| existenz2 said: Moneyhatting distorts the publishing paths and decision making process of 3rd party developers and also public opinion of a consoles relative capability.
I dont believe Sony has money hatted indies, in fact the reverse- they give the free support to allow them to make games for the platform freely.
Overall is halo better because it is not on PS3 or PC ?
No, in fact if it was on both of those Bungie would probably have made more money by now. |
No matter how consumers see it, moneyhatting gives developers upfront money. It reduces the risk and investment of a game and it puts money in the developers pocket for something they were already doing. The fact that when the deal is done they can then port the game to other systems is an added benefit because the cost has already been paid. Even if they cannot port the game, the 2nd or third are now funded because of that upfront money including sales they receive for the previous game.
I believe one of the bigger issues is that gamers always believe that something has to benefit them. In most cases these development studios take risk all the time and I am sure its great when that risk is reduce. Moneyhatting may not be something that is in the interest of gamers all the time but its definitely in the interest of developers as they do have to run a business. When you profits is reliant on game sells and you have plenty of things that cut into it, having some extra cash in the bank is never a bad thing.
So yes, Moneyhatting changes the way developers think about releasing a game but then again it should.
Free support is moneyhatting. Whether its cash or not having to pay something it’s the same thing. Its no different from MS giving indies a free dev kit to produce content on their system.
As for Halo, who’s to know if it would have been better. It’s not like Bungie did not have other titles that did not do all that hot before Halo like Myth and Oni. Concentrating on one platform helps to keep the project focus and not spread a team thin thus producing a better product. By your own standard then none of these studios should be exclusive as they could definitely make more money if they went multi plat. So all of the Studios Sony has bought over time would be better off independent.
