Sony PS3 in better shape now

Never far from controversy, Mark Rein, Epic Games Vice President, has been promoting the capabilities of recently arrived dev-kits. In a recent video interview for Eurogamer, Rein emerged as a considerable steward for the new console from Sony.

"I think Sony's in a good spot with the Playstation 3," Rein said, adding "I know we're getting some great results with it back at our house, so I would expect other developers will be as well."

Mark also spoke on how the Sony devkits have made a timely arrival. "Developers were just getting final PS3 hardware [around E3], which is a long time before ship, developers did not have finished Xbox 360 hardware last year at E3. So Sony's actually maybe in a better place vis-a-vis Microsoft in relation to launch."

This voice of good news for Sony follows confirmation from SCEA (Sony America) PR manager Ryan Bowling that over 10,000 PS3 devkits have been shipped to aid developers in their fight against the esoteric architecture of the Cell-based console.

It seems that Sony aren't having quite as many problems with coercing the games development community as previously suggested. However, Cell yields are still low, and Sony must be hoping this improves soon, along with the image of the console perceived by the gaming public - which is still at a low ebb. 10,000 devkits and a chummy games VP do not necessarily equal millions of sales of a $600 console. µ

L'Inq
Eurogamer - Mark Rein
10,000 Devkits shipped