Sony: 'Publishers Are Getting the Living Crap Kicked Out of Them by Microsoft'

[Dodece]

He doth protest too much I think. Which tells me that Microsoft is winning this little war. His frustration is apparent, but it is not rooted in some high minded altruism. More along the lines of him being pissed that his own self serving machinations are not being allowed to bare fruit. Their format of choice is their format, and it was never needed, or particularly wanted by developers. It served no relevant need, and only increased costs incurred. They even went so far as to force a competitor out of the marketplace to make themselves the only choice. He is not promoting the idea that games should be allowed to get bigger as much as he is pushing his proprietary technology. It would be a reasonable argument if there was competition, but seeing as Sony removed said competition from the market. Well imagine that the only one that profits from bigger games is Sony.

His comments on content are equally asinine. While it is understandable that he wants the versions of games on his platform to be better. I am certain he would cry a river if the competitions versions of said games arrived two to three months sooner. While the version for his console got bonus material. Short answer is he is bitching that there is a arbitrary quantity limit, but he would be adamant that a arbitrary launch window would remain in place. His issue is not with the limit, but that the limit does not favor him or his product. Ironically it doesn't really favor anyone if both get the same game at the same time. He wants an advantage that he isn't getting.

The irony about his complaints is this. Developers need the two high def consoles combined to make their ends meet. They can hardly favor one console heavily over another not now anyway. So they are likely to accept the terms made by Microsoft, because they are actually reasonable, and mutually beneficial. Equal versions is only really good for developers. They do not want to put in extra work if they do not have too. After all doubling the size of a game does not double the sales price.

Just a lot of hot self serving air being blown. Microsoft is no more detrimental then Sony. The fact that their own practices cause Sony pain does not necessarily mean it hurts developers. Who do not seem to be overly vexed by these policies, and probably benefit more from parity then they would without it.