55w ago - Ubisoft International Product Manager Assistant Arnaud Marchand has shared a Mad Riders developer interview today with Lead Level Designer Marek Sobol below.

To quote: What is Mad Riders?

It's a super-fast, super fun arcade racer with beautiful environments, incredible stunts and unrivalled speed. Mad Riders is full of content: 45 tracks, customizable vehicles and drivers, various single-player and multiplayer modes.

The challenge was to do something different than the traditional package for a racing game and we think we have a game that offers great value for money!

Can you describe the idea behind the development of Mad Riders in one word?

Most definitely 'fun'! Mad Riders was never meant to be a simulator, it's an arcade game that had to be easy to pick up and enjoyable for anyone.

We needed to get into this crazy mind-set of creating an arcade game in the best sense of the word, old school fun for everyone but infused with the spirit of competition, and this "No way! Did you see THAT?!" feeling you get when playing with friends.

So you're getting hours of fun for the price of a large pizza, now is this stuff extreme or what?!

How does that...

95w ago - Today Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer.net (linked above) that they plan to shift to the next-generation PS4 console once developers can't get anything else out of the PlayStation 3 console.

As previously reported, the PlayStation 4 is also expected to launch after Microsoft's new XBox console currently slated for 2013.

To quote: "Sony will launch its next generation home console when developers are unable to improve the games they make, a senior executive at the company has said.

When that happens, Sony will have to "seriously consider" launching the PlayStation 4, worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer.

"Looking at the platform cycle, when the platform becomes something game developers are not able to improve their creations with, that's the time we have to really seriously consider shifting to the next generation," Yoshida said.

While Microsoft is rumored to be preparing to launch its new Xbox in 2013, we've heard little about Sony's next home console.

Sony has insisted its focus is on the PS3, which recently enjoyed a price cut, and the PS Vita, due out in Europe early next year.

120w ago - At GDC 2011 Sony unveiled to PS3 developers the new PhyreEngine 3.0 which includes NGP support alongside new PlayStation 3 AI middleware.

To quote from Develop-Online.net:

Sony have touted several new features of the 3.0 iteration and tools, including a new asset pipeline and processing tool, a rewritten level editor, 'more accessible' API and support for entities, scripting, and integrated physics and navigation components.

The engine also integrates with middleware tech from several of Sony's business partners, including Havok, Nvidia and Scaleform.

"We're very happy to see the popularity of PhyreEngine with the global game developer community" said SCEI technology platform SVP Teiji Yutaka.

"It has helped demonstrate our commitment to the game developer community and in particular enable smaller independent developers and publishers to flourish on PS3 and NGP."

Finally, below is the PS3 AI Middleware Press Release from ElectronicTheatre.co.uk (linked above):

Autodesk, Inc. has announced the imminent release of three new middleware...

120w ago - Sony's Senior Engineer John McCutchan at Developer Support has unveiled Move.Me at GDC 2011 which is a PlayStation 3 server application that allows anyone with a PS3 to experiment with motion controls and is officially sanctioned and supported by Sony Computer Entertainment.

To quote: John McCutchan, Senior Engineer with SCEA's Developer Support team, here to tell you about an exciting initiative we're unveiling for PlayStation Move during GDC this week.

Later today, I'll be giving a presentation on Move.Me, a new software application that provides academics and hobbyists access to PlayStation Move's technology, enabling them to create entirely new applications using a PC, the Move motion controller, the PlayStation Eye, and the power of the PlayStation 3 system.

We know many of you might not be able to make the trek to San Francisco for the show, so we wanted to give you a quick overview of Move.Me here.

When we launched PlayStation Move last September, we knew it would set a new benchmark for precision in motion controlled gaming. Even before PlayStation Move was publicly available to all of you, we were talking about the device's potential implications for academics and researchers....

124w ago - Here is another open source PS3 SPU IDA Analyzer Module for PlayStation 3 developers.

Download: Open Source PS3 SPU IDA Analyzer Module

I didn't know about Jack Chen aka anita999's IDA SPU module until yesterday evening.

So we were actually working on the same.. Anyway I had to finish what I started, and saw that our internal structures defer quite a bit..

If you are interested, binaries and MIT licensed sources can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/ida-spu/

This is a IDA processor module for the IBM Cell Synergistic Processor Unit (SPU) (that can be found in the PS3 for example).