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03-28-24 07:35 PM
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Xeogaming Forums - Gaming Discussion - Gaming Industry Development Kits | |
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Stitch

Roy Koopa
Holy crap, it is the RoboCoonie!








Since: 08-20-04
From: California

Since last post: 695 days
Last activity: 695 days
Posted on 12-04-05 06:20 PM Link | Quote
Industry development kit machines run anywhere from $5000 to $15,000 per machine. That's why they're mostly only available to the gaming industry. They're similar to retail machines, but have certain tools that enable you to test games on it better for the entire world. The PS2/PS3 dev/debug machines are stripped down versions...meaning that they don't play DVD movies because it's not needed for game testing.

The PS2s look like regular PS2s, but they have TEST printed on the side instead of PS2.
Picture of a Debug Kit PS2
XBOX 360 Development/Debug Kits
XBOX Debug Kit
XBOX Development Kit
GameCube Development Kit
For all practical reasons, the only difference in the GameCube is that is doesn't read standard retail discs, but special NR discs only available to developers.

The Development kits don't play retail titles, and will only play burned DVD-R development encoded builds of games. The Debug kits play both the burns and retail titles.

These are the consoles we use at work. Our PS3 dev kits look nothing like the actual console, but rather something like this:
PS3 Dev Kit

PS2 Dev kits start at about $5000, but it comes with the software needed to create the games. Bigger companies, like Activision, get mild discounts on purchases of multiple units...something to the tune of $1000 per machine.

PS3 Dev kits are really expensive, but I don't have a definite price...we were told it was somewhere in the $15K to $20K range.

XBOX Dev kits are expensive as well, starting in the $15K range.

XBOX Debug kits are relatively inexpensive compared to the Dev kits, but start around $10K each.

To understand this, if anyone of us broke or mistreated any test machine during our daily working shifts, we would be immediately terminated. Each machine alone was worth more than what any of us received as salary in a year. While working on the XBOX 360 projects, we were locked in a secured room (authorized key card access only) with seven cameras trained on the entire room. If anyone so much as damaged a controller, they were placed on suspension--or fired. Even stricter security measures were taken with the PS3 Dev kits.

PSP Dev Kit

Hint: That's a PS2 Dev Kit shell next to the PSP Dev Kit box. The PS2 Dev kit box is about the same size as the PS3 Dev kit box. The shells (the ones that look and act just like the retail versions) tend to cost less.

They're mostly available to the industry because of their hefty price and you have to prove to the companies that you are a developer. They're usually bought directly from each respective company, themselves. Or, they're lent out to companies, and the companies are held liable if anything happens to the systems. Smaller companies usually have to buy the dev/debug kits. Larger companies, like Activision as well, both purchase and borrow these machines. Three of the XBOX 360s were purchased. The rest are on loan.
Bitmap

#1 Enhancement Shaman US Ravenholdt








Since: 09-05-04
From: His Laughin' Place

Since last post: 4318 days
Last activity: 4312 days
Posted on 12-12-05 01:20 PM Link | Quote
The picture of "Picture of a Debug Kit PS2" looks doctored by a photo-editing program...I see letters near the bottom of the picture...I dunno...

And the Picture of the Dev kit looks EXACTLY like the bottom of my grandmothers huge-assed Macintosh (Cept the PS3 on there is hooked to gizmos)

Im not doubting you, its just alot of those pictures looks doctored or something...I dunno...

I was always told by my uncle that he just used certain computers to run the certain programs used to make and play the game. (He works at ID: Doom, Castlevania, etc...) And he would use a rendering software in order to play the coding lists (DVD CD for example) to play on the computer...making it seem like its running on a Console software (But for PC games, they would just install what they already have and test-play it...)

Granted the computers he uses costs well over 10,000$, but for console games, most of them are made from several computers by several softwares...
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