Harrison talks PS3 homebrew possibility

Despite Sony’s ongoing efforts to close its PSP platform to homebrew development, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison has said that his company would like to open PS3 up to the home development community.

In an interview with Slashdot, Harrison said that the potential damage caused by hackers and pirates is a factor that Sony will have to work around were it to open the platform.

“We were one of the first companies to recognise the notion of game development at home,” Harrison stated. “It’s a vital, crucial aspect of the future growth of our industry.

“If we can make certain aspects of PS3 open to the independent game development community, we will do out industry a service by providing opportunities for the next generation of creative and technical talent.”

The statement appears to be at odds with Sony’s focused efforts toward closing the door on PSP homebrew development. The handheld has become a firm favourite with retro gamers and hackers the world over – in response, Sony has regularly updated the machine’s firmware to close the loopholes that allow unlicensed software to run.

Harrison’s claims take PS3 down a similar road to that followed by Xbox 360, whose XNA Development Studio has opened up the console up to bedroom coders.