So with 3DS having been launched I was really looking forward to all the third party content. So many games had been announced and all these publishers and developers were said to be on board. I was looking forward to seeing Assasins Creed and other titles like Call Of Duty. I was so exited for 3DS as a platform that would see huge third party support.

However 3DS didn't launch as well as hoped selling very few units. Despite the lack of hardware sales software titles did decent with titles like Rayman 3D obviously breaking even if not profiting. Software sales are so strong that despite not having 10-million hardware units on the market a game has already broken the million copy sold mark.

Now judging by the success of titles like Rayman I expected third party support to continue at its current levels. That publishers and developers would continue to release software successfully. I mean seriously if the software is breaking even and selling enough units to be considered successful why would you stop making software.

Then the reports started flowing that western third parties were bailing on 3DS. With stories reporting developers waiting to see how 3DS plays out before continuing development. These stories shocked me and I talked to UbiSoft who was one of the publishers implicated in stories. When I talked to UbiSoft at PAX I was re-assured that UbiSoft was not stopping or delaying development of software. The UbiSoft developer said that they saw alot of promise in the 3DS and would continue to support it completely. However right after I returned from PAX I read the news Assasins Creed had been cancelled. Other UbiSoft games are nowhere in sight.

Then Nintendo's 3DS conference I expected to see a ton of third party support. Instead you see some support from Capcom but the other third parties are extremely quite.

This gets on my nerves now. Sony always gets a lot of third party support even if their platforms are going down in a hail of smoke. I remember PS3 bombing like heck yet every major publisher who could afford to develop on it did so. Even the publishers who claimed initially it was to expensive to make games for and their games wouldn't break even (Atari, Majesco) even these publishers as soon as they could jumped in to support a platform that was by all means dead.

The PlayStation Portable was the highest selling competitors handheld ever. However software sales were way lower then DS or any of Nintendo's other platforms. In fact software sales were so low that the original X-Box and GameCube had titles that sold more then PSP games. Within a year of the PSP coming out I saw first party heavy hitters on sale for 9.99$. Yesterday I walk into FutureShop and see the shelves covered in 4.99$ games and 9.99$ games. I've talked to FutureShop staff and they said the PSP stuff just does not sell they said the only way to get rid of it is by giving it away.

Yet PSP up until this year has gotten alot more support then 3DS is receiving right now. UbiSoft games on PSP sold so poorly that many of the games on the shelf and clearance section comes from them. I saw a Prince Of Persia game at FutureShop in clearance for 99cents. Yet UbiSoft continued to support the PSP with multiple titles a year. EAGames titles have also been among the 9.99$ crowd yet they continued to support PSP to the bitter end.

Now with Vita coming along Sony has over 20 new titles to show off at TGS. While Nintendo had nothing, pretty much ziltch in the line of new titles from third parties to show off. Developers and publishers are ready to throw millions of dollars into supporting Sony day one with tons of software. But Nintendo who's DS single handedly saved developers and made millions gets Nintendo dropped like a sack of potatoes?

This rule doesn't only apply to Nintendo. What about Microsoft, the 360 outsold the PS3 by a huge margin for years and years yet developers continued to give Sony almost everything they gave Microsoft. Infact Microsoft had to pay huge sums of money to secure exclusive content. Microsoft's hardware was doing way better then PS3 yet publishers and developers showed alot of favor to Sony.

So today the 3DS isn't selling as well as DS. But what about 360 even in its prime third parties still gave the same amount of support to Sony if at all possible. Publishers risked bankrupcy to bring titles to PS3 and the software often didn't break even yet rather then dropping PS3 support like they dropped Nintendo's support (GCN/3DS) they continued to support Sony through all the rough patches.

As proof I'll use UbiSoft as they were supposedly Nintendo's biggest third party supporter and the one who recently ceased 3DS development. The highest selling PSP game from UbiSoft was Assasins Creed Blood Lines with a whopping 1.19 million units sold. However  other then Lumines those were the only two games to break a million. In fact look at the sales of their PSP games compared to 3DS, yah 3DS sales are shit compared to PSP considering their are over 70-million PSP's. But look at Rayman it did better then about half of UbiSoft's PSP lineup according to VGChartz. Then consider the fact that Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars on 3DS outsold its PSP counter part Ghost Recon: Predator. Or look at Splinter Cell on 3DS selling almost half of what Splinter Cell sold on PSP, this being within the launch window. Or look at all the Petz games that came out for PSP selling so freaking poorly, yet UbiSoft maintained that support.

UbiSoft is also one of the companies suffering from the largest lack of sales. Other third parties titles are fairing even better, yet third parties seem to be dropping 3DS support fast. No new games announced at Nintendo's conference just shows how fast third party support is drying up.

So why is it when Sony's platform's sell like shit and get no hardware support, developers flock to them and give them everything they need. But when Nintendo does a little poorly all the publishers and developers jump ship. Seriously even when Microsoft was doing great and Wii was selling through the roof developers still supported Sony as much as they could despite the lack of user base and market. Developers and publishers lost millions supporting Sony.

Now with Vita unproven its seeing as much if not more support then Nintendo did prior to 3DS's release. Why is it their is more PSVita games announced then titles announced for 3DS prior to its launch? Nintendo DS had been the most successful handheld in history yet developers and publishers did not give 3DS the same support they now give Vita. Despite having every reason to believe 3DS would succeed DS?

So why do all the publishers and developers favor Sony?

simple question.. through PS1 PS2 and Even PS3 age SONY goes out of there way help promote 3rd party publishers. SONY helped EA with Madden, SE and EVERYTHING they did( even save them) Capcom an RE series, somehow some way has helped most of the big parties in some way in the past.

have you ever stopped using a product or service due to terrible customer support?

now you know.

