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The freshly announced PS3 exclusive Starhawk will be able to fix bugs and other gameplay issues without having to go through the regular process of bulky updates and lengthy certifications, according to Sony.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the game’s London reveal earlier this week, SCEA senior producer Harvard Bonin confirmed that “if we feel like, oh boy, the Kinetic rifle feels awfully overpowered – and here’s why – then we can make a quick fix, and you won’t even know it actually – it’ll just be live on our end.”
Just how much can Sony change? “Quite a bit,” says Bonin, “even to the point that we can change some of the art. We can certainly fix map holes if, somehow, they sneak through.”
Normally, if a developer needs to patch a game on the client-side – your console – it’s required to go through a lengthy submission process with the console manufacturer, and then the user needs to download the patch to their hard drive.
Bonin thinks server-side patching will be advantageous for Starhawk. “I think that giving us the ability to do that is a gigantic help to us, because we can fix stuff on the fly without having to go through these long times of having to wait.”
Sony’s Santa Monica Studios and LightBox Interactive have learnt from previous experience with Warhawk. “With Warhawk,” says Bonin, “if we wanted to do anything like that we would have to do a patch, submit it, go through this long amount of testing – even if you just wanted to do a very little thing. This time, though? No problem.”
Starhawk is the sequel to 2006’s multiplayer shooter Warhawk. The sequel adds a full-blown single-player campaign and a new style of play that allows users to construct bases by summoning down units, turrets, and entire buildings.
VideoGamer.com has recently gone hands-on with the game.
