PlayStation 3 games

The PlayStation 3 launched in North America on November 17, 2006 with a total of twelve titles, with another three being released before the end of the year.cite web |url=http://ps3.ign.com/articles/636/636848p3.html |title=IGN's Official PlayStation 3 FAQ |date=2007-03-26 |pages=3 of 4 |publisher=IGN PlayStation 3 |accessdate=2007-05-02] After five days of sales it was confirmed that first-person shooter ' from Insomniac Games was the top-selling game, and was heavily praised by numerous video game websites, including GameSpot and IGN, both of whom awarded it with their PlayStation 3 Game of the Year award for 2006. [cite web |url=http://www.gamespot.com/special_features/bestof2006/platform/index.html?page=9 |title=Best Games and Worst Games of 2006 at GameSpot — Best PlayStation 3 Game |accessdate=2007-04-30 |author=GameSpot Staff |date=2006-12-21 |publisher=GameSpot] [cite web |url=http://bestof.ign.com/2006/ps3/39.html |title=IGN.com presents The Best of 2006 - PlayStation 3: Game of the Year |accessdate=2007-04-30 |author=IGN Staff |date=2006-12-21 |publisher=IGN.com] Some titles missed the launch window and were delayed until early 2007, such as ', "F.E.A.R." and "Sonic the Hedgehog". During the Japanese launch, "Ridge Racer 7" was the top-selling launch title, while ' also fared well in sales; both of which were offerings from Namco Bandai. The PlayStation 3 launched in Europe with twenty-four titles, including games that were not offered in the North American and Japanese launches, such as "Formula One Championship Edition", "MotorStorm" and "Virtua Fighter 5". ' and "MotorStorm" were the most successful titles of 2007, [cite web| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/6736809.stm| title=Cathedral row over video game| date=2007-06-09| publisher=BBC| accessdate=2008-01-18] [cite web| url=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=75009| title=Motorstorm completes hat-trick| date=2007-04-05| publisher=Eurogamer| accessdate=2008-01-18] and both games are to receive sequels in the form of "Resistance 2" and "". [cite web | author=Evolution Studios | year=2007 |title="MotorStorm 2 sequel confirmed for PS3, in development at Evolution Studios"| url= http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2007/05/15/motorstorm-2-sequel-confirmed-for-ps3-in-development-at-evolution-studios.htm | work= [http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2007/05/15/motorstorm-2-sequel-confirmed-for-ps3-in-development-at-evolution-studios.htm] | accessdate=2007-09-06] cite web | author=Insomniac Games | year=2007 | title="Full Moon Show Podcast" | url=http://www.insomniacgames.com/podcast/podcast.php | work= [http://www.insomniacgames.com/podcast/podcast.php] | accessdate=2007-11-12]

First and second year games

At E3 2007, Sony was able to show off a number of their upcoming video games for the PlayStation 3, including "Heavenly Sword", "Lair", ', "Warhawk" and ', all of which were released in the third and fourth quarters of 2007. They also showed off a number of titles set for a 2008 release; most notably "Gran Turismo 5 Prologue", a preview of the fifth installment in the popular driving simulator series, "LittleBigPlanet", an innovative platformer that focuses heavily on user-created content and ', an online incarnation of the tactical shooting series. [cite web |url=http://kotaku.com/gaming/game-critics-awards/best-of-e3-2007-winners-284570.php |title=Best of E3 2007 Winners |publisher=Kotaku |accessdate=2007-08-12 |date=July 31, 2007] A number of third-party exclusives were also shown, including the first-person shooter "Haze" and the highly-anticipated stealth action title, '. Such games as "", "Resistance 2", "SOCOM Confrontation" were also released for end 2008., [cite web |url=http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6177964.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;1 |title=Haze now Fully PS3 Exclusive, 360 & PC Dropped |accessdate=2007-08-11 |last=Hatfield |first=Daemon |date=2007-07-11 |publisher=Gamespot] alongside other high-profile third-party titles such as "Devil May Cry 4" and "Grand Theft Auto 4". One other important exclusive for the PlayStation 3, "White Knight Chronicles", was shown at TGS 2007 in order to appease the Japanese market. [cite web |url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=26586 |title=E3: Square Enix's John Yamamoto |accessdate=2007-08-11 |last=Gibson |first=Ellie |date=2007-07-11 |publisher=GamesIndustry.biz]

Sony also launched their budget range of PlayStation 3 titles, known as the Greatest Hits range in North America, [ [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/07/28/ps3-greatest-hits-launch-today/ PS3 Greatest Hits Launch Today] ] the Platinum range in Europe [ [http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=193450 PS3 Platinum range in UK from August] ] and The Best range in Japan. [ [http://www.jp.playstation.com/ps3/ps3thebest/ PlayStation 3 the best] ] Among the titles available in the budget range include ', "MotorStorm", ', "", "Call Of Duty 3", "Assassin's Creed" and "Ninja Gaiden Sigma".

