Microsoft: the great negotiators?

[Bodhesatva]

rocketpig said:
I completely agree, Bod. To go along with that thought, notice how MS seems to be completely okay with letting their first and second party developers leave (Bungie and Bizarre) in favor of a publishing strategy (Gears of War, Mass Effect). It will be interesting to see if this strategy works for them or whether the loss of developers will bite them in the ass.

Either way, it shows just how confident MS is with their third party developer relationships. No way would they let Bungie and Bizarre go if they weren't confident in their ability to negotiate strong third party exclusives through advertising, publishing, and developer communication.

When is the last time you've heard a developer complain about MS or the 360? We hear it from Sony developers all the time but everyone seems to carry only praise about Microsoft's working relationship with developers. Microsoft must be doing something right.

Another very important point about MS's third party relations is their online strategy; they were and still are the pioneers of game demos and advertisements on Xbox live, and it's quite clear that they are able to push third party software at virtually no cost to themselves, by simply putting up demos. And, I'd argue, this has in turn greatly helped the 360 become the strong software seller it has become. 

They've essentially offered their third party partners free advertisements (demos) and an entirely new stream of revenue (microtransactions).