Housemarque has been on top of the world since releasing RESOGUN for the PlayStation 4 when the next gen console launched, and is currently working on DLC for the same along with a new IP.

Interestingly, Climax Studios brought the Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition to the PS4 just recently. Despite RESOGUN running at 60 FPS, Dead Nation on the PS4 only ran 30 FPS. Was there any special reason? GamingBolt spoke to SCE Worldwide Studios XDEV Studio Europe executive producer James Hawkins and Climax senior technical designer Claire Blackshaw about the same.

Hawkins stated that, “RESOGUN has the advantage of being developed specifically with the PS4 in mind, where Dead Nation was developed specifically for the PS3.

“Due to the complexities and dependencies of the original game, and especially the way that the original game utilizes the PS3 architecture so as to avoid dropping below 30fps at all times, we decided early on that it was better to put our effort into genuinely new features and ensuring it looked great at a solid 30fps, just like it does on the PS3 but in full HD and with improved visual effects.”

We also asked about the differences between porting a PS3 game to the PS4 and developing a PS4 title from the ground up, along with the challenges faced. Blackshaw said, “The PS4 is a great platform to work on and port to as it’s a more standard hardware and the tools are great. One of the big challenges with Dead Nation was going from 32bit to 64bit given the optimized data formats. Once that hurdle was overcome it was mostly smooth sailing, adding new PS4 features and polishing.”

What did you think about Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition? Let us know your thoughts on the game and whether you enjoyed it or RESOGUN more.

While many developers and consumers found the recent purchase of Oculus Rift by Facebook to be a complete travesty, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida looks at it differently. Speaking to Engadget, Yoshida feels that for a company like Facebook to see the potential of VR serves as validation for the technology in the real world.

“We meant to validate Oculus by announcing Project Morpheus, and the Oculus guys knew what we were working on. I think they were waiting for us to make the announcement, so it would be Sony and Oculus together, but now Oculus being acquired by Facebook is helping to validate our efforts. More people will know about VR.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s interest in VR could make it the “next big platform after mobile” to Yoshida and in the coming days, he hopes there will be collaborations between creators to for knowledge sharing purposes.

“Those early prototypes had larger latency and positional tracking and may not have worked as well. I feel really sorry for people developing VR stuff. They have to test it. With the [Project Morpheus] kit we have now, what we demonstrated at GDC, I think its the first time we can really provide developers with something and say, you can use ours, and you’ll be alright.

“We need to share knowledge. We can’t just make the hardware, it’s the game applications that need to be designed well. We need time for developers to experiment and find the killer application, and at the same time we need to learn how VR applications should be designed.”

As of now, Project Morpheus still has no fixed release date and will be compatible with the PS4, PS Eye and PS Move. Oculus VR will release Rift SDK 2 this June with a commercial release date to be announced soon.

Team ICO’s The Last Guardian may be dangerously close to being vapourware to most observers, given that it’s been in development since 2007, but SCE Worldwide Studios PlayStation software product development head Scott Rohde has assured us that it is indeed in the mix.

While speaking to IGN though, he refused to comment on which platform it would be coming to. Because that would be too easy. “[I’m] not going to announce what platform it’s coming on, who’s working on it, who’s involved. But that is still a title that’s absolutely in the mix at Worldwide Studios. That’s the most you’re gonna get.”

Sony is still committed to the project thankfully and that has much to do with the interest of fans. “We want to make great games. And when we see that the public is so interested in a specific game, of course that drives us to want to complete that game. But it also drives us to want to make it great. We would not want to ship that game if we don’t think it’s great.

“I love that people are still interested in it. That’s an honour to us. That’s not just me spinning. It’s really cool that people are still interested in it, and we’re trying to make the best thing we can out of The Last Guardian.”

Now when will it be out and which controller will you need to be holding when that happens? Stay tuned in the coming months to find out.

Evolution Studios’ DriveClub was the subject of delay in October, one month before it was to launch on the PlayStation 4, and it was expected to arrive in early 2014. Now, SCE Worldwide Studios executive Scott Rohde has stated to IGN that they’re going back to the drawing board with the game.

“We really don’t want to release a game before it’s ready. And sometimes, this happens in the normal course of business, where we think we’re on track to deliver what we think is going to be a great game, and when we get closer, we realize that we’d be doing everyone a disservice if we shipped it before it was ready.

“So, I think that at PlayStation, perhaps more than at other places, we’re willing to kinda eat that [cost], and go back to the drawing board and make sure the game is great before we ship it. And that’s what’s going on right now with that game.”

What are your thoughts? Will DriveClub release this year or be delayed further? As of now, Rohde has said there will be more details about the game soon though a release date doesn’t seem forthcoming.

In an interview with Famitsu (translated by Kotaku), SCE Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida talked about the requirement of PlayStation Plus, which is a paid service, for playing online for the next-generation PlayStation 4 is due to difficulties in keeping the service free given the amount of resources already invested.

