Our philosophy at Hothead is to get our games on as many platforms as possible, so gamers can choose where to play them. I know lots of PLAYSTATION 3 fans have waited a long time to see the Penny Arcade game come to this platform. Looking back, I think it’s a shame that we weren’t able to release the PS3 version closer to the initial launch of the game. “Well, what happened?” you may ask.
What happened is that very late in development we realized that the version of the engine we licensed for this game didn’t really have the same chops on console that it did on Windows, Mac and Linux. Imagine essentially rewriting whole sections of the engine to capture the look and feel of Penny Arcade for each console – it added months to our release date! We had to make the tough decision to get the game done and out on fewer platforms, rather than delay the whole thing several months more.
Fortunately, we were able to resume work on the PS3 version right away after that, interspersed with our work on Episode Two. Our engineers and artists have been hard at work getting the PS3 version working just right. Rest assured that future episodes will ship in a more timely fashion, as we get better at porting the code and tweaking the engine. Plus, we have plans to support PLAYSTATION Network with other Hothead games for a long time to come.
The game’s classic comic book look and feel was so well-received when Episode One was first released, it was critical to us to retain that element in bringing the game to a new platform. It truly looks amazing with the PlayStation 3’s graphics, and should be well worth the wait – check out a little of it below:
The PS3 version is going to integrate with a bunch of features on the PLAYSTATION Network, including Score Rankings and the oft-requested Trophies. Plus, don’t forget that you’ll be able to customize your character to appear in both 3D and in the 2D cutscenes and that character (look, stats and inventory) can carry forward to future episodes! Last, but not least, the game supports full 1080p resolution. We’re putting the last touches on everything now for SCEA’s final approval and the game’s launch on the PSN this winter.
With the game looking so good, we’re excited to show it off at the Penny Arcade Expo this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll be demoing the game every day of the show at the Hothead Games booth (#1114) and conducting a panel where we answer any questions you have about the Penny Arcade game or about the PS3 version in particular. Plus, we’ll be giving away a signed PLAYSTATION 3 to one lucky PAX attendee at the panel, so don’t forget to stop by the Walrus Theatre on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there!
Even if we won’t see you at this year’s PAX, we’ve made arrangements to meet up with Jeff from the blog at the show for a video interview. If you have some specific questions you’d love to get answered, write them in the comments field below, and Jeff will ask me them right then and there.
Look for that interview next week and more updates on the game soon!
I have to say I agree with all the PS3 owners who feel insulted by Penny Arcade’s brand of humor, especially towards the Playstation brand.
Though I do understand its business, and that more platforms means more money that Penny Arcade/Hothead can make.
Now its just like the Gabe Newell’s comments on Valve reevaluating PS3 support in wake of its popularity.
Fans of Playstation will likely stick with brands that stick with us no matter what, through thick and thin (devs like Insomniac, Sucker Punch [these are 3rd party devs that have worked with Sony exclusively]). They deserve our hard earn dollars because even though we were the laugh stock of the gaming industry, in a time where no one would support us, they stuck with us.
Don’t come barking at our tree now that we’re actually on the rise.
Cheers.
p.s. I bet if the PA guys saw this post, they’ll probably turn this into a “OMG FANBOY” strip. I don’t give a crap.
Id feel dirty giving money to the guys who do nothing but insult PS3.
@50 FritoZ
Indeed ,the thing that dislike is , that they attacked Jack as an alcoholic , its like a personal attack more than a PS3 joke.
But hey, im a grumpy, bitter man :D .
So its cool
Not that I care to start a debate or anything, and far be it for me to defend someone who has more money then me, but they have made fun of pretty much every console that is out on the market, its not just the PS3. Besides, even people makeing fun of something is still good publicity for the console.
@48 I would recommend against the Torque Engine, every experience that I’ve had with it has been a bad one. If you can’t (due to time or money constrants) write an engine yourself though it is one of your best choices. I will say this, its way better then renderware used to be, back when it was the standard “cheap” engine.
No thanks Hothead, as much as you guys would like to support the PS3 userbase P.A on the other hand doesn’t.They insult the PS3 like as much we complain about having trolls and trolls ‘trolling’ on the blog.
Uh guys…..
PENNY ARCADE RIPS ON ***EVERYONE*** I have seen strips rip on XBOX and Wii as well as strips suportive of PS3—there is one strip where Tycho is forcing Gabe to get a PS3 because, “you’ve seen LBP, you’ve seen HOME–you know you need one’ and they go to get one and it is sold out.
