This is a piece taken from his "On The Gamer From 1994" article:

"

One big change I have noticed is the insane narcissism of third party companies. They literally believe the console business revolves around them. They certainly matter, but not in the way they think. All these third party companies ‘demanding’ that Sony drop the price on the PS3 is hilarious. Console business is extremely expensive, and it is insanely high risk. Why should Sony risk losing another billion dollars just because some non-console companies demand it? It is so hard to be a hardware manufacturer that these third party companies forget their place.

It is the console companies who are creating the market for these third parties to thrive, not the other way around. Wii, of course, is illustrating this old truth.

With the NES demands on third parties, Yamauchi defended this by saying, (paraphrasing) “We made the risk, we made the cost, we created this market.” And he was absolutely right. Of course, competitors entered that forced console manufacturers to not do whatever they want. But this is all typical market stuff wtih competiton.

We’ve seen Sony humbled. Next up is seeing third parties humbled. Like the president of Activision, they are spewing out stuff as if they were in a Console War. “Cut the price, or no games for you!” Such arrogance. They don’t have the sheer, massive, and gigantic hardware costs to deal with. The entire idea that one company is insisting that another company go financially in the red for THEIR benefit is arrogant, stupid, and insane. It is the same as those who said that Nintendo should have made the Wii to what third parties wanted. Well, what third parties wanted would have collapsed the system. “You need high definition visuals, Nintendo. Yeah, and stop that motion controller thing. No one would want that!” This is why it is proper and good for console companies to ignore these petty third party demands.

No third party would ever talk the smack they do twenty years ago. No way. Today, they think they sit on thrones and console companies are their lowly servants!!! Their true place is going to be in the middle of these extremes."

Do you agree with him on that one?

I totally agree with him

In a sense, I agree, but there are also some problems with this argument.

For one thing, Activision didn't demand that Sony go in the red for their benefit. Sony was in the red to begin with, through no fault of Activision's. For another, if it wasn't for Activision putting out some of the best-selling games on the PS3, Sony would be even further in the red than they already are.

I also think it's sort of off-base to say that third parties require the console manufacturers. I mean, clearly they need SOMEONE to make consoles for them to develop for, but that doesn't mean they have to kowtow to every console maker. I'm sure Activision's threat was hollow, but the whole reasoning behind it is that, if they are to be believed, they are making extremely narrow profits off of PS3 software sales. Considering that they clean up on sales on 360 and Wii, Sony needs Activision about 10x more than Activision needs Sony.

Nintendo is a whole different case, since their fanbase seems to only buy the games specifically designed to show off the Wiimote and first party games. While there are some high-selling third party titles, Nintendo is able to dictate to third parties because they don't need them. All of their best-selling software is first party. Sony does not have that luxury. Their first party software sales are mediocre at best, and are routinely outsold by third party multiplats. That being the case, they would be wise to listen to third party devs who are keeping their gaming division afloat.

Absolutely. He's spot on on alot of what he says.

I don't.

If PS3 doesn't get titles such as Modern Warfare, Guitar Hero and other activision franchises, sales will be affected and so is the profit of the hardware maker.

Very true. 3rd Parties are getting greedy.

BRAVO!

I co-sign this

The insane narcissism of third party companies
It is so hard to be a third party developer that these internet fucktards forget their place.

Ahh Malstrom, either you agree with him or you disagree, but he tends to evoke a response...

For this one, I would say I somewhat agree. Yes third parties seem to be getting a little fat in the head...

But don't forget without third parties to carry the system through dry spells of 1st and 2nd party games, it would be extremely difficult to win a console generation. Not saying it can't be done as the Wii is currently showing.

I'd rather think of it as a symbiotic relationship. They both need each other to succeed. The hardware manufacturers to create the market, and the 3rd party software devs to help the hardware manufacturers in games support.

It's mostly just Activision... they are starting to screw over their good name - not that it will really hurt them.