570°

Sony's Claims Of Better Developer Relations than Microsoft Are 'Laughable'

Sony, earlier this month, let loose with a verbal barrage against Microsoft in an interview with IndustryGamers. SCEA's SVP of Publisher Relations, Rob Dyer, was reacting to news about Microsoft's Content Submission and Release policy, noting that "publishers are getting the living crap kicked out of them by Microsoft," and Sony isn't "demanding a pound of flesh in order for them to get a game published on our network."

But are the two platform holders really that different when it comes to publishing policies? IndustryGamers has been tracking commentary from game companies on the matter, but very, very few are willing to go on the record about Sony or Microsoft. One former Vivendi employee went into some detail, however, on the condition of anonymity.

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industrygamers.com
fluffydelusions4617d ago

Nobody really knows but developers who have published on both platforms.

donniebaseball4617d ago

True, which is why this report is interesting - shows someone in the business who's worked with both 360 and PS3.

dangert124617d ago

SONY never said they had better relations they said microsoft tactics could work In their favour and help build better developerations

mieko4617d ago (Edited 4617d ago )

OF COURSE you would think that this report is "interesting" donniebaseball. You work for industrygamers and submitted this yourself. You probably even wrote the whole damn thing. So why wouldn't you??

Shameless.....

Sunhammer4617d ago

Answer the following question in your own words. Please use logic and valid reason for extra points.

Microsoft highly restricts freedom and shuts down their own studios after they've bought them, putting them out of jobs with no money to support their families.

Sony acquires as many studios as they can and grants them each the freedom they deserve to make a good memorable experience for us gamers.

Which one do you side with and why?

Hmm, that's a tough one.

Gamer30004617d ago

@Sunhammer
i know his answer my friend
it is :.
"can i have a third option plz ??"

Blogz4Fanboyz4617d ago

lol this is going to turn nasty.

joeorc4617d ago

Here you are with this interview an you state this:

"True, which is why this report is interesting - shows someone in the business who's worked with both 360 and PS3."

come on really?

look at this statement:

"Our source continued, "Additionally, I heard a lot of horror stories about the PS3 dev tools, and our launch-title devs got absolutely no support from Sony itself when they needed it -"

the person who worked there in your interview said "I heard Horror stories"

Was he even working on that game for the PS3?
Or is he just blowing it out of his @ss?

Here is another thing

"Reflecting on his time at Vivendi, working in QA three-plus years ago, our source commented, "I'd say any comment by Sony that they have better developer relations or fewer insane hurdles is laughable. "

3 years ago?
what's he done since than on the PS3?
OR HAS HE EVEN WORKED ON A PROJECT FOR SONY AT ALL Since than?

I think this is the A:

""Again, things may have changed, but it still seems pretty funny to me that they could possibly try to call themselves always the better chance for small developers to get in, or some sort of indy safe-haven..."

Ever Hear of Indicade?

www.indiecade.com/

look under sponsorship who oh who pray tell is one of the companies that are sponsors that's right Sony.

DaTruth4617d ago Show
JokesOnYou4617d ago (Edited 4617d ago )

In 2011 Sony closed 3 studio's
http://www.kotaku.com.au/20...

Denver Studio-credits=Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, Apprentice

Seattle Studio-credits=The Agency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Tucson Studio-credits= PoxNora a online RTS, no ps3 game
http://corporate.station.so...

Sony closes projects at UK studios= they brought out studios an canceled Projects At Wipeout, MotorStorm, SingStar to focus on 1st party Studios http://technology.ukplurk.c...

-Devs from some of these studio's naturally had some negative things to say about sony, 1 in particular said: "I look forward to getting back to making games without the layers of corporate bureaucracy," -Dan Kopycienski, now a iphone/ipad game studio dev/founder

----------------------------- -------------------

In 2007 Micro closed FASA studio's-credits= MechWarriors, Crimson Skies, Shadowrun
http://www.gamasutra.com/ph...

In 2008 Micro closed Ensemble-credits=Ages of EmpiresI, II, & III( all PC RTS) Halo Wars for 360
http://www.gamespot.com/new...

In 2009 Micro close ACES Studio-credits= Flight Sims for PC, which have had dwindling sales every year and they hadn't released a game since 2006.
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

-Now I don't know where the notion is that only micro cuts studio's both restructure from time to time and unfortunately people lose their jobs, especially when they are not making the kind of games that will help the company in a changing market, as far as I can tell the only even noticeable games for those studio's is Shadow Run & Halo Wars, Shadow Run was a huge flop selling less than 400k since 2007, devs from Ensemble quickly created Robot Ent. and are still working with micro on future games http://www.gamepro.com/arti... Also note that many of micro's employees from those studio's were given jobs in other areas of the company.