Yes some of their comics are fanboyish or misguided about the current console generation–thus is the nature of different people having different opinions–but PA rips on everyone not just one company–so get over it.
Is their kind of humor.
Im not talking about ‘PS3 hate ‘ or anything like that, i didnt get that E3 08 strip, i didnt like it at all.
But not because theyre bashing the PS3 ,they always do ,and its cool, its fun.
But they insulted this good ol’ Jack Tretton on a personal level.
I think that they are the best gaming comic out there, and its funny sometimes.
I don’t see why it’s such a big deal that Penny Arcade rags on PS3. The Daily Show gives plenty of politicians their respective beatings, yet those guys still go the show. It’s entertainment, and you probably shouldn’t take it personally nor judge a game based on something so trivial.
@56 really? I challenge you to find even 3 strips that rip on 360, and I mean rip on 360. Try and find 1 on red ring of death. Such a huge problem you would think there would be one, if it were a PS3 problem wed see one every other week from them but I have yet to find any for 360.
Not buying it due to the fact they trash the PS3 and Sony in general way too much, riding the train of hate that exisited for so long. Now, we have this guy talking about “It wasn’t so much a 360 exclusive, it was just tough to make the PS3 version!”
Well.. Didn’t you THINK of that before starting work? No.. You had an exclusivity agreement with MS like most folks do and now you’re making up these excuses. We all know the PS3 takes more work due to it’s architecture, but you cannot deny you had some kind of agreement with MS for the 360.
You reap what you sew and I hope this game sells like ice to Eskimos for you and PA. Stop [DELETED] on things that are good and instead give those that make crap console with record failures more heat, LESS SUPPORT!
Back to PixelJunk games, Warhawk, Uncharted, you know.. People that RESPECT the platform.
Any demo planned for the playstation store?
Looks like fun, might have to give this a try.
Well better late than never.
@others saying stuff about PA
PA tries to rip on everyone but yes they are very biased against the PS3.
360 fanboy game trying to take money from us now….. eh only if its SICK will i be getting it…
i will have to say, having your own character in the cutscenes is pulled off quite well…
so even though i poo-poo this particular game, i am glad the developers are going to be making us new games not affiliated with PA!
and thanks for posting here, Joel, looking forward to your new games!
:)
NO SALE FOR U!!! i will never support penny arcade as they have constantly bashed the PS3.
do you expect to sweet talk us with “It truly looks amazing with the PlayStation 3’s graphics”; THAT LOOKS LIKE [DELETED]. now R&C Quest 4 Booty that’s true ps3 graphics.
now take your business elsewhere. thanx.
@59
Not worth my time to look over a petty issue—I say that because there is HUNDREDS of cartoons—I know one of the E3 08 ones they did ripped on all three at the same time—-plus, I remember a blog Tycho wrote this time last year proclaiming something to the tune of how Uncharted ‘knocked it out of the F*ing park’ and he raved on how awesome Uncharted and Ratchet: TOD is and how anyone who doubted PS3 would surely have their faith restored by these two games.
They rip on everyone equally—-I don’t agree with all their cartoons (I didn’t like one they did where they tried to make Kaz Hirai out to be a liar) but the reality is everyone and everything in the industry is open game and they own and play all 3, plus they are giving away special editions of ALL 3 consoles at PAX—sorry I don’t see any bias.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/3/1/thanks-for-clearing-that-up/
(supporting PS2)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/3/zune-and-very-zune/
(ripping on Zune–I know not totally related)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/10/26/
(blog post on his love of Ratchet TOD)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/12/12/pseudonyms/
(post raving about both Uncharted and Ratchet)
There—they play all sides of the field–I can’t seem to find a toon I wanted to post (the one where Tycho is pushing Gabe to get a PS3 after GDC 07’s announcements of LBP and HOME and they end up going to a store that was sold out of PS3–to which Tycho says ‘That is the [DELETED] definition of Irony).
Well I wont be buying this and I tried the demo on 360 and it wasnt that great anyways.
Here’s hoping that the texture and audio quality are higher than they were on the 360.
I’m so psyched for this game and DeathSpank, but even more for the Sam&Max, StrongBad, and Wallace&Gromit games from TellTale!
@68
find me the one they made fun of RROD. uh-uh
exactly
bashing a system in its early days of launch seems stupid and premature to me. but doing it while ignoring a notorious hardware issue, that’s just biased.
