to games such as EA and Pandemic's own Mercenaries 2, EA executives were asked whether the challenges in development multiplatform games on PS3 have cleared up. "Not quite," responded EA CEO John Riccitiello.

"There's no doubt that Electronic Arts along with many publishers had some challenges...on the PS3," Riccitiello went on, referring mainly to the early generation of multiplatform games released on both PS3 and Xbox 360. Still, the situation is improving greatly as developers become more acquainted with the hardware. The CEO estimates the issues is only about a third the problem it once was.

He pointed out that parallel development on both systems is when difficulties are most present. Games developed primarily for PS3 tend to go much more smoothly in development, he said. For example, Criterion Games, a studio which prides itself on its strong familiarity with the PlayStation family, had few issues development Burnout Paradise (PS3, X360), whose lead platform was PS3.

Recently, PS3 development issues were named as a contributing factor in the delay of Rockstar North's highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 4 (PS3, X360).