-So as we can see its easy to make out 1 company as evil while pretending 1 is a Saint, truth is they both are just a business's with similiar but different strategies, while sony chooses to buy more studio's, micro chooses to buy more content from 3rd parties to keep overhead low, leaving them with more cash to spend and less likely they'll have to lay off studio's in the future who don't make revelant games. Naturally the studio's that have complained are just against micro's closed xbox live format and they see potential $$$ to be made, either way its evident devs like 360 as a platform and judging by game sales plenty of them are making huge profits, including indie devs, those that talk shii have their motives, lol.

ApplEaglElephant4616d ago

Sony buys alot of studios which will continues to make exclusives for years to come

MS "buys" exclusive. meaning they only get single exclusive out of it.

Result is that Sony has continuous source of exclusives while MS exclusives are drying up because they stopped "buying" exclusives.

phosphor1124616d ago

Sony's closing usually entail just removing the administrative structure of the company and reallocating their employees else where. For example, Studio Liverpool has been "closed" but almost all employees where merged elsewhere to focus on other titles.

skweejal4616d ago

My sociopolitical cousin is less needy for attention than you, eat a bowl of menthol flavored dicks, donniebaseball.

JokesOnYou4616d ago

@ApplEaglElephant, I didn't forget anything, READ my post more carefully and you will understand that when I say "they both are just a business's with similiar but different strategies, while sony chooses to buy more studio's, micro chooses to buy more content" -I'm acknowledge they are similiar in that both are enormous business that will sometimes have to make tough job cut decisions, while also acknowledging that they have different goals in terms of their studio portfolio. 1. Sony prefers to have a large amount of 1st party to differentiate their game catalogue with an assortment of games vs their competitors. 2. micro has said very early this gen that they are not interested in buying out new studio's to increase their portfolio, they are however really interested in paying for exclusive games/content from selected devs.

-I think this year is a perfect example of why micro strategy although different from past practices has some up side and down side...A. simply put they don't have to pay studio's light bills annually who aren't making hit games but are on the payroll regardless, B. micro is not sony the fanbase simply does not buy games like LBP, sure they want diversity but they get that through Live with indie/Arcade titles and the occasional full "niche" release but what drives 360 sales is hardcore shooters, RPG's, Action games, Madden, NBA games, and Racing....proofs in the pudding, early on for all micro's famous advertising when it came to "Viva Pinata" or anything casual(excluding Kinect now) it all fell on death ears, 360 fans simple dont play that= NO it needs to be a bigtime hardcore title and for the most part have a great ONLINE multiplayer component, thats who the 360 is and the kind of gamers it attracts, if you want a 100 wrpg's & games that dont have a large online presence 6-8mo after release then get a ps3. Now admittedly my view on psn is a bit skewwed 'cause I game 90% online with my 360 but generally speaking thats been my experience like when I'd play a random KZ2 game, just 5-6mo after I bought it, the online community was dead in comparison to 360's similar hype shooters.

@phosphor112 lol, Of course they call it "restructuring or realignment" and all kinds of other names, micro does the same thing, other than Donald Trump, nobody likes to say "You're Fired!"= its called PR, I'm not blaming either company, economy sometimes dictates but the fact is alot of people who worked there lost their jobs. It's funny 'cause you defend sony with a claim also true of micro, how about you actually read the links I provided....I can lead a horse to water but I cant make 'em drink.

Gamesutra link on FASA studios:
"Around half of the studio’s staff has been offered positions elsewhere at Microsoft Game Studios and the wider Microsoft structure, with the remainder leaving the company today."
http://www.gamasutra.com/ph...

Gamespot link on Ensemble Studios: "Microsoft said that Ensemble's "leadership team" will form a new, independent development house and has already entered into an agreement with the publisher to continue supporting Halo Wars post-launch, "as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios."
http://www.gamespot.com/new...

The Eurogamer link on ACES Studio:
Has a link from gamsutra source which talks about ACES being part of a much larger restructing, 6 employees retained to work on existing committments while the entire "Flight Simulator" team was let go.

pixelsword4616d ago (Edited 4616d ago )

Too laughable; didn't read.

Names, or it didn't happen.

