PlayStation 5 development kits are another question. A development kit is a proprietary piece of hardware that allows game-makers to build and optimize games for a specific console. It usually comes with proprietary software, too, such as a console’s operating system and other βdebugβ features that allow developers more access to the hardware than they’d have with a retail device. It’s possible to replicate a console’s development environment by using software on a computer, and these days, game engines like Unity and Unreal can facilitate that process, but in order to release games on the PlayStation, developers will ultimately need the tools and licenses provided by devkits. These development kits are especially useful for debugging and preparing for certification, the process that Sony uses to test and approve of new games.
But the term can be misleading.
To say that βPS5 devkitsβ are out in the wild could mean several different things.
βSuper early devkits are often PCs with the CPU and GPU,β said a source familiar with Sony’s console development, referring to the processor and graphics card of the future machine. Early βdevelopment kitsβ might not resemble a PlayStation at all.
An
early devkit βis a literal desktop towerβit doesn’t look like anything,β the source said. β
First devkits are almost always that. They might have a custom motherboard or might literally be a PC. You want to get one or two of those out to the
lead graphics programmer [of a studio] so they can see what’s possible, start planning what they can do in their game based on that. That’s early devkit stuff.β
As a result, before a new console is released, studios will typically work with
multiple versions of development kits. One person who worked in a high role at a major game developer said that their
company had received proper PS4 devkits, then code-named Orbis, about a
year before the console launched in November 2013. Another person who worked for a major game studio said they were
working with PCs dressed up as development kits around 18-24 months before the PS4 came out. The PlayStation 4, unlike its predecessor, was built with PC architecture, allowing more flexibility there.
If these early PS5 devkits are out at game studios now, they are likely extremely well-hidden. With earlier PlayStations, sources said, Sony had worked hard to keep development kits secret, even sometimes asking game studios to lock them in rooms where access was restricted to a select group of people.
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