P1-F-Learners explore the games industry through a focused case study of one computer/console game: Delevopmental software

P1-F Developmental Software:

There’s many types of game development. For example, third, second and first party and indie games which are freelance developers. With indie games, the developers will need funding from the public through donations from people who are interested in their game. Websites such as Kickstarter are used to gather funds.

How much does it cost to develop for PlayStation 4?

Polygon (my source) spoke to lots of development sources who say that the PlayStation 4 development kit costs about £2,500.

A spokesperson for Sony said that ‘Self-publishing has been available on PlayStation platforms for over five years, so it’s nothing new’.

In the previous generation, PS3 development kits cost between £1,000 and £10,000. Generally, there are different levels of dev kits, ranging in debug functionality and pricing. The £2,500 price point seems to be a popular option among most developers.

 Sony, the parent company of PlayStation said it would not be changing its self-publishing process, which are detailed on a website.



iPhone:

When a company wants to develop a game for the iPhone they have to purchase a SDK which is free to create the game but to publish is £99 per year. If the app goes onto the app store the developers will have 70% of the profits while Apple take the rest. The profits are made through advertisements on the app.



Xbox-

 A SDK is £2,000 up to £10,000 which is clearly more than the PS3 software development kits but it is much more useful for the developers because it lets them change their Xbox game and port it to PC format which is easier than changing the coding which is so much easier porting games over platforms for the developer.


My source is Polygon and Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development