| MikeRox said:
Psygnosis is a perfect example of a 3rd party developer they bought to lock down franchises from. WipeOut anyone?
Sony's exclusivity deals were more easy to pull off though. The Saturn was already on it's way out. The N64 media was not suitable for a lot of the games. Sony got the likes of Ridge Racer through offering unparamount distribution support that neither SEGA nor Nintendo had previously offered 3rd parties. That was why Namco were so successful on the PlayStation. Ridge Racer would have had to compete with SEGA's arcade IPs on Saturn. Tekken would have gone head to head against Virtua Fighter on Saturn etc. PlayStation offered them a landscape where they could shine as top dogs. Sony also lured Square away from the Saturn for Final Fantasy through offering to publish and distribute their software in Europe. This is why Final Fantasy 7 was the first mainline release to get a European release. Originally Final Fantasy 7 was in development for the Sega Saturn (Again, Nintendos choice of medium meant the N64 wasn't suitable). But yeah, the original PS1 was built on 3rd party titles and exclusivity deals. |
That all makes sense because the PS1 was the first console that Sony released. Sony didn't really have any first party developers at that stage, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think their first party have really come into their own until the PS3 gen (with the exception of Gran Turismo on PS1, and God of War on PS2). Microsoft are now coming into their third generation so we really should be seeing their first party really take off.
Based on what they were working on at the start of the gen I really thought MS' first party studios were going to show off their creativity. They still might but I don't think we've seen it so far.
