| Dodece said: I think everyone is going off on a tandem. When Sony is having difficulty securing exclusives due to cost. Then it is a reasonable assumption that money is a real issue. Where is the logic in saying their strategy should be to purchase actual developers. When purchasing developers is far more expensive then purchasing exclusives. That is not a solution to the problem that is an exacerbation. You do not solve a problem by making the problem worse. When you cannot afford to spend a moderate amount of money you sure as hell cannot go out and spend a massive amount of money. Unless you think he is just bitching to hear himself bitch. Sony obviously has some financial constraints, and that is understandable their game division bled a lot of money over the past year and a half. So a rational human being will concede if they cannot spend twenty million a quarter they probably cannot afford to spend a hundred million dollars on acquiring a new company with all the associated costs. There is efficient and then there is stupid. Spending far more then you can afford, because you cannot afford something is the definition of stupid. Especially if your trying to solve an immediate problem rather then a long term one. What David Reeves is talking about is being more efficient with what he has. Like a intelligent person would do. Sony cannot afford to go toe to toe with Microsoft, and there is even a question whether they could afford to go after these high end exclusives without Microsoft paying for them in the first place. What they can afford to do however is be frugal with their money and, stretch it to get the most. That is why they are giving small developers small sums of money to help them get their games off the ground. Doing that they may actually get half a dozen small titles rather then one huge title. To go against the six huge titles Microsoft will have. No its not a winning strategy it is a sustainable survival strategy. Which is the right mindset to have. We need to stop thinking of how Sony can somehow win the exclusive wars, and think about how Sony can survive said wars and financially recover. Many of you would have Sony coughing out another half billion buying out small developers to get five exclusive games over the next year. That is not brilliant that is deranged. Especially when Microsoft will respond by spending less to buy thirty exclusive games. Wouldn't that be a blessing for Sony. |
Its a good point to make but its the smarter of the two. If Sony tried to buy exclusives it would turn into an ebay auction between Sony and MS. Developers aren't stupid they would play it up for even more money. No Sony exclusive has ever sold below 500k at least in this gen. It may be more money up front but the reward is definitely worth it. Nintendo makes money hand over fist from this strategy and as Makingmusic476 has outlined they have working on this front for years. Sure its cheaper for Microsoft to buy exclusives but they become less a factor when enhanced versions come to the PS3. See bioshock, Ninja Gaiden, eternal sonata and Lost Planet and now theres rumors of dead rising (2) coming to the PS3 after its Wii debut with Crackdown 2 already on the way. I agree with you that purchasing exclusives is cheaper in the short run but getting into bidding wars with MS would noly skyrocket the price. Also look at EA games profits with all the smaller studios they keep purchasing. Sony will use all of these exclusives to push their format. Heres a list of games average consumer that will never appear on another system. Oh yea and the game that you want on the 360 will be arriving in 7 months to our platform. Everyone agrees that the strategy works for Nintendo, why wouldn't it work for Sony?
