There’s been a recent uproar on the internet with gamers getting increasing angry that older PS3 titles will not be patched for Trophy support. Honestly, what’s the big deal? Is earning a few Trophies and boosting your Level that important to you? Is it really going to make you replay all of your old games?
I don’t see the reason for getting so upset over such a small issue. Sony just introduced this feature, and it’s undoubtably a good one. But people are forgetting that this is not just a new feature for gamers, it’s a new feature for developers. Asking them to drop what they’re doing to implement this into games that they have not touched in a while is just silly. Let’s think about this for a bit, shall we?
We’ve already heard from Insomniac that Resistance and Ratchet and Clank Future will not be receiving Trophy support. Forum posters and blog commenters everywhere are calling for heads to roll, but why? Here’s what would have to happen for Trophy support in these games. Insomniac would have to pull a decent amount of their developers off Resistance 2 to implement these features. If that happens, you can bet Resistance 2 will not have on-time release this Holiday. Do you want a delayed new game or some small features for your old game? Personally, I’d rather see these developers work on their new titles, ship them on time, and incorporate Trophy support for everything down the line.
On the flipside, we see games like Warhawk and Burnout: Paradise getting Trophy support. The concesus around blog comments and forums is that if these developers can do it, why can’t everyone? I’ll tell you why: Incognito and Criterion are still working on these games. New content and updates are constantly in development for the enormous online communties around Warhawk and Burnout: Paradise, and as such the development teams can work Trophies into upcoming patches that are already planned and already in the works. They don’t have to stop production on new games to make this happen.
I have a feeling this article is going to catch me some flack, but that’s fine. If you don’t agree, that’s your right. But this is the logical reason from a development perspective that older titles are not getting Trophies. Gamers are a fickle crowd that are tough to please, but sometimes you have to undertand just why something is happening. Don’t expect too much in terms of development updates on early PS3 titles, especially with Trophies. More will come with new games.
19 Comments
Write a Comment»I do not understand you people. Instead, you be unified with gamer community you against. I do not care about games that are coming but the ones that I already owned. And besides, I’m pretty sure that if this trophies things were a DLC were all these devs. were to make a bunch of money they take the team from whatever they have to. Just be smart, and remenber you are a gamer first and whatever later.
I completely agree!
I couldn’t agree with you more. Developers shouldn’t have to worry with revisiting a title that they have already moved on from but instead be focused on their upcoming titles. I love my PS3 and I love the games that I already have but I’m 23 with a full time job and a family, so the lack of trophies in older games doesn’t worry me in the least.
Good article, I agree.
No way for me to change the way you think. I’m dealing with a bunch of kids.
These games are not old. Let me put you a example: How many achiements normally a game have at Xbox Live? A 1000 Right? But, after a while of publication sometimes MS ask devs. to add some to keep people with their acct. active. And the game could be some time old. How old is the Ps3?
Ok, Hector, a few key points here.
1. Bunch of kids? Don’t think so buddy. Try again.
2. Microsoft has not and will NEVER ask a developer to add achievement points to a title, especially to keep the title active. The way the achievement system works (which was revamped to add this fairly recently), is that a developer can add 250 Gamerscore Points ONLY if they creating some DLC for the game. These additional achievements can ONLY function as part of the DLC, meaning they cannot apply to the core game. This brings me back to my main point of the article: these developers are actively working on the game, so adding additional achievements isn’t out of the question. In no case does a developer go back when no additional content is being added to create new achievements. It just doesn’t work that way. If you want to question me, do your homework next time.
3. Doesn’t matter how old the PS3 is. This system was JUST implemented. The Achievement system on the Xbox 360 was around since the system launch. For a feature that was just implemented, you can’t expect things that came before it to comply. Have you ever heard of things being “grandfathered-in”? Means they don’t have to comply to new standards if it was made before a certain feature/law was implemented. This is the same case with games made before the 2.40 update. Sony won’t force developers to go back to old games to make these changes. It would be very dumb of them to do so.
4. Going back to your first post, you care about games you already own and not things coming out soon. Ok, let me give you an analogy. You bought the 2007 model of your favorite car. In 2008, they introduced an amazing new feature that comes standard with the car. Are you going to boycott, cause a ruckus, and demand that feature be retrofitted to your 2007 model? It’s the same thing with video games. Just because developers have the ability to create a patch does not mean they have the time or money to do so (it costs money to develop this stuff, and I can guarantee adding trophy support to a title will not bring enough extra sales to recoup the development cost).
That’s it. Seacrest out.
This guy… Matt Banks… I dunno, seems like a charlatan to me - rather uninformed, you see….
“Honestly, what’s the big deal? Is earning a few Trophies and boosting your Level that important to you? Is it really going to make you replay all of your old games?”
QUITE SO, MY GOOD MAN! In fact, I’ve been looking for every reason to squeeze continued value from my hard earned dollars. Any such opportunity that arises makes me happy to be alive, you see….
Your argument is that these features are difficult or time consuming to implement, but I’m afraid the opposite is so. In most cases, it’s almost a cut and paste job - CTRL-F your way through the code, slap in a few CTRL-V’s on some Sony supplied code shippets and call it a day…. the real issue brings us right back to dollars, plain and simple.
Enough about that…
In regards to the comment you made regarding the obviously non english speaking poster above… It’s been ages since I’ve read such arrogance… you proclaim not to be a child in your response but the sniveling tone of your rebuttal says otherwise… I’m glad you’ve found a terrible outlet with badly drawn artwork to display your tomes of faggotry.
