Jonathan Blow, the independent game developer behind Braid, revealed his new gameThe Witness at Sony’s PlayStation 4 reveal. And while it’s not a PlayStation 4 exclusive,it will be on Sony’s platform first.

Speaking with Edge Online, Blow notes that the new, still-unknown Xbox 360 successor is “not strictly about games,” leading him to PlayStation 4 as a result.

“To me[,] they talk about a console that is not strictly about games. It’s trying to be the [center] of the living room device, which is fine and maybe it’s the right thing for Microsoft to do, business-wise. I don’t know; I actually don’t think it is, but they’ve certainly thought about it more than me!”

Blow then goes into his previous working relationship with Microsoft. “I’ve had a bad time working with Microsoft in the past. Maybe not super bad, but a moderately bad time in terms of business relationships. Other developers who are friends of mine have had a horrible time, so the idea of signing up again with Microsoft isn’t something I’d have ruled out, but there’s a certain amount of dread I have about doing that again.”

He notes that he doesn’t “have that [feeling] with Sony.” But he goes on to say, “Who knows, maybe it’ll turn out to be just as bad at the end! But I don’t think so.”

This isn’t the first time Blow has made his unhappiness with Microsoft known. He notedback in February that he doesn’t “have good communication with anyone at Microsoft right now,” while echoing the same general sentiment from the Edge interview, noting that his studio “like[s] the positioning of the PS4 more than what we perceive Microsoft’s positioning is going to be.”

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/03/08/braid-dev-new-xbox-not-strictly-about-games

interesting info.

Bad relationship with Microsoft? What a shame. I love the guy's ideas. Considering Braid debuted exclusively in the 360 and then later ported to every other platform, I thought they actually get along fine.

I wonder what happened? Is Microsoft going the Apple way? First getting a lot of support, but later unhappy about the conditions and the precentages Apple is demanding!

I doubt they're going the Apple way. Perhaps developers don't want this turn into social media the Xbox brand has taken lately. Back in 2008, the Xbox was everything about games. Now it's full of useless apps (in my humble opinion) and some games from time to time. I still think it has a great XBLArcade and Indie support; so I don't know what could went wrong with their bussiness relationship. If the NextBox can't have The Witness, at least, for me, it would be a huge blow.

I made a thread a few days ago that talked about some of the problems indie developers have had with Microsoft, including Jonathon Blow.  http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=156544&page=1

The point of my thread was to ask if Microsoft would be wise to make things easier with their next gen device.  Some popular developers have had some bad experiences.

----

 Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) -

"I think the thing that they don't understand -- between that and the cert stuff that they do -- they just kind of make themselves a pain in the ass. For a big game, for a triple-A game that costs 60 bucks, and has a giant budget and all these people working on it, the amount extra that that pain in the ass adds is not that much," Blow said.

"But if you make an XBLA game, the amount of bullshit that adds is gigantic. It can take a third to a half of the effort required to build your game, in some cases, and I don't think that they understand that. I don't think that they understand that, at least for that size of game, they're competing very heavily with Steam and iOS for developer mindshare."

Cert -- or certification, in which a developer's game must meet certain technical requirements dictated by Microsoft before it can be released on the platform -- isn't the only problem.

"I can live a comfortable life, and just put my game on Steam without that much of a hassle, or I can have the XBLA business people dick me around and give me asshole contracts that I need to spend three months negotiating back to somewhere reasonable, that they knew," said Blow. "And then have all these arguments with them and go through this horrible cert process. It's like, at some point, the question 'Why should I do that?' arises." -- http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/126427/Interview_Jonathan_Blow__Xbox_Live_Arcade_A_Pain_In_The_Ass_For_Indies.php#.UTaCITswd8E

Looks like developers are falling back in love with Sony. If this isn't an indication of why the PS4 could bet the #1 console next-gen, I don't know what is.

It seems so. I don't know. Microsoft is no heart of the party when it comes to contracts and policies, but some testimonies of your link make them look like fucking clowns xD

Love is blind. I'd rather have them being friends, not lovers =3

I don't have any comments to make regarding your second statement. ò.O

I don't think indie games sell many systems...