He doesn't seem to work for Sony, MS, or Vivendi, so he has nothing to lose in doing so. I'm guessing that if his name was revealed, people at all three might have something to say about him.

coryok4616d ago

no it doesnt lol, claims by anonymous people are irrelevant. if you cant say who said it how does anyone know that it was ever said at all?

having an anonymous source is like not having a source. if you were writing a paper for something that mattered, lets take history as an example:
people cant just say world war 2 never happened because they knew a guy who knew a guy who was in the army and knows it didnt happen.

we need proof and an anonymous claim isnt proof, hell if anonymous claims are proof than i have six anonymous people sitting next to me who work as publishers in the gaming industry right now rebuking whatever was written in this article (yes, i dont even need to read it to say its wrong when i have a witness who you cant know that may have read it).

claims from anonymous people arent really claims, theyre just statements of what people may think are happening, which holds no actual power except for the inept, incompetent, or ignorant.

if someone cant be held accountable for the actions of what they say then their argument holds no water.

+ Show (11) more repliesLast reply 4616d ago
Prophet-Gamer4617d ago

Devs often come out saying MS has some really horrible policies and that SONY is far more open and welcoming. I don't how SONY's statements are laughable if there's actually devs that have said that (id, valve, Quantic, etc). Not to mention, many indie devs have also praised SONY. I'm just sayin.

SilentNegotiator4616d ago (Edited 4616d ago )

"One former Vivendi employee went into some detail, however, on the condition of anonymity"

Anti-ps3 sediment from....an "anonymous" game developer?? Oh my, how interesting; there has been a lot of "anonymous developer" Ps3 FUD lately.

I guess one website gives another the idea, and it just starts to spre....I mean, one developer decides to "speak out" and then another does. Yay for anonymous developers "revealing" the "evils" of Sony!

zerocrossing4616d ago

True, but not knowing about something never stopped people from mouthing off before.

Gamer30004616d ago

well.. since i own both consoles
one of them i play daily
and the other was collecting dust until last month

IMO
i will be with the company that give me games with the best single player and the best gfx on consoles
the name start with "s..."

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4616d ago
Godmars2904617d ago

At the very least, there's no obvious "you can't put it on the 360" stories coming from devs.

Godmars2904617d ago

Because MS doesn't want a title that was on their own system. Has nothing to do with Sony even if it wasn't on the PS3.

Tuxedo_Mask4617d ago

@Godmars290

You said above, "there's no obvious "you can't put it on the 360" stories coming from devs," so I posted that article. You're right, it has nothing to do with Sony, it was Microsoft's decision to not let the developer put that game on the 360. Thus, I have provided an example that proves that your first statement was false.

Also, although Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath was originally on the Xbox, it is not backwards compatible for play on the 360. Other games have been remastered for the 360 that were previously released on the Xbox, like Beyond Good and Evil for example, yet Microsoft isn't allowing Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath to be released due to it being 2.1GB, a whole .1GB over their 2GB limit. If you have a defense for them not working with Just Add Water to find a way around this rule I would be happy to hear it.

donniebaseball4617d ago

You realize that Vivendi oversees Activision Blizzard...

raytraceme4617d ago (Edited 4617d ago )

yea you mean the same company that ruined the crash bandicoot, and spyro series?

Ryo-Hazuki4617d ago (Edited 4617d ago )

where do you get "oversee" from? It says they have merged...its like saying Enix oversee's Square or vice versa lol

ziggurcat4617d ago

someone related to activision s*** talking sony? omg that's something i've never heard of or seen before... /s

this "source" also wasn't even using correct terminology, so... double fail.

RedDragan4616d ago

No Ryo-Hazuki. You are completely wrong.

Activision-Blizzard merged with Vivendi Games after Vivendi bought Activision-Blizzard.

Activision-Blizzard/Vivendi Games are owned by Vivendi SA, or otherwise known as simply as Vivendi.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4616d ago
RandomDude6554617d ago

My sources, who refuse to be named, has said that you are correct.

Protip: I don't have a source, as I just wrote it myself.

iHEARTboobs4617d ago

But it's on teh internetz! Must be true!

Boody-Bandit4617d ago (Edited 4617d ago )

cchum, can I quote you on that?
LOL! That was great!
+funny

RandomDude6554617d ago

Thanks, I'll be here all night!

Kotaku would probably accept it as a quote, so knock yourself out.

Boody-Bandit4617d ago (Edited 4617d ago )

"Thanks, I'll be here all night!"

And don't forget to tip your waitresses. And by tip I mean bend them over the table and gently slip the tip..... oh never mind, you get the point. Or at least she will. Unless of course your waitress is a waiter. Them give him cash, unless you prefer men to women. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

4616d ago
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hqgamez4617d ago (Edited 4617d ago )

When will they become friends?

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70°

Activision team is opening a new game studio in Poland 'Elsewhere Entertainment' to build new AAA IP

Microsoft's Activision subsidiary announced today that it is opening a new game development studio to take advantage of the huge talent pool growing in Poland. It'll be the second Activision studio based in the region, joining Infinity Ward Krakow, although this studio is, in fact, not working on Call of Duty.

