DWGE: Interview with Paul Holman, VP Research and Development, SCEE

Paul Holman, VP of Research and Development, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was at the Dubai World Game Expo and we caught up with him to talk about game development in the region.

Paul, tell us about yourself and what you do at Sony.

The way we split up the world at Sony, is that we have the Japanese side, the Americas and then EMEA which covers everything else. Within our company, we have sales and marketing, we have our worldwide studios which create game titles and then my side of the business which is more RnD, which means working with any game developers whether it’s our own developers or someone else, to get the best of our platform. That’s really important as only 25% of our games come from our own studios, the rest come from the creative energies of everyone else.

My department provides a spectrum of everything they need. We do everything to provide direct support for developers. Once you buy the devkit, you spend about $1,500 on it, and you get access to our website and we provide support through that all the way through your title development. On top of that we provide training and videos. We also provide the Software Development Kit tools in collaboration with our other RnD development teams in Tokyo and Califronia.

How easy is to get a hold of a devkit these days? There used to be a time when devkits were sent with armed security guards to protect it, with instructions not to let it out of sight. Are those days behind us?

It depends on where you are in the cycle. The first kits were a bit of a nightmare as they were so few of them. But generally once we got into mass production development kits, particularly with this current generation system, access to those development kits is a lot more straightforward. If you want to be a game developer, for example on Minis, you just need to have a company and about $1,000 to get started. That’s one of the myths I want to dispel in my talks as there is a perception based on the past and some other format holders that it’s actually hard to develop games. In fact there are few barriers to entry and creating titles doesn’t have to be super hard.

It depends on what you want to achieve. Obviously there are very big game studios that want to give the impression that it’s very hard and it costs lots of money and they can spend tens of millions if not more. It’s kind of like the film industry, where you can spend millions to make a big blockbuster hit or you can do independent titles that are a lot more focused and don’t cost as much to make.

Tell us about your interest in the Middle East market. Are you working with anyone here at the moment?

We have NDAs, so I can’t tell you about them. There is already PS3 development here in the Middle East. It’s hard to work out who’s developing what these days. Game development has become a lot more global. There may be a game that you think is developed in Scotland but it has bits and pieces developed all over the world and then it all comes together. But yes, there’s definitely PS3 development here. We want to encourage more studios to work on consoles.

Inside at the DWGC, Vertex Studios, a local company is showing off a game that’s developed on the Cry Engine 3 and on the PS3 platform as well. Are there more such companies developing console games in this region?

Well, that’s the reason why ourselves, Crytek and Epic are here. We’ve got a lot of interest from the area. People actually are realizing that they can create titles for the local market as well as the world.

Uncharted 2 has been such a big success for PlayStation this year. It’s the highest rated game on Metacritic at the moment. Did you expect this?

It’s like Hollywood. There are certain studios that you know are going to come up with something that’s interesting and exciting. For me, it’s the surprises that pop up that are more fascinating. I’m really privileged in my area that I get to see some games that are coming out not this Christmas but next Christmas and it’s actually quite hard to work out which is going to be the ones that capture the consumer’s imagination and will turn out to be big hits.

It’s a great time in the lifecycle of the PS3 and PSP. People always grumble about the hardware as it’s new to learn. I’ve been with the company since 1995 since the early days of PlayStation 1. It’s been great to see what people think is impossible is outdone in the next year.

You’ve been with the company a long time. Out of all the launches so far, which is your favourite PlayStation console?

It’s like choosing a favourite child. They’ve all been different. Each has had its challenges. I can’t pick one because they’re all so different. Every console brings you something different that wasn’t there before.

Let’s talk about the PSP Go! Do you think 16GB is enough?

It’s about balance. We want to make the hardware as successful as possible and the more memory you put into it, the more expensive it becomes. You asked me before which was my favourite platform and this is a rather interesting one. The PSP Go! Was built over the PSP and yet it’s almost a new platform in some ways because it’s purely digital. People are going to get their software completely through downloads, so it’s a new space for us to get in to and it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Thing is, with a lot of games being almost 1GB in size, you’re bound to run out of space quickly. Don’t you agree?

Games don’t necessarily have to be that big. To counter that, you also have the Minis games that are a few megabytes, they’re cheaper and they download quite quickly. They help provide a wider spectrum, so that you have a choice to either download a game like Gran Turismo or something like Tetris.

And if you run out of space, you can delete the game and download it again whenever you want to without paying extra.

What can we expect to see from PlayStation in 2010?

What will be interesting to see is the motion controller coming out next year that will build on the Eye. We should see some more PlayStation Eye titles coming out.

SCEE's Research and Development website

If I were a developer, what would be my first step towards getting a devkit?

For us the ecosystem is comprised of the game developers, the content people who create things; the publishers who publish the games; and we also have an area for tools and middleware like the Crytek game engine. Of course, the lines are getting a lot more blurry now because you can publish your own games through the PSN network.

Visit www.research.scee.net. You just give all your company details on the site and an idea of the game that you’re working on, just to tell us that you are actually a games company. There’s also a legal process and an NDA/license agreement and you’re ready to get your own devkit. The days of devkits costing $10,000 or more have gone away. You can start off developing on the PSP for $1,000 or for PS3 for $1,500. We’ve seen many companies develop great games through these test kits. We also provide a whole SDK, so we also provide a game engine. A lot of things that people tend to grapple with are there and available to them.

What do you think is needed in this region for companies to start developing games?

That’s a hard one. There are a lot of ideas for games. So, partly it’s just the belief that you can do it. Funding is also an issue. However, for the mini games the barriers are relatively low. It’s maybe a bit of confidence and awareness that they can do it and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think it’s important to get on the ladder. It’s easier now to start with the mini games, and you can then build from there as long as you have the game concepts and creativity.