“The main pillar for the PS4 will be online play. We’re developing many new ways to play and connect which requires a large investment of resources. Considering the cost, to try to keep such a service free and consequently lower the quality would be absurd. We decided that if that’s the case, then it would be better to receive proper payment and continue to offer a good service.”

About support for the PlayStation 3, Sony Japan president Hiroshi Kawano stated elsewhere that the console would still be receiving support for games going forward. “It’s been seven years since the release of the PS3 and the console continues to sell at a constant pace, plus we have many upcoming titles. We have no intention of immediately shifting from the PS3 to the PS4.

“With the 2014 launch of our cloud service in the US allowing users to play PS3 games on the PS4, some people may switch consoles from the PS3 to the PS4,” he added. “But that’ll be a gradual process, and to say ‘we’re releasing a new console, so trade in your old ones for it’ would be a maker’s ego talking, plain and simple.”

Yoshida answered it in the most obvious way possible by stating that, “Because independent developers are making great, awesome games! Their passion, creativity and energy are at an all-time high. We expect that to continue, the reason being many indie studios are not brand new to the industry; they are often very experienced and have worked on many, many games over a number of years at larger studios.

“And they might think, ‘I want to make this game, this idea, for me,’ but it can be difficult to achieve within a larger team. Because of the advances in digital platforms, now it’s possible for small teams to create games and make a success of them all over the world. That’s where the energy and some of the most exciting experiments and concepts are. Some of the best examples are last year’s award winners, Journey and The Walking Dead.

“Both were digitally distributed and were made by small development teams. They competed with games with the biggest production values and they won. It’s so important for us to be supportive of that on PS4, PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.”

Sony has been on an indie signing spree in the last few months, and it has been revealed that games like The Witness, Transistor and Oddworld: New ‘N’ Tasty (among others) will be exclusive to the PS4 platform.

“Did we consider it? No, we didn’t consider it. The main reason being that many countries don’t have robust Internet connections. It makes sense for people to have internet connections to play online games, but for offline games there are many countries that we saw [that] do not really have robust Internet.”

The always online concerns come after rumours that Microsoft’s next Xbox console will be constantly connected to the Internet and will even require a connection to play all single-player games. Wide-spread criticism has erupted since, with some arguing that users are online most of the time anyway, while others find it a strategy to counter used games sales.

Conflicting reports are still coming but until its revealed, we’ll never know for sure. Unlike for the PlayStation 4, that is.

Sure enough, SCE Worldwide Studios boss, Shuhei Yoshida talks about how , “We need to make sure users consider the PS4 version to be the best and the one that they want to play.

“That might mean that the graphics are better, the controller is more comfortable, or the point I mentioned earlier about the console being more user-friendly, like you don’t have to turn the power on and off or you can switch between your game and Netflix at will.”

In conversation with 4Gamer.net, Yoshida also talked about how “you can start playing as soon as you want to and quit whenever you like” on smartphones and tablets and that, “PS4 will be a home console that can do that too.”

We’ll see how far that rings true when the PS4 releases this Holiday season.

This new button allows gamers to Share updates via social media and the PlayStation Network on their in-game activities. Of course, for all the possibilities this opens up, there will be limitations according to SCE Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida.

For instance, players won’t be able to upload whatever they feel like.

“There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see. For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similar mechanism. The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance,” Yoshida stated to 4Gamer.net (via Edge).

This is all very interesting but would gamers appreciate some aspects being controlled from sharing? As such, the Vita is a completely different beast – but what if someone wants to create a video or walkthrough for their friends, whom this feature would be best for, is it wise to really limit when and where they can do it?

We’ll flip this in another direction: When you introduce a new feature to players, one that they will be sceptical about using – and if the console is indeed for hardcore gamers, you can be damn sure they’ll be sceptical – then doesn’t it make sense to give them free reign in the beginning and sort of work your way back from there?

That free reign is what made platforms like Facebook and YouTube so popular in sharing. The restrictions may have been raining down since, but hopefully Sony reaches an agreeable stance without limiting whatever nifty innovations players may have for the function.

What are your thoughts on this? Sound off in the comments section below.

Yoshida responded that, “The light-bar doesn’t require the camera to function. It’s just a different way of identifying the player. In terms of using the LED [as in the Dualshock 3, with] numbers like 1, 2, 3 and 4, it looked a bit odd. The SCEI people wanted some smarter way of doing it, and the use of a full-colour LED came up.

“And of course, as Rich’s teams pointed out, other than the depth that required the use of PS Move, identifying the precise 2D location of the player can be [done] by camera, if we put the LED bar on the controller.

“So it has a dual – or it could be a triple – role because game designers could use it for some effect. Like when [players are] losing HP, the colour could change from green to red. Like in the Killzone demo, if you were watching Steven playing, [that game] has that function already.

“People were watching the main screen, but Steven was facing the audience, showing how the light bar colour changes as he was hit by the enemy; as he lost hit points the colour was changing from green to red. And when he used the health replenishment, it went back to green.”

As of now, the PlayStation 4 is due to release during the Holiday season.