Sony Computer Entertainment America's PlayStation.Blog site is only a few days removed from its official launch, and already the company's mouthpieces are filling it with musings. Today's offerings come in a pair of posts, one from SCEA president and CEO Jack Tretton, and one from corporate communications senior director Dave Karraker.

　　In a post titled "A Quick Look Back, A Strong Push Forward," Tretton offered a wide view of the PlayStation brand, drawing parallels to complaints levied against each iteration of the system.

　　"Some of the initial criticism we received was that the hardware was a bit pricey, the system was hard to develop for and the early software line-up needed some work," Tretton said of the original PlayStation launch in 1995. "When we introduced PlayStation 2 in 2000 we received much of the same criticism. ... In 2006 the song remained much the same."

　　Tretton noted that just a history of success is no assurance for the future. "We have to bring the games to market that will showcase what the PlayStation 3 can do and ultimately entertain you like no other games have," Tretton said. "We need to provide proof of what the PS3 can do for you and work tirelessly to improve the value and justify your investment."

　　The post also dropped a few more tidbits of information about Sony's efforts. Tretton said the PS3 would have a library of 100 games by the end of the year, more than 15 of which are still in development at Sony's internal studios. He also talked up the forthcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo, saying Sony would be showing more from Heavenly Sword, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, as well as a few surprises.

　　Karraker followed up Tretton's post with one touching on the issue of the PS3 being hard to develop for. The frequently outspoken spokesman said that development time and costs for a PS3 would be comparable to a high-end PC game or Xbox 360 title, but added that extra features requiring the use of the PS3's Cell processor would "inevitably" require more resources.

　　"It's not that PS3 is harder to write for," Karraker said, "it's just that you can do more with it."

　　Porting a game from the Xbox 360 can also be problematic, he said. "If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3. This means additional effort. Some developers have been complaining about this but I don't believe we can solve that. Xbox 360 is a different machine with good, but lower powered hardware in a different architecture. Developers have to view them as two different machines not as a common platform."

　　Finally, Karraker acknowledged that the PS3 currently requires more development effort to make games with extensive online components.

　　"[Xbox Live] provides more and better standard libraries for online gaming to developers," Karraker said. "For the same features on PS3, developers have to do some extra work. We're catching up, but there is a difference."