New Vegas Developer Sounds Off on PS3 Skyrim Issues

When Skyrim was released last month, it came with it a handful of unavoidable problems on the PlayStation 3. Recently, a developer that worked on Fallout: New Vegas sounded off on the problems that the game is facing on the PS3 and how they might not be avoidable at all given the nature of the game, and its compatibility with the PlayStation 3 hardware.

New Vegas Developer Sounds Off on PS3 Skyrim Problems

When Skyrim was released last month, it came with it a handful of unavoidable problems on the PlayStation 3. Recently, a developer that worked on Fallout: New Vegas sounded off on the problems that the game is facing on the PS3 and how they might not be avoidable at all given the nature of the game, and its compatibility with the PlayStation 3 hardware.

Josh Sawyer was the Project Director for Fallout: New Vegas, another game that experienced simliar issues of its own on the console. New Vegas was published by Bethesda, but beyond that the developer has no relation to Bethesda Game Studios. Since the game is similar in many ways to Fallout: New Vegas, Sawyer took to a question and answer session on the Bethesda forums to air the laundry of his colleagues.

Sawyer points the blame at the engine that the game is running on, claiming that the problems are "an engine-level issue with how the save game data is stored," said Sawyer. "It's not like someone wrote a function and put a decimal point in the wrong place... We're talking about how the engine fundamentally saves off and references data at run time. Restructuring how that works would require a large time commitment."

Sawyer also spoke on why the problems are so prevalent on the PlayStation 3, and blamed the "divided memory pool" as the culprit behind the issue. He pointed out the differences between the two memory specs and noted that the PlayStation 3 is "not as flexible for a developer to make use of."

Since the news arrived over the weekend, Bethesda has not yet commented on whether or not Sawyer's claims are true. However, that hasn't stopped PS3 Skyrim players from wondering whether their problems will ever really be "fixed".

