PS3 "a pain in the ass to work on"

Darksiders 2 dev explains why.

Sony's PlayStation 3 has been described as a "pain in the ass" to make games for - nearly five years after its launch.

Marvin Donald, game director at Darksiders II developer Vigil, told Eurogamer the studio is forced to do "wacky stuff" on Sony's console.

"It's a pain in the ass to work on," he said. "Five years later, getting used to it? That means it's a pain in the ass.


During the PS3's early life it was dogged by shoddy ports of multi-platform games.

At the time some developers complained about the complexity of the hardware, and suggested it would take time to wrap their heads around the systems under the hood.

In 2009 then Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kaz Hirai claimed the PlayStation 3 was intentionally difficult to program for in order to ensure that the console met its promised ten year life cycle.

"It's hard to program for, and a lot of people see the negatives of it, but if you flip that around, it means the hardware has a lot more to offer," Hirai explained.


Donald explained that the cause of Vigil's PS3 headache has to do with the memory management.



Fresh Darksiders 2 footage.

It should be noted that there is no suggestion here that the PS3 version of action adventure game Darksiders 2, which is over a year from release, will be inferior to the PC, Wii U or Xbox 360 versions.

Meanwhile, some have speculated that the next-generation of consoles, including the inevitable PlayStation 4, is right around the corner.

They promise vastly advanced visuals, but will the PS4 also prove to be easier to create games for than its predecessor?

"They have to do things their way," Donald said. "Somebody over there is going to think it's better. And it's really just different, which makes it a pain for everyone to port games back and forth. But, whatever. We'll see."

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