PlayStation Development: An Academic Opportunity

Bruno Matzdorf

Resource Development Program Manager

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Agenda

The Video Game Industry (some definitions)

Landscape for Development on PlayStation

PlayStation-edu Program

Developer Incubation Program

Not talking about…

Commercial aspect

Sales

Rolling out PlayStation

Movies, Music, Electronics

Other divisions

SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment)

Sony Corporation ~ 160,000 employees

Sony Computer Entertainment ~ 6,000 employees

SCEA ~ 2,000 employees

A percentage of Sony Latin America Affiliates’ time

Some quick definitions

Platform Holder

Developer

Publisher

e-Publisher

Platform Holder – PlayStation

What is a Developer

A business that profits from making games

A team that can go from pre-production through

production

Creative, engineering, art, test, production

What is a Publisher

A business that profits from bringing games to

market

Risk Management

Distribution, Marketing

What is an e-Publisher

A Developer that Publishes its own game via Digital

Distribution

PS3 Business in North America

1 Console (PS3)

~ 100 Publishers Retail

~ 150 e-Publishers

~ 250 PS3 Developers

~ 120 Tools and Middleware Providers

~ 25 Incubators

The PlayStation Developer Community in

the Americas

~ 250 PS3 developers

~ 200 PSP developers

New Opportunity – Digital Distribution

Current developers are very busy with other

platforms

Working on building a developer community in Latin

America of about 80 developers

History

1995

PS1

CD

GTE

C / Asm

2000

PS2

DVD

EE / VU

IOP

GS

C++ / Asm

Scripting

Middleware

2003

PSP

UMD

OSD

Online

Wireless

C++ / Asm

OpenGL

2006

PS3

Blu-Ray

CELL (PPU/SPU)

RSX

C++ / Asm

Scripting

Middleware

PlayStation-edu

SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

March 2011

Program Goals

Aid the steep learning curve for a PlayStation console

Building relationship with SCE

Building a curriculum that will seed the development community

Developer Incubation Program

SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

March 2011

Incubator

A game developer

An established business

Interested in exploring PlayStation development

Ideally graduates to a PlayStation Licensee (A

PlayStation Developer)

** Can NOT submit games to PlayStation team

** Can NOT Publish

Game Development Cycle

Pre-Production Production Alpha / Beta RTM

Licensed Developer

Game Development Cycle

Pre-Production Production Alpha / Beta RTM

Opportunity!! Licensed Developer

Incubation

Sign-up Process for PlayStation-edu and

Incubation Programs

Discussions between SCEA and Academic / Incubation Entity

PSP/PS2/PS3 Application

NDA

Academic License / Incubator TLA (Tool Loan Agreement)

Aligning goals for program and curriculum integration

Educator access to the PlayStation-edu / Incubator access to

Developer Network (aka. DevNet)

Key Message

There is a clear need for embedded engineering

talent with experience on the PlayStation platforms.

This program is not targeting game creation, but for

engineers that want to understand how the hardware

works in the PlayStation consoles.

Other SCEA programs of interest

Developer Program Licensee for PlayStation

Tools and Middleware Program

Developer Service Provider Program

Comics Aggregator Program

PSHome Developer Program

www.tpr.scea.com