Third year games

At E3 2008, Sony announced a number of titles for their 2009 line-up, including "The Agency", an MMO shooter allowing players to assume the role of secret agents, "God of War III", the third installment to the popular hack and slash adventure series drawing on Greek mythology, "inFamous", a brand new action title expanding on the ever-growing sandbox genre, "Killzone 2", the highly-anticipated sequel to the hard sci-fi first-person shooter, and "", an online multiplayer shooter that supports up to 256 players simultaneously. [cite web |url=http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168752 |title=E3 2008: Sony Press Conference Roundup |accessdate=2008-07-16 |last=Watts |first=Steve |date=2008-07-15 |publisher=1UP.com]

Development

The PlayStation 3 is based on open and publicly available application programming interfaces. Sony has selected several technologies and arranged several sublicensing agreements to create an advanced software development kit for developers.

Open standards for OpenGL, matrix algorithms, and scene data are specified by the Khronos Group, and are intended to work with Nvidia's Cg programming language. Scene data are stored with COLLADA v1.4, an open, XML-based file format.cite web|url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/29/news_6130037.html |title=COLLADA approved as an open standard |accessdate=2006-08-22 |accessmonthday= |accessyear= |author=Hirohiko Niizumi |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2005-06-30 |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=GameSpot |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate=] Rendering uses PSGL, a modified version of OpenGL ES 1.0 (OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant except for the use of Cg instead of GLSL), with extensions specifically aimed at the PS3.cite web|last=Arnaud|first=Rémi|authorlink=|coauthors=|date=|url=http://www.khronos.org/developers/content/GDC_2006/GLESTutorial07-PlayStation_GL.pdf|title=PS3 to include parental controls|format=PDF|work=|pages=|publisher=Khronos Group|accessdate=2006-05-24] Other specifications include OpenMAX, a collection of fast, cross-platform tools for general "media acceleration", such as matrix calculations, and OpenVG, for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics. These specifications have GPL, free for any use, and/or commercial implementations by third parties.

Sublicensed technology includes complete game engines, physics libraries, and special libraries. Engines include Epic's Unreal engine 3.0. Physics libraries include AGEIA's PhysX SDK, NovodeX,cite press release|publisher=Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.|accessdate=2006-08-23|date=2005-07-21|title=Sony Computer Entertainment Enters Into Strategic Licensing Agreement With AGEIA|url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=10281] and Havok's physics and animation engines. [cite web|title= Strategic Licensing Agreement with SCEA|accessdate=2006-08-01|org=havok|url=http://www.havok.com/content/view/87/53/] Other tools include Nvidia's Cg 1.5 (a C-like shading language, which HLSL was based upon), SpeedTree RT by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (high-quality virtual foliage in real time), and Kynogon's Kynapse 4.0 "large scale A.I."cite press release|publisher=Kynogon|date=2006-01-25|title=Kynogon joins SCEI’s “PLAYSTATION3” Tools & Middleware program|url=http://kynogon.nerim.net/images-blog/Press_Release/Kynogon_PR_PS3_060125.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2006-05-18]

Sony has considered using IPv6, the next generation of the Internet Protocol. [cite web | title=Juniper Networks on IPv6 and MPLS networking in Asia – Part I | work=DigiTimes Publication | url=http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20041215PR202.html | accessdate=2005-06-10]

Some titles, such as "Unreal Tournament 3", "Genji: Days of the Blade", "Ridge Racer 7" and "Devil May Cry 4", require users to install 4–5 GB of game data to the hard drive, which improves load times. In "Genji", for example, the cached data reduces load times from 15 seconds to around 4 seconds. [cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11365|title=PlayStation 3 Hard Drive Usage Clarified|date=2006-10-23|accessdate=2007-01-25]

Recently, Sony announced a new tool set that will be free to all developers known as "PhyreEngine" that will offer highly optimized lightweight libraries for CELL SPUs. These libraries will provide code for animation, compression (expected to greatly improve loading times), and many more features. The package will also provide 'GCM Replay', a powerful RSX profiling tool to allow developers to gain the most out of the PlayStation 3's graphics chip. [cite web|url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/6166945.html|title=Killzone footage used to hype PlayStation Edge|date=2007-03-07]

Backward compatibility

Sony stated that every PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game that observes its respective system's TRC (Technical Requirements Checklist) would be playable on PS3 at launch. SCE president Ken Kutaragi asked developers to adhere to the TRC to facilitate compatibility with future PlayStations, stating that the company was having some difficulty getting backward compatibility with games that had not followed the TRCs. Initial NTSC PS3 units include the CPU/rasterizer combination chip used in the slim PS2 (EE+GS) to achieve backward compatibility.cite web|last=Gantayat|first=Anoop|url=http://ps3.ign.com/articles/711/711242p1.html|title=Sony Bundles PS2 With PS3|publisher=IGN|date=2006-06-05|accessdate=2006-06-06] The backward compatibility function is region-locked. [cite web |url=http://www.gamespot.com/pages/profile/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-24746743&user=James_Yu |title=PlayStation 3 Backward Compatibility Testing|author=Yu, James|date=2006-10-27|publisher=GameSpot|accessdate=2006-10-27]