By Al McCarthy on December 5, 2011

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njb
i havent had problems, new vegas i did.
but what do u expect, its fallout. because the game is amazing and the story is good u look past bugs and game freezing. lol
i havent really experienced anythin game breakin on skyrim
Norbiej
i don’t look past bugs….not in 2011 anymore…..games getting high numbers when full of bugs when perfect games get low scores when they are great games…..then games like stronghold get’s around 4′s just because it is full of bugs and skyrim get’s around 9′s? i don’t care about numbers but those who do care are screwed cause they are the sheep of this world believing that crap.
- bozmanbeyond
  Skyrim runs great on PC and 360 so you can’t punish it because the PS3 is not developer friendly and this has been a known issue since before the launch of the system. Sony had to be different and make things complicated for developers.
  Look I’ve logged in 128hr on the 360 and have not had a single hitch other then loading due to draw distance that’s it. I have been able to enjoy every minute. I’m sorry for PS3 owners can’t enjoy it as bug free as me.
- Silenthawx
  @ bozmanbeyond
  nope.avi Developers are responsible for their games. They’re running a brand new engine so this does not come as any surprise. Regardless the lack of fixes is unacceptable.
- bozmanbeyond
  @ Silenthawx
  Yes I agree with you It was the Devs fault for not exploring the PS3 further. But if they knew of the possible issues there should have been a delay for the game at lease on the PS3 version. It still doesn’t help that the PS3 is much more complex.
- Silenthawx
  That would have been an acceptable excuse within the first 4 years of its cycle. At this point in time it is merely used as a scapegoat for their failure. It is because their running a new engine and like all debuts of new engines nothing is flawless. Take Frostbite 2.0 for example: 2 gig patch (with expansion) coming out tomorrow. Don’t see them pointing fingers.
- Cool dude
  Thats because Skyrim and Battlefield 3 are different games with different engines and different problems… It is because of the 256mb of the Ps3 that caused this problem…
- Silenthawx
  Fallout 3 and New Vegas had their share of problems, but none so specific as the accumulated games save files. They have yet to optimize their engines for the consoles. I find it hard to believe that the 256mb is such a bottleneck given the plethora of games that do not face this issue. Bethesda is known for their rough releases. This is no exception and coudln’t care less if it was a problem with the Ps3 memory. Fix it, or dont sell an unfinished game for 60$
Alienange
They patched FNV to near perfection so I have confidence that they can do the same with Skyrim.
chris
so Sawyer knew that the game engine had issues and they didnt think to look into them at all?
It is unacceptable to push $60 games that have this many issues. The reason I play console games over PC games is that I dont have to worry about my system not meeting the right specs, video cards under par, not enough RAM, those sorts of things. And now they are trying to tell me it is hard to work with the PS3′s hardware? HELLO? That is your job! You are supposed to have that all figured out wayyyy before the release date! If the game engine is buggy (which honestly I suspected since it’s the same recycled engine used in Oblivion, Fallout 3 & New Vegas) then why dont you make a new one? Yeah, it will take a while, but what is the problem exactly? Who cares if it takes longer, I would have rather waited an extra few months to a year or whatever for Skyrim to come out if it meant they would have fixed the random freezing/crashing, frame rate issues, quest bugs rendering some quests unfinished, and other random quirks.
The amount of bugs in all of Bethesda’s games in the past few years is just ridiculous. And if you play Fallout and Elder Scrolls then you understand that they are all the same bugs that apparently plague the “game engine,” and yet with all of these issues they still get 9/10 to 10/10 reviews. This is NOT cool. Fix your issues, its your job.
I had Oblivion on Xbox so Sawyer trying to pass this off as a PS3 flaw doesnt cut it for me. I see a lazy director with an outdated game engine who sees that it is just easier, for the work and on the budget to just reuse the old and pump the games out faster.
The other issue is also that these games are designed and ran on a PC. Each console port should have it’s own fine tune section, that is for PS3 and Xbox obviously some things (a lot of things actually) are going to run differently. As far as I can tell they have yet to figure that one out.
I have had a PS3 and an Xbox 360 since they both respectively came out and these are the only games that I have these types of issues with. No other game freezes my system. Bethesda you need to get your shit together.
I hope Fallout: Online will be better.
- Silenthawx
  FACT: This is running on the Creation Engine. Oblivion and the rest that you listen ran on the Gamebryo Engine.
  Other than that, much of what you say is true.
- The Internet is online
  Ahaha. The Creation Engine is different in name and the way it renders visuals. The underlying engine is the same one that powered Oblivion and the Fallouts.
- Adam
  Nothing is ever that simple when it involves computers. Only games like Fallout and Elder Scrolls have those problems because they are the only true open world experiences with that amount of depth. There is a reason that only Bethesda attempts games like that: They’re really freaking hard to do. Just look at New Vegas if you want to see another company attempt to make a game like that, even when Obsidian had a lot of the work already done for them because they had Fallout 3 to look at and an already complete engine.
  What the exec is trying to say is that whenever a problem appears in a game engine, its like trying to tighten a round screw with a square drill; you can find some way to do it, but you’ll have to make a workaround and it can be extremely difficult at times. To go back and fix the problem by scrapping months of work and starting fresh would bankrupt the company. I guess if the problems are just too much for you to deal with, don’t buy the games.
  But, while I’m not about to tell someone else how to do their job, I do understand your frustrations. All I can say is to try to look past the glitches and appreciate the game as a whole. Look at how you can create weapons, enchant them with powerful spells, marry, turn invisible, kill a man by stabbing, blasting with a spell or with an arrow through the throat, fight dragons, or just quietly walk around the world and enjoy all there is to see. That’s why it won Game of the Year : )
meh
fail Skyrim is a fail. Dark Souls FTW!
- Dovahkiin
  Don’t even start with the Dark Souls Flame war sh*t
Black_Napalm
i have put a lot of time into Skyrim and the worst thing to happen so far is the odd time the game freezes. i have yet to see anything “game breaking”.
- A113n
  Agreed, with my 80 or so hours I have into the game already, it’s only freezed on me like 3 times. I’ve seen some lag after playing like 8 hours straight but all you gotta do is save the game. Exit and then restart and you are good for another 8 hours.
meh
lets see Dark Souls = Better TPC better BOSS BATTLES seriously tough game to beat but rewarding BETTER Dragons not repetitive shit Dragon fights hell even the mushrooms in Dark Souls are more challenging than the dragons found in Skyrim. Now Skyrim = seriously crap gameplay stiff swordfights crappy TPC forgetable story Alduin is lame and oh the executions are seriously CRAP! wow Skyrim as GOTY a game that has game breaking bugs, serious frame rate drops wow GOTY material wiihooo…… and one more thing a backward flying dragon that can only be found in Skyrim LOLOLOL! even Demon Souls has a real FEARSOME Dragon boss fights get real don’t hate me because of my opinion.
The Gaping Dragon >>>>>> seriously weak Alduin.
Black_Napalm
Skyrim = the ability to see somewhere in the distance and go there, skill development through use, endless things to do, npc’s that actually do something. If it’s so easy raise the difficulty.
Carnage
Alduin is pretty weak but wait till u get to lvl 40 the Ancient Dragons can kill you with 2 attacks 1 if its a bite attack 300 damage and thats on easy. Play Skyrim on normal difficulty or harder and come back and tell me the dragons are easy. The 1st few dragons are easy yes but thats to get u over confident so the stronger dragons can come and rape later in the game. My most exciting death had to be when i got chewed up and spit out fighting an Ancient Dragon outside the Archmage Courters at the top of the College of Winterhold then watching my lifeless body fall the 100 feet or so off talk about overkill.
- Cool dude
  My most exciting one was when I got “Frost” shouted by one of the Greybeards off a cliff…
  Everyone should try that…