Does Sony not care about third parties? (FF XIII related)

[Pristine20]

Soriku said:

I found this interview at 1UP. Look at what Sony have to say...

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168895 (full interview here)

1UP: I have to ask about it. You knew it had to come up. Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 was Microsoft's big announcement at its press conference. Speaking as someone who bought a PlayStation 3 shortly after its release, one of the ways I justified the purchase to myself and to my girlfriend was by saying, "Listen, it's the only place I'll be able to get Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII."

SR: [Laughs] And now your girlfriend's calling you a liar?

1UP: I haven't told her yet. I hope she doesn't read this interview. But for someone who might not have purchased a PS3 yet but is planning to, and Final Fantasy XIII is one of the primary reasons, you no longer have that pushing them toward the PS3 now. Does Sony have anything in the works that might appeal to Japanese role-playing-game fans specifically?

SR: We have a long-term strategy that we follow. I know you hate to continue to hear me say it, but we're always looking at opportunities. Do we have an RPG in the works right now? No. Are we always looking at that opportunity? Absolutely. To get to the root of your question, are we concerned about the fact that Final Fantasy XIII is not only on PS3? No. That's why we always have a long-term strategy that we're working on. Jack made that very clear in the press conference.

1UP: You're not too upset about the announcement? You don't think it's very pressing?

RE: Again, you've got 23 exclusives already on the PS3 from a first-party perspective. If Microsoft wants to back up the dump truck full of money, there's not a whole lot that can be done there. Certainly, Final Fantasy XIII is still coming on PS3, so it's not like it's not on your system anymore. It's being developed first for the PS3, so your experience is probably going to be better on the PS3 than it will be on the 360. I haven't seen it or played it; [this is] just based on what I've been told. It's definitely a win for the 360 owner, and Microsoft should be applauded for that, but it's not a loss for us. It's not like the title is not coming out on the PlayStation 3. It is.

I'd also stand by for Tokyo Game Show. There are still other products that need time to incubate before they're announced.

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It appears to me that they just don't really care. It looks like they'd rather fund internal development and hope third parties support them. In the long run, this is going to hurt them because they're not Nintendo. Nintendo didn't have a good quanitity of third party games during the N64/GC time BUT they still made tons of profit. In fact, they made almost as much profit on the GC as Sony made on the PS2. Sony can't do that - they sell their system at a loss and their first party games aren't the games that helped them sell over 100 million consoles durign the PS1/PS2 times.

I mean they MIGHT fund some second party games or something but it appears they're just saying "Yeah, we don't care about third parties and if MS buy them we don't care because we'd rather fund inernal development (which wasn't the prime factor in them selling over 100 million consoles)." and I think this could really hurt them.

I know they said they don't pay for third parties...but Sony is in a deep trench right now. I mean they might have multiplat games with the 360 but sales will mellow/divide out between them while MS is laughing at them and Nintendo is rushing to the bank.

I actually agree with th sony PR. FFXIII is STILL coming to ps3 so its no loss to sony. I'd rather have them spending money developing more 1st party AAA titles. One of the things that killed sony this gen is that they were ill-prepared for the third party snob-course. If they had a stronger 1st party at ps3's launch they would never have had that problem. They're making up for it now though.

You use nintendo as your example. Do you realize that nintendo success is based off their 1st party offerings and nothing to do with third parties? Thats what creates long-lasting success like nintendo has had in the industry. Third parties are finicky and jump ship whenever there are trying times. This is not something to be relied upon. Sony seems serious about building a strategy for long-term success which starts from establishing your own successful IPs.