| NightDragon83 said:
I'm sure M$ is a bit difficult to work with, but to me it sounds like this guy has been drinking a little bit of the Sony Kool-Aid... and by that I mean they probably threw him a nice bonus check to talk nice about them while keeping his new game as an exclusive (for the time being) on their new console. |
Nope. He got no extra money from Sony for being exclusive. There was actually no exclusive contract at all until they spoke with him about appearing at the PS4 reveal, and that was a simple trade in exchange for the exposure of speaking to a huge audience.
The thing is, like many small developers, he can only do one console port at a time. He chose the PS4 because he likes dealing with Sony more than with Microsoft, it's as simple as that. Remember that Braid first appeared on XBLA, so it's not like he's some Sony-only fanboy. His opinion appears to have been developed after working with both. I don't know how we can dispute that, except those of us who have also had the same experiences.
I also think people are taking the "not strictly about games" line a bit too literally. We know Sony wants the PS4 to do all the social stuff, but it appears that their social networking revolves around gaming. That's what they're pushing, a game-centric console with all the other stuff included. In his opinion, Microsoft is pushing their new console as something where the gaming is only part of the focus, as they're going after a larger audience. That might just be an impression on his part or it might be based on talking with other developers who have far more information that we do, I really don't know.
The core of the problem with Microsoft seems to be that they have lawyers and businessment dealing with the developers, with very little regard for making it a good experience for them. Big publishers have lawyers and businessmen of their own to handle this but small developers have to do it themselves and they mostly hate it. There are also instances of clear arrogance, as with Machinarium, where Microsoft is unwilling to work with a studio because of stupid rules and regulations. Microsoft kept that game off XBLA for the dumbest of reasons.
What Microsoft needs to do next gen is to get some people between the developers and the businesspeople, who care about helping the developers have a good experience. They also need to review their processes and remove some of the more ridiculous restrictions. Too many people have complained for it to be dismissed. This is obviously something that can be fixed. It's just up to Microsoft to decide if it's worth it.
