Besides Endless Saga and Killing Day, the PS3 has lost 6 previously cross-platform titles. Why are developers abandoning the PS3 when the PS1 and PS2 were the two most successful game consoles in history?
Before Sony announced the $499 and $599 prices for the PS3, developers were uncertain of their target demographic. Since the PS3 will be competing with the 360 and Wii, developers must market their games to appeal to the hardcore crowd of gamers who are dying to get their hands on Sony's 1080p bluray playing game machine. A game studio that was developing a mediocre PS3 game before the price announcement would think twice before spending millions on a game that won't sell. The $600 price tag will also reduce the PS3's install base, and thus potential customers. A leading industry analyst put it this way: "Many developers think the console's initial high price will lead to slow sales and are holding off on creating games for Sony."
EA has significanly reduced PS3 developement in favor of it's competitors. Atari and SNK are holding off on making games for the PS3 until 2007 and 2009. Ubisoft has stated that the PS3's price must drop if they want to compete, but have nothing but praise for the Wii. Many in the industry believe Nintendo's innovative console will have mass market appeal when it launches before the PS3 for less than $250. Existing GameCube development practices translate well to the similar Wii architecture, allowing development costs to be 1/3 that of the other guys. Microsoft is also in the business of trimming production costs. When the XNA Framework is fully implemented, identical game code will run on both PC and 360. John Carmack, the man behind Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake believes the Xbox 360 has "far and away the best development tools." Hiromichi Tanaka of Square Enix remarked that porting Final Fantasy XI to the 360 was a fairly quick task while a PS3 version would need to be started from scratch, a 2-3 year process.
Sony has previously relied on its dominant brand name to attract developers, but that may not be enough this time around. The recent resignation of Sony's Developer Relations Manager and a Top PR executive shows that Sony may be having problems managing developer relations and/or sinking public opinion. Developers are not keen on the difficulty of PS3 development and often complain about lack of support. The high cost of PS3 development, the low install base, and the problems with bluray all lead to one problem: the PS3 may have a small library of games.