Regarding the Vita vs 3DS, from what I've read, heard and been told the Vita is a developers wet dream. The kits are cheap, small and very fast to boot up, run and get working on games with. There are numerous reports around the internet of developers praising the device from around the globe and we've seen examples of Sony giving the thing away for free I think to encourage developers. Combine that with the Vita's focus on digital distribution and much more focused online presense it offers the opportunity to make smaller, less risky on the Vita as you don't have to go down the whole retail / physical manufacturing route.

Add in it's specs are tied in well with HD console developement too, opening the opportunity for ports and sharing assets, game engines etc.

On the otherhand there's been some (unconfirmed?) reports of Nintendo's handling of the device with third parties being poor. I read about a 6-12 month waiting list on dev kits, changing specs before launch etc, which when you combine with a (At least in the eyes of the publishers) disappointing and lack-lustre launch sales are going to deter development.

It does surprise me just how much favouritsm the Vita seems to be getting though, I take that as much a statement of just how well Sony have gone about drumming up support as oppose to a bias against Nintendo.

(Will dig up any links if you need regarding whatever I said...)

I've asked myself this question for years and it just seems that anything new from Sony is grandfathered in due to past successes. Think about how successful the PS1 and PS2 were. Developers still believe Sony will return to it's former glory. Although the PS3 has struggled it has gotten better consistently. Even when Microsoft was leagues ahead of Sony when you total the sales it was a different story when you look by region. So long story short Sony really is the only company that sells well in every market. They may not be number one in every market but they damn sure aren't the worst.

Don't think they show bias towards Sony.

Publishers just won't neglect Sony platforms because Sony is one of the largest entertainment companies in the world.

You sound butt hurt on this (Insert you mad troll face). But seriously, Ubisoft supported the PSP early one when software was selling at its highest, same with other publishers. And that's when those half assed, misnamed, Prince of Persia games came out. Now look at the past 2 maybe even 3 years, there's no support from North American devs for the PSP. Sony probably paid to have Assassin's Creed on PSP or those Petz games. I mean do you see sequels now? Same with consoles, you make it sound like devs bent over backwards to get stuff on the PS3, yet I don't know where you were at launch, but games were getting released on PS3 a good 6 months to a year after the 360. They claimed "issues" with porting, which is true, yet when the games did release they were very half assed and makes you wonder what they did for 6 months (Except Oblivion, that came out better). Final Fantasy (A series from a company that would have been bankrupt if Sony didn't bail them), was announced as multi-platform for Microsoft's console, after years and repeatedly iterating the game was a PS3 exclusive. Capcom shifted development of Monster Hunter 3 from the PS3 to the Wii. Horii abandoned Sony and moved Dragon Quest exclusively to Nintendo. Capcom just announced Monster Hunter 4 for the 3DS, moved the PSP Resident Evil to the 3DS (I'm assuming that mind you but the PSP game disapeared). And I honestly havn't seen any Vita games other than the announced Call of Duty (Which can just as easily be cancelled) and that Bioshock game from North American devs. Namco released Ace Combat 6 (or 5, whatever it was) exclusively on the 360, a release that would have helped the PS3 in japan had it had a port. Namco released Tales of Vesperia exclusively on the 360 outside of Japan. Tri-Ace might have effectively killed Star Ocean with that 360 exclusive deal. I have a better question, why do you think devs and publishers havn't dicked Sony around for the past 5 years?

Because from what I heard, Nintendo believes (probably correctly) that they're superior to 3rd Parties, and they don't treat them as well as they should do.

Guess its Sony calling in favours from the PS1 and PS2 days lol.

But it is confusing.......PSP software sales outside mega franchises sell like absolute garbage......and yet here we are now with massive 3rd party Vita support.

Developers will learn eventually....the hard way. Sony dug its own grave by missing a NA and Europe holiday release.

After the holidays, people will notice the obvious hardware gap between the Vita and the 3DS, Vita will launch in NA/Europe in a NON HOLIDAY month, leading to less then proper opening sales of software. The price gap will show, at least I think, which will lead to a 3DS like drop in hardware sales post launch.

Vita would have had a chance if it launched globally this holiday, but the point is after it launches and given all the factors, developers will switch back to the 3DS.

I was paying attention at the launch of PS3, alot of publishers including Atari and Majesco claimed they would not support PS3. Many other publishers said it was to expensive and their were issues with porting. Yet developers and publishers tried everything they could to keep support up for PS3. Your right a few projects went multiplatform just be glad they went multiplatform look at what happened to GameCube publishers didn't even bother bringing the games over at all.

Considering how bad PS3 performed the first few years the support was huge. PSP support was huge as well and PSP while not getting as much support today as it used to still is recieving about as many titles as 3DS. As far as I know since launch 3DS has less then 30 games, thats less then PSP recieved in the same period I am pretty sure.

Look at IGN's lists of upcoming games. Then look at how many games are coming this winter (Between now and January) you will note that there are around 3 pages of PSP titles, then look at Nintendo's and you will see about four pages as well. Very close to the same amount of software coming for 3DS as PSP despite the fact that PSP software has been selling like dirt and the Vita is coming right around the corner.

Yah I am a bit butt hurt. I did purchase a 3DS expecting to see software support which today is virtually non-existant. Obviously I am upset that third parties are ditching Nintendo when they never ditched Sony. The fact that UbiSoft who Nintendo claimed is one of their biggest supporters, UbiSoft themselves said they get dev kits from Nintendo before most other publishers they have a great relationship with Nintendo. The fact that UbiSoft would bail is extremely dissapointing.