Resident Evil 5 Producer Masachika Kawata has questioned the idea that developing a PlayStation 3 version of a multiplatform game is significantly harder than developing one for Xbox 360.

"I can't really say that one platform is proving more problematic than the other," he told Kikizo in an interview.

Kawata subsequently qualified his comment, acknowledging that similarities between the Xbox 360 hardware and the PC, Resident Evil 5's lead development platform, made work on the former system comparatively straightforward. "This game is being developed in Capcom internally on PC hardware. When it comes to porting directly from PC-based hardware, the console that's easier to work with is, naturally, the 360."

But he insisted that PS3 was far from the programming nightmare some commentators have styled it. "The PS3 is often said to be more difficult. As someone developing for it, though... I haven't found it to be too tough."

This may, however, have more to do with the flexibility of Resident Evil 5's engine than the nature of the platform. "With our proprietary engine, the MT Framework - it's an engine we specifically made for development on next-gen consoles - one of its particular strengths is ease of porting to different platforms."

Resident Evil 5 is down for release on 5th March 2009 in Japan, and 13th March 2009 in North America and Europe.