Naughty Dog designer: we are using only 30-40% of PS3's power
by Alan Tsang 
{ Aug 5th 2008 at 6:30PM }
Richard Lemarchandm, Co-Lead Game Designer at Naughty Dog, sat down with Three Speech in a lengthy interview to talk about their latest developments. He goes on extensively about how Uncharted: Drake's Fortune's trophies were implemented, Cell architecture, and one tidbit of detail concerning rooms in Home, but it's nothing new if you've been keeping up. If you want to read the man's own words, Three Speech has your interview right here.
Unfortunately, Lemarchand is rather reticent about Naughty Dog's next project, offering no information other than they are "quite a way into our next production cycle now. " He does, however, give his two cents about the future of multiplatform games: with a set of tools "developed on the Naughty Dog premises, actually, by a group of very, very senior games programmer, some from Naughty Dog and some from elsewhere" called Edge, he believes third-party developers "are going to be able to use them in their own ways, to get more and more and more out of the PS3 over the years." In fact, Lemarchand believes that even Naughty Dog is currently only using 30 to 40 percent of the PS3's power.
The video game designer concludes the interview with by speaking well of the relationship they have with other PS3 developers: "We have this culture of open communication ... we're always trading war-stories with Insomniac and Evolution and Sucker Punch. We're just one block away from Sony Santa Monica -- the guys who made God Of War -- and we get our designers together ... and I think it makes everybody stronger and smarter." Sounds about right to us.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brodie-san @ Aug 5th 2008 6:39PM
They seem to be revising their percentage downward (which is actually a good thing if you think about it).
I honest remember an interview (it might even be on Uncharted) where they claim they're using 60%.
Either way, can't wait for the next NG game. Uncharted 2? I'd be happy with that!
Matt @ Aug 6th 2008 11:06AM
http://www.naughtydog.com/jak1/20Questions.htm
"Any developer who gives you a “percent of system used” answer is blowing smoke. The truth is that every developer uses 100% of the systems power on every game. Some just get more out of that 100% than others. "
anthonyjh @ Aug 5th 2008 6:39PM
Games "twice" as pretty as Uncharted?
Wowwie, wow, wow
Senecal @ Aug 5th 2008 6:39PM
You have to love dem boys at Naughty!
Hotrod @ Aug 5th 2008 7:13PM
Was about to say the same thing. Love those guys/gals.
jordanbrown @ Aug 5th 2008 6:44PM
I recently popped uncharted back in for some trophies, and it is hard for me to imagine a game looking head and shoulders better than it. Even harder to imagine during this console lifecycle!
deadpool @ Aug 5th 2008 6:45PM
"We have this culture of open communication ... we're always trading war-stories with Insomniac and Evolution and Sucker Punch. We're just one block away from Sony Santa Monica -- the guys who made God Of War -- and we get our designers together ... and I think it makes everybody stronger and smarter."
That's really impressive. A community of game developers, working together to give us top notch games. Now that just makes me want to work for them, even if it's just security.
Brett from Atlanta @ Aug 5th 2008 7:23PM
I agree, its refreshing to see these devs under the sony first party umbrella strive to make better games by communicating with fellow devs. This is the reason why sony first party games are the best imo.
freker @ Aug 5th 2008 6:56PM
I just plugged HDMI (DVI converted) into PS3. Shoved in Uncharted (last time for ages) My mind has been blown. The game looked great on AV/Scart, but seriously. The detail, animation and colour in it are AMAZING now.
In my opinion of a deep fan of the first 4 Crash games, the Jak series, Naughty Dog can only get better.
They squeeze power out of Sony's machines like sweet, sweet juice.
I seriously want to see Jak next on that engine before more Drake. Heres hoping!
Jerses @ Aug 5th 2008 6:55PM
I see naughty dog and criterion like a good rock band always willing to please theyre fans...and everyone else like lindsey lohan... money whores
The_Punisher @ Aug 5th 2008 7:05PM
and Kojima Stuidos xD
Kellian @ Aug 5th 2008 7:18PM
What I love about a Developer like Naughty Dog, is that by and large, it doesn't matter what they do next, you can bet on it being a quality game.
freker @ Aug 5th 2008 7:49PM
Bingo, right on there. That many years and never let me down, undoubtedly a jewel in SCE's crown.
I personally must say, these guys are have less chance of talking bull than any other developer. I have absolute trust in them. (But I would like some more Jak!)
Pete @ Aug 5th 2008 7:19PM
I think that devs only get these percentages right 10% of the time.
Seriously, if the number changes every time they talk about it, why should we believe them at all about it?
Nate @ Aug 5th 2008 11:26PM
Pretty simple. They thought they were using more of the PS3's power, but now that they've had more time to work with it, they have to revise their numbers because it's even more powerful than they thought.
Look at Uncharted and tell me the devs at Naughty Dog aren't badass. If you're going to believe anyone who works on the PS3, believe them.
No install, no load times, barely any pop-in, fantastic graphics, and delivered a year after the PS3's debut.
grunto @ Aug 5th 2008 9:22PM
Thats because as time goes on a developer learns more and more about a system. That may be why the % drop.
And, Uncharted is good, but I love J&D more. I WANT ANOTHER ONE NOW!!!!!!
grunto @ Aug 6th 2008 1:16AM
then again they were the like the pioneers of no loads. Remember J&D: The Precursor Legacy. Zero load time. ND is by far one of todays best devs. Id take a game from them or insomniac any day ofer EPIC, Squenix, or well, theres not that many awesome devs out there.