*P.S. Cars cost approximately 100 times as much as game consoles (bad analogy), and yes, there’s plenty of money to be made by beating the punch to the trophy race - wait until the new sales data for Super Stardust HD hits….
L. Vang out.
I agree. You’ve gone this long without trophies. You can continue on without them.
But Matt, you cant hook your car up to the internet to recieve a free update.
I agree with all of your other points but your car explaination just doesn’t make sense.
I care to an extent. Trophies would give me a reason to replay games like Resistance and maybe even Heavenly Sword.
@Marvolo,
Completeley agreed.
Next…
LOL thos is acually laughable.
You guys said achievements were a pointless system with no benefits, BUT the second Sony blatantly directly steals the idea and trys to implement it
you all cry foul that the old games would not great this great “new” system. lol absolutely hilarious
True dat.’
Then again, I’m a bit upset that I won’t be getting any bang for my REALLY REALLY old buck, but, eh, who cares?
Certain games like, for example, say, “Grand Theft Auto IV” should have trophies implemented, or “Metal Gear Solid 4.” I mean, the developers over at Konami with Kojima are working on DLC for it; couldn’t they implement a trophy system supported by the PSN [yes, I know that MGS4 already has an award system]. And apart from the fact the GTAIV doesn’t play on my PS3 [for ore than a minute and a half], I do believe that the game has DLC coming out for Xbox 360. Surely their PS3 team expertises could come up with something.
Sure, if you read through this the first time it may seem hipocritical, but they are both currently working on their own game, and they don’t have “definate” dates for DLC (Xbox 360 Exclusive DLC got pushed back to late Winter/ early Spring ‘09), so why not?
…
The really important thing here is that Sony should focus on getting their hands a bit more dirty, not the devs. I can’t listen to music while in game, but the feature works if the devs implement it. I don’t think a lot of game devs are going to implement that feature, even with the creation of trophies. Sony can definately have a feature where music plays in the background of a game. However, browsing the internet in game is a luxury, and I do not want it, because from previous experience, listening to music and browsing the web can freeze your PS3 if you do it for anywhere inbetween 1-3 hours without giving your PS3 a break and, not to mention, while you are saving images to your HDD also [embarassingly, I was putting album art on my Music when I could have done that on my PC in seconds]. Then again, these features will eventually be put into the updates by Sony, so I shouldn’t really be complaining.
I have to agree that the decision to implement should clearly rest with the developers and in doing so they have an opportunity to send a message to their client base. Whether it is difficult or easy to add trophies is irrelevant. At the end of the day, those that take the time to add them will reap the rewards of continued support from gamers. Those that do not will go the way of Valve. I also agree that at the end of the day it is not a big deal … but clearly the last 3 days worth of Super Stardust game play and my purchase of the DLC have been for one reason only! TROPHIES
I personally would like to see Trophie Support added to the older games. Not only would it make me want to pick up the games I haven’t in a while and give me a new reason to play them since I can’t really afford to keep buying all the new ones coming out.
Now I am no Programer or claim to understand what it takes to put in trophie support but it isn’t like they have to rethink any of the trophies or create a whole new set of ideas. All they have to do is take the 360 Achievements and make them compatible with the PS3 system buy changing some code around and then slap on a picture to represent a trophie. I wouldn’t think any of the older games deserve the kind of support for the kind of trophies that HOME will get.
I know the Values of the trophies are different but it isn’t like they need to change the Action or the even the Name of the Achievement/Trophie. I believe the hardest part will come with making the 360 Achievements compatible with the PS3 Trophie System. It is too bad that Sony probably didn’t make it easy enough where they created a system or program where the developers fill in a few boxes of text such as…
- Name of Trophie
- Point Value/Color of Trophie
- Action Taken to get Trophie
- Trophie Graphic
and then let the program compile the info into a file that can be added in a patch. The sad thing is I know that buisness and $$$ are all that matter to the developer suits because once they have your $$$ and the game works it’s on to new money makers. I wish the suits actually had a passion for the games instead of just $$$ that way they might think if I was playing this I would like if they added this feature and it would make it into some of the older games.
P.S. I am very suprised Insomniac isn’t going to add trophie support to Ratchet and Clank as they did some amazing stuff with all the Languages they supported and even added a different Ratchet to the Japanese one. If any of the developers were going to do it I would think it would have been insomniac.
I want trophies for multi platform games, to behonest I lean toward the 360 version of games just for the achievments. To me they add a little something when they are done right, liek the achievements in Ninja Gaiden are pretty good, the ones in GH3 are horrid.
I gotta agree with Nostars : “Trophies would give me a reason to replay games like Resistance and maybe even Heavenly Sword.”
This would give me an even greater reaason to drop some cas on games like Uncharted that I havent had time to play just yet.
Maybe trophies in single player games since they lack online capabilities? But Uncharted is just so good with or without achievements it’s a great game to play.
EHT is right, Uncharted IMHO is one of the best PS3 games to come out so far. Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank are the only ones I’ve played through more than once on the PS3.
In my personal opinion, the trophies for older games would be a great idea.
First of all, by throwing in trophies for older games, it wouldn’t just make me play my older games. It would also lean me towards buying an older game to run through a couple times. I thought the Xbox 360 was great because I was so crazy about the achievements. It was so much fun reaching for those goals and watching the “Achievement Unlocked” pop up on the screen.
I believe the older games could benefit greatly with trophies. I think people would buy more of the older ones just for the trophies themselves, everyone benefits.
So, there it is. Trophies being added into all PS3 games would make me throw my 360 out the window for sure.