“In Saints Row 1 we got about half way through the process and then we realised that we just couldn’t get our heads around Cell,” producer Dan Sutton told CVG. “It’s just really complicated and I’m sure you noticed other games like Stranglehold push their dates up.
“Cell’s really, really powerful. The problem is it’s also a really different system, the way it uses multi-threading technology.”
The original Saints Row released on the Xbox 360 in 2006, and a bit after, Volition announced it’s development for the PLAYSTATION 3, but was soon canceled. “It was really hard for us to wrap our heads around and we got to the point where we were like, ‘if we’re going to release it it’s going to be way too late’,” said Sutton.
“Now we’re up to showing PS3 at the same level and only one day behind the Xbox, which is really exciting for us,” Sutton went on to say how Volition hired a dedicated PS3 team for the sequel.
Are there any problems on PLAYSTATION 3 multi-platform development, though?
“I think it’s closing. There are still difficulties on it, I think you still see some games push out their PlayStation ports a little bit later. I think now the support’s there at least – we’ve had many conversations with Sony trying to get our heads around that.
“We see PlayStation-only bugs pop up. There are Xbox only bugs too, but the problem is those PlayStation-only bugs are so complicated and Sony didn’t have the support to help us out during the Saints Row 1 development. But now we have that support and it’s really exciting.”