Haze exclusivity "maximises the potential of the PS3"

Free Radical says "it's nice to be able to focus on making one thing great rather than spreading your efforts".

The decision to make upcoming FPS Haze a PS3 exclusive has enabled it to "maximises the potential of the PS3", according to developer Free Radical Design.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview published elsewhere on the site, project lead Derek Littlewood said Free Radical's coders were "enjoying working with the PS3" and that "it's always nice to be able to focus on making one thing great rather than spreading your efforts".

Haze, which sees you control a soldier powered by an enhancing drug called Nectar, was originally announced as an Xbox 360, PS3 and PC game, but was subsequently made PS3 exclusive soon after.

Littlewood explained the decision: "At Free Radical we've always had a good history with PlayStation hardware. If you look all the way back to the European launch of the PS2, we had TimeSplitters coming out as a PS2 exclusive then. Ever since then we've always worked well with PlayStation hardware. And so when it came to Haze it was an obvious decision to make. Our coders were enjoying working with the PS3 and it seemed a good decision. As a developer it's always nice to be able to focus on making one thing great rather than spreading your efforts. So we were pleased to have the opportunity to focus purely on PS3."

When asked if the game might have ended up worse if it had come out on Xbox 360 and PC as well, Littlewood replied: "I think that's something of a leading question. There's things the 360 does well and there's things the PS3 does well. In Haze, because we were only working on PS3 we were able to fully maximise the things that the PS3 does well."

Littlewood, however, remained coy on exactly what he considers the things the PS3 does well to be, saying: "There's some things, like the permanent presence of the hard disc, which is a useful thing. I don't want to dive into some sort of platform war thing. At the end of the day the 360 and the PS3 are both very capable pieces of hardware. Going with the PS3 enabled us to maximise the potential of that particular platform."

Internet chatter has been rife that Haze will simply be a timed PS3 exclusive, and will come out on Xbox 360 at some point in the future. Littlewood, however, wouldn't be drawn when asked if 360-owners will ever get to play the game on their console, game could ever come out on, simply stating: "I can literally say nothing on that at all!"

Haze is scheduled for release on PS3 some time in May 2008. You can check out our hands-on preview of the single-player component, as well as the full, juicy interview with Derek right here on VideoGamer.com.