XBLA is a "slaughterhouse" for smaller developers

[mrstickball]

themanwithnoname said:

JerzeeBalla said:

themanwithnoname said:

So why does XBLA have more de facto exclusives than PSN?

My guess is because 1) its been around longer and 2) MS keeps the games they publish for themselves, which is probably a good amount. Factor in devs who believe XBLA gives them a better shot and there you go. Im guessing. If someone knows a more factual reason I would like to know as well.

Maybe mrstickball can help us out here. He seems to know a lot about XBLA.

XBLA has more exclusives because there is a lot more money to go around to devs. During the initial wave of Xbox Live Arcade, prior to PSN releasing....People saw that XBLA was a gold mine, and focused their resources on it, not knowing the terms of the agreements (usually Microsoft tries to get developers into a 1-year exclusivity deal), or knowing how PSN would pan out.

XBLA still has the edge because it simply makes more money than PSN by a wide margin. Thats not to say that PSN can't be successful, because it can, but if you had to choose a platform....Would you choose the one that is twice the size of the other, or go with the smaller one just because?

PSN development strategy can be very smart if a developer knows what he's doing. PSN terms are a little looser than XBLA, so it is advantageous for some developers to go there first, although its more risky, as there is less money there, and dev costs are still similar to XBLA.

Oh, and finally...Microsoft cares about Arcade more than PSN. That is an opinion, but we see Microsoft doing a whole heck of a lot more in terms of getting news out there about whats going on, as opposed to PSN. Microsoft has cut the price of 45 games on XBLA in the past two months...How many did PSN have in the same time frame? 2? 3? Is sony building a new format for PSN like Microsoft is? Is Sony snagging all of those classic Sega games like MS has? Microsoft has built some great in-roads which has allowed them to stay atop the digital distribution wars, despite Nintendo being a lot bigger, and Sony being the vet.