All I read was trophies and thats enough to make the sale.
Whats the game called again? scratch that dont care will buy anyway.
Is this even a game? dont care will buy anyway.
does it taste like chicken? dont care.
@68 wow I am surprised you actually found something. Although, that PS2 comic wasnt really referring to Sony or Playstation, it was talking about video games in general, also take note that it came out before Xbox had even been announced.
The other two arent comics. All in all thats pretty sad if thats all you can come up with to prove that Penny Arcade isnt bias lol.
1-Does this game HAVE vibration SUPPORT?
2-Does this game HAVE SOME support for Sixaxis motion controller?
3-Does this game HAVE Remote Play SUPPORT?
4-will this game support in game custom sound track?
5-Will THIS GAME HAVE SOME support FOR Home service?
I guess it’s cool. Not really interested though. But hey, any game coming out with Trophies gets a thumbs up from me. I just hope a demo will be available, maybe it’ll change my view.
Shame that people worked hard on the game that many may ignore due to bad jokes.
Anyhow, I’m sure PA will attempt to make a comic about some of the comments here. ;)
@ 72
Yes, I have trouble finding more COMICS because I am using their search tool (which, quite frankly, I am dissappointed with–there is comics I KNOW exist I was looking for but couldn’t find because I have NO clue what keywords they filed it under)
But those blog posts are direct opinions—yes PA has said some BS stuff about the PS3–but they also have raved about it and said good things—and I supplied proof right there but you don’t want to take it because it is not in picture form? Hell, the Ratchet post had a Ratchet cartoon attached.
If they were truly anti-PS3 X-Bots wouldn’t they have LOOKED for reasons to bash Uncharted or Ratchet instead of calling them great games and saying how they restored their faith in the platform???????? I mean my lord last week one of Tycho’s blogs was about how he uses some PC software to stream content to consoles and that he felt the PS3 handles this way better than the 360—would an X-bot say that?
The answer is no.
We may not agree with everything PA does, but I feel calling them Microsoft Fanboys or saying they are 100% out to get Sony is misguided–and I provided links as proof.
Oh yeah, they also talked about how they like Eye of Judgement and made a lot of noise about how they played it online with people at Kotaku.
Awesome to the max. As a huge PA fan, I was super jealous when RSPD came to Xbox and not PSN. Looking forward to downloading it on DAY ONE!
this looks like anther game made better on the ps3. hope fully there is a multiplayer mode.
well i hope we get a demo of this. the game might be good, any news on co-op mode for three player on LAN or multiplayer or chat talk?
I thats cool. Im lookin forward it this game
That looks cool. Im Looking forward to this game. they should bring out alot of old-fashon RPG’s.
I played the demo and its not my game but people seriously get a little thicker skin. Penny Arcade rips on all things gaming and Sony has been the easiest target for awhile. Yea they should have done one or more on the 360 dying but lord its not an attack against you. Thanks Hothead and I await your next game.
wow sorry guys I had to come back to this post and say something..
even though I am addicted to trophies and I have bought every trophy game to date, I will not pick this one up.
Penny jumps on making a game for the 360 and then they realize that there is a ton of money to be made on the ps3 so they jump over like they supported it all along with some lame tard excuse why they didnt do it in the first place.
you guys make me sick….your game makes me sick, and your pathetic attempt to get money from us makes me even more sick…im dying now thanks to you. take your gay little game and shove it man, because I will not be waiting here with open arms like you expect…
PS3 user: Oh really we get it now! oh thanks! im so glad you decided to grace us with your presense now that you release how profitable we are! whoo im gonna run out and buy it! sweet you even thought to include trophies! im sure you heard thats a sure fire way to sell your game!
well not me you will never get my money simply out of principle, not only will I not buy it but I will do my best to black ball this game and make sure my friends dont buy it either..not only that but it is now my mission to spread the word of how lame it is around the internet so nobody buys it.
go back and make games for the 360 because we dont want nor do we need your stupid game on psn, SHOVE IT!
YOU REALLY EXPECT US TO PAY FOR THIS? MAKING FUN OF THE PS3, SO 360 FANBOYS CAN ENJOY IT? THEN PEOPLE WHO HAVE A PS3 SPEND THERE MONEY ON IT?
WELL, IM NOT PICKING THIS UP. FU*K YOU GUYS.
1080p, nice.