But yea ND FTW! too bad I cant Jak X online any more :(
Coops @ Aug 6th 2008 6:37AM
Well look at it with the PS2: when the games first came out on that they looked really good, but that was because of the step-up from PSone, where as when you look at the games which came out later on you could see how much they had improved because the devs learnt much more about the system. For example, Jax and Daxter looked great when it first came out, but now Jak 3 looks so much better.
Now think about that with the PS3 and how good games will probably look later on =]
Pete @ Aug 5th 2008 11:20PM
Here's an awesome quote directly from Naughty Dog's web site:
http://www.naughtydog.com/jak1/20Questions.htm
Q) What percent of the PS2’s power are you using?
A) People think of systems as glasses and ask: “how full is the glass”. Unfortunately, that isn’t how it works. Any developer who gives you a “percent of system used” answer is blowing smoke. The truth is that every developer uses 100% of the systems power on every game. Some just get more out of that 100% than others. And game after game, we ALL get more out of systems than we did on the previous title.
I agree more with this quote than I do the 30 to 40% quote, personally.
Ballsorama @ Aug 6th 2008 1:00AM
why are you here Pete, looking at your Post History you do nothing but Flame PS3 positive posts with Xbox 360 stuff or you just try to put it down
You are an Xbot!
dandan @ Aug 6th 2008 3:39PM
"PS2" Hey we are on 2008 is PS3
stevebo @ Aug 5th 2008 9:24PM
does that mean its only gonna cost us 30-40 % of a regular game.
jgpliskin @ Aug 5th 2008 7:54PM
That was riddled with mistakes Mr Tsang, but thank you for the coverage.
uh-oh polio @ Aug 5th 2008 11:20PM
Im glad to see some company's actually have an interest in the ps3, a opposed to scraping it to the side as a no biggie. It really shows which people actually have interest in the game community as a whole.
Also glad to hear that bigger better looking games are coming from a company that does good work.
Unfortunately they all cant come out soon enough.
iamkid @ Aug 5th 2008 9:09PM
only 30-40 %? thats incredible!
EngineerLackey @ Aug 5th 2008 9:22PM
That's funny, Naughty Dog once said:
"Any developer who gives you a 'percent of system used' answer is blowing smoke."
(source: http://www.naughtydog.com/jak1/20Questions.htm )
So who do we trust: Naughty Dog or Naughty Dog? :)
dandan @ Aug 6th 2008 3:33PM
Can't you read they were talking about ps2. Go back to your sewer xsewer's.
EngineerLackey @ Aug 6th 2008 4:22PM
The reasoning behind that statement applies to any system (they say much the same thing on the Crash Bandicoot "20 Questions page about PS1 as well), and I am a PS3 fan who thinks that Cell has a lot of untapped potential; I'm just not a fan of marketing propaganda dressed up as technical analysis.
dandan @ Aug 7th 2008 1:08AM
Did you realize that both cases are propaganda?. PS2 and PS1 are completely different system compare to new gen console. PS3 bring a new approach to game developers focus in parallel programing. Developers learn as they work forward on the systems, the more experience they get, better codes to manage system resource much more efficiently. Translate this to better games. “That’s why we think we’re probably only using 30 or 40 per cent of the power of the PS3 right now,
myevo8u @ Aug 5th 2008 10:39PM
Its funny how only 2nd and first party devs say this.
EngineerLackey @ Aug 6th 2008 4:37PM
Although I think this particular case is propaganda, it makes sense that only partner/internal development teams are likely to even worry about the issue much at this point. At the other end of the spectrum we have some (predominantly American and PC-oriented) publishers/developers that seem shocked by the notion of putting a lot of effort into one specific hardware platform (aka Cell is hard; let's go shopping).
Arnon @ Aug 5th 2008 11:20PM
I hate this kind of thing.. Sorry, but you cant throw in theoretical percentages into an equation.. especially if they cant obtain the full amount.
Sauvage @ Aug 6th 2008 7:16PM
Am I the only one who does not find that failblog amusing.
Please remove it.
HanzoTheRazor @ Aug 6th 2008 4:14AM
Some people need to pull the cucumber out of their ass! Who cares about the %, the only thing that matters is ND's up & comming games, J&D and U2. 1 thing is for sure, games on the PS3 will only look and get much better.
monkeywithnoeyes @ Aug 6th 2008 7:23AM
wow this is sooooooo cool. Its obviously a great thing to know that they could only get 40% of the "power" out of the ps3. You know what would be cooler though? if the ps3 was actually developer friendly so you guys could start seeing games get 100% out of it... as whats the point of the hype of the cell if devlopers, first party ones at that, can only get 40% out of the machine? Maybe then multiplatform games wouldnt always look worse and purform less on the ps3.
dandan @ Jan 13th 2009 9:58AM
Another xbot coming out from the sewer's. Please stay at your stinky and pathetic xsewer
streetball4life @ Aug 6th 2008 2:44PM
I just gotta say how awesome Naughty Dog is. Ive been playing Uncharted a lot recently to unlock some trophies and its still a great game even tho me and my wife have beat it 3 times already. They make some stellar games at Naughty Dog and it is just great to see a developer produce such a great product exclusive to the PS3 and then praise its power and potential. Unlike some of the other developers (VALVE being the worst of all) who just complain about it being "to difficult" or "to different". So big ups to the peeps at Naughty Dog, you have my upmost respect.
YoMamma @ Aug 13th 2008 1:12PM
I recall hearing the same thing after I got my PS2. Oh, the dreams of what the PS2 was going to be. So was there any report of what % the PS2 was using when the PS3 came out?
Did the PS2 max out? The consoles have power but the devs have to use it. Now if more devs could use more than 30-40% of their brains to come up with some better games.