Pier Solar HD on Wii u being held up by Microsoft submission process

[lord_of_flood]

snowdog said:

lord_of_flood said:
Microsoft's parity clause is what caused all the crap concerning the delay of Rayman Legends too, and I'm pretty sure a lot of indie devs don't like it either. I know Curve Studios (guys who made Stealth Bastard) is pretty outspoken against it, and the amount of indies that don't come to Xbox platforms is pretty indicative of this as well.

I wish Microsoft would get rid of it, but it's not likely. Maybe Phil Spencer is truly godsend and he will get rid of the clause, but I'm not pinning my hopes on it.

The problem with the parity clause is due to the publisher/developer not the clause itself. The clause says that Microsoft 'reserve the right' to refuse a licence to a game that's been released on other platforms previously. Publishers and developers have more power than they realise but don't have the balls to use it. Ubisoft for example could have released Rayman Legends in February for the Wii U and the other platforms (including the 360 SKU) in September without a problem. Microsoft certainly wouldn't refuse to give Rayman Legends a licence because it was such a high profile game.

I see. In a sense it makes me feel worse about it because it means Ubisoft didn't have the guts to stick with at least timed exclusivity, but regardless I'm glad you cleared that up. Likely doesn't help the case for indies though, since they obviously don't have the kind of clout publishers like Ubisoft do.