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windowscentral.com
Psychonaut852d ago

They’re not working on Call of Duty? Give it time.

380°

Microsoft's quest for short-term $$$ is doing long-term damage to Windows, Surface, Xbox, and beyond

Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's plans to increase every department's margins.

Read Full Story >>
windowscentral.com
Brazz4d ago

"The plan to move Xbox games to other platforms is codenamed "Latitude" internally, and I know there's debate and unease at Microsoft about whether or not this is a good idea. More upcoming Microsoft-owned games slated for PlayStation are already being developed. At least for now, they're potentially obvious games you'd most likely expect. And yes, while it's true Microsoft is a prolific publisher on PlayStation already, it has typically revolved around specific franchises like Minecraft. From what I've heard, Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's mandate to increase every department's margins. "

Yeah, they are going to kill Xbox hardware.

Xeofate4d ago

"Yeah, they are going to kill Xbox hardware."

It's for the best.

Quit stringing along xbox fans and screwing over PlayStation owners.

crazyCoconuts4d ago

Take good care of those Xboxes if you have 'em ...

outsider16244d ago

An Xbox game on a Playstation. Never in my years of gaming did i ever thought this was gonna happen.

jznrpg3d ago

It is dying anyway so doesn’t make much of a difference

VersusDMC3d ago

No way can they get rid of the hardware as probably 90% of game pass subscribers are hardware users.

Highly doubtful those users will move to PC or Cloud to subscribe there and the competition (Sony and Nin) will never have gamepass on their system.

If they want to keep the current subscribers, they need to keep releasing new hardware.

PSPSA3d ago

I'm not convinced, why then announce that they're actually working on the next-generation Xbox with “the largest technical leap”, and also looking into handhelds now?

Rols3d ago

Not like MS don’t drop things a hot potato if it is not performing. Look at MS history to see products or platforms discontinued. Xbox is not a charity for MS, it needs to make money and the ABK was the last roll of the dice for Xbox.

purple1013d ago

Xbox hardware team members have been incorporated into surface team

This perhaps shows they are not expecting big things from Xbox as a separate entity

Abear213d ago

Seems like they are planning to win next gen. All the acquisitions were this generation and nobody except Xbox fans expect games from the acquisitions any time soon.

I’m sure Microsoft can afford to lose money on the short term, pretty sure they do risk assessment when acquiring many companies and spending billions, they’ll be fine lol.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 3d ago
gold_drake4d ago

i think it will kill off the xbox brand. windows will be fine.

but there is and would be a chance that xbox might be killed off in the future. if they fail to make the money they put in. imo.

S2Killinit4d ago

They wont kill it, but they will go fully PC while keeping xbox as a brand, and go multiplatform for the most part. They will also work tirelessly to diminish console gaming’s importance.

PRIMORDUS4d ago

It would be best if Xbox goes the way of Sega, just make and publish games. I know I myself will not support them at all with buying games from them, you all can. 🙃

ChasterMies4d ago

The Xbox brand will live for the games. I don’t expect Microsoft to entirely drop out of gaming hardware. They make Surface tablets and laptops. They’ll make Xbox branded hardware for those that want it.

shadowT4d ago

"Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation"

Forza and Starfield next?

Skuletor4d ago

Starfield would be no surprise and there's the rumor that it will come to Playstation after the Shattered Space DLC, Forza (along with Halo and Gears of War) I find less likely but I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually end up on PlayStation too, especially if Xbox give up on hardware and go the Sega route.

shinoff21834d ago

Not to worried about forza. I'd rather see others like what inxile and obsidian are working on. Starfield sounds like it needs more time in the oven so let it cook first imo. If starfield and it's a small if does release on ps it'll be in the fall around the time for dlc or right at the dlc and come packaged with it.

-Foxtrot4d ago

In the words of Phil Spencer when he was talking about Nintendo last year

“It's just taking a long time for Microsoft to see that their future exists off of their own hardware"

S2Killinit4d ago

Yup. MS are a cancer to console gaming.

Aloymetal4d ago

100%!!
I wonder what happened to that dude that was always here posting those court articles with cartoons about MS spending all those billions in studios. He suddenly disappeared, I guess he doesn't like bad news when the green brand is in trouble. No new articles from him as of late...

PRIMORDUS4d ago

Yup, and it's only going to keep spreading.

Outside_ofthe_Box4d ago

Phil Spencer's words always comes back to bite him lol

4d ago Replies(7)
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130°

Microsoft's Absurd Antics Have Me Scared For Dishonored And Arkane Lyon's Future

With Arkane Austin no more and Lyon living for who knows how long, the superb Dishonored is in serious danger; Microsoft cannot be trusted.