Initially, approximately 3% of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles had minor compatibility issues, including poor audio, system freezes or controller malfunctions. [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/technology/15sony.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin|title=PlayStation 3 Unable to Play Some of Sony’s Earlier Games|publisher=Associated Press|date=2006-11-15|accessdate=2006-11-15] Popular games reported to have these glitches included "Tekken 5" and "Gran Turismo 4". [cite web |url=http://ps3.ign.com/articles/745/745439p1.html |title=PS3 Backwards Compatibility Issues|publisher=IGN PlayStation 3|date=2006-11-12|last=Gantayat|first=Anoop] Many games had also been reported to have problems with garbled or unreadable text on-screen and generally blurry image quality, but the January 24, 2007 software release, which updated the system to version 1.50, has fully resolved this issue. [cite web |url=http://ps3.ign.com/articles/758/758306p1.html |title=PS3 Updated to 1.50 |accessdate=2007-02-22 |last=Haynes |first=Jeff |date=2007-01-24 |publisher=IGN PlayStation 3]

Removal of hardware support

In order to reduce manufacturing costs,cite web |url=http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2007/02/sony_rethinks_p.php |title=Sony rethinks Euro PS3 backwards compatibility |accessdate=2007-04-28 |author=Edge Online |date=2007-02-23] the Emotion Engine (EE) is not included in European, Australian and South Korean systems.cite web |url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=25163 |title=No plans to bring 80 GB PS3 to Europe, says Sony |publisher=Gamesindustry.biz |date=2007-05-21 |author=Ellie Gibson |accessdate=2007-07-07] cite web |url=http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20061108/123308 |title=Along with Cell, First Generation PS3 Features EE, GS Developed for PS2 |accessdate=2007-04-25 |last=Eda |first=Rocky |coauthors=Nikkei Electronics |date=2006-11-08 |publisher=Tech-On!] The 80 GB model released in North America also lacks the Emotion Engine (EE) CPU. [cite web |url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=26520 |title=New 80GB PS3 eliminates "emotion engine" chip |author=Mark Androvich |date=2007-07-09 |publisher=Gamesindustry.biz |accessdate=2007-07-09] Software emulation of the Emotion Engine is used instead and as a result, backward compatibility for PlayStation 2 games is reduced. Backward compatibility is improved periodically through PlayStation 3 System Software updates, however Sony has stated that its focus will eventually shift to developing content exclusively for the PS3.cite press release |title=Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Announces Hardware Specification of PLAYSTATION3 for Europe |publisher=Sony Computer Entertainment Europe |date=2007-02-23 |url=http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=4331&NewsAreaID=2 |accessdate=2007-04-25] cite web|url=http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/774/774133p1.html|title=72% of PS2 Games Work on EU PS3s|accessdate=2007-03-20] In the 40 GB model, backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 titles was omitted completely due to the removal of the PlayStation 2's "Graphics Synthesizer" GPU which omitted all PS2 based hardware from the system;cite web |url=http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/071006e.html |title=New PLAYSTATION3 Model to Take Holiday Season by Storm |accessdate=2007-10-05 |date=October 5, 2007 |publisher=Sony Computer Entertainment |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] however, compatibility for most PlayStation titles will still be provided through software emulation on the 40GB unit.cite web |url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/6180463.html |title=UK PS3 drops price, 40GB finally official |accessdate=2007-10-06 |last=Boyes |first=Emma |date=October 5, 2007 |work=GameSpot |publisher=CNET ]

On March 20, 2007 Sony released a compatibility list; 1,782 of the 2,451 PS2 games (73%) released in Europe were playable on the European PS3, subsequent system software updates have improved software backwards compatibility and added support for upscaling of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games up to 1080p resolution. [cite web |url=http://uk.playstation.com/help-support/ps3/guides/detail/item65498/Update-features-(ver-1-80)/ |title=PLAYSTATION 3 System Software updates - Update features (ver 1.80) |date=2007-05-24 |publisher=Sony |accessdate=2007-07-07] Upscaling can improve picture quality in some situations. [cite web |url=http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/793/793775p1.html |title=PlayStation 3 Upscaling Comparison |publisher=IGN |author=Rob Burman |date=2007-03-20 |accessdate=2007-07-07]

A North American title compatibility list is available on [http://www.us.playstation.com/Support/CompatibleStatus Playstation.com] . Entering a title will check for known compatibility issues.

The Japanese PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game compatibility database has been updated with system software update version 1.93 in September 2007 and is also available on the official Japanese PlayStation website. [cite web |url=http://www.jp.playstation.com/ps3/status/ |title=Japanese PlayStation 3 backward compatibility database. (update version 1.00~1.93) |publisher=Sony Computer Entertainment Japan |author=SCEJ |date=2007-08-06 |accessdate=2007-09-18]

References