Hey,

Ok i wanted to make this thread because i realised where i was having the original discussion (dark sould thread), it was going off the point.

so heres the debate.

Demons Souls is an exclusive IP owned by Sony who helped FromSoftware, a third party developer to create it. Now as you can see from the Dark Souls trailer, its basically a rip off, of Demons souls and appears to be using the same technology from DS. The only difference is they changed the name (half of it) to avoid sony's copyrights and released it multiplatform. so congratulations more people get to play a great game.

but heres the problem...

This might be a one off but what if more 3rd party developers start doing this in the future? what would be the implications and how would platform holders react?

Gears is owned by Epic not MS.

TBH people talk ill about MS and 'stealing' or 'buying'  3rd party exclusives, I don't think demanding owenership of an IP is better for anyone either.

That studio is then forced to create a new IP and hope it does well, or stick to exclusivity. With timed exclusive, at least after a year they can put the game on another platform, or outright have the sequel multiplatform. Mass Effect is a good example..

But I don't expect many to agree with me around here.

Try selling mario kart without the initial IP....it'll fail (kinda).

Same thing here, the established quality is that of the IP (and the studio)... the new game is only based on the studio quality for the uninformed buyer.

Dark Souls isn't exactly "ripping off" Demon's Souls. It's a "spiritual successor." It's SUPPOSED to look and play similar. As far as the "What if?" It'd be a little dissapointing, for sure. If Insomniac went and made a 360 exclusive called Socketwrench and Clang, yeah there'd be a problem. I think you're sensationalizing it just a bit though. I don't think we've seen 3rd party devs. recycle ideas like that yet and when we do it'll definitely be an issue, but it isn't yet.

Also, have you played any of Epic's other games? Gears isn't all that original compared to the Unreal  series.

ok gears maybe wasnt the best example.

lets take resistance. thats a sony IP but made by insomniac...what if they used designs from the resistance project to create a very similar game but released it under another name?

We should probably ask experts on this like Team Ninja / Tecmo-Koei or Ninja Theory ;)

I must say i don't like such developer behaviour and consider it kinda like form of prostitution - you made your name and created succesfull franchise for company X then stay in relationship with them if you want to make another part of it or start a new multiplatform IP and offer something new - not just rip-off of game you made for someone with diffrent names.

good point but wouldnt it worry nintendo that one of their flagship titles, soon to be bundled with wii was getting ripped off and sold on other platforms?

actually mario kart isnt even made by 3rd party so that wouldnt happen.

the point im trying to make in the OP is assuming this does happen more often, what will the relationship between 3rd party devs and platform holders be like?

personally i dont think sony will put another exclusive in the hands of FromSoftware.

Everything is a rip-off of something else. 

I think the problem is that as far as console games go Demon's Souls was very unique. Sony might be wondering why they paid for the Demon's Souls IP at all.

I don't mind though as I just want to play the Dark Souls now.

So Miyazaki and his team are ripping off thier own game? The game was originally concieved by FromSoft and funded by Sony. I honestly don't see why they can't go multiplatform and do their own thing, especially after the fact that Sony basically refused to publish the first game worldwide.

No I don't see how this a problem at all. While Sony may own the rights to Demon's Souls, it's FromSoft who created it from scratch. They can do whatever they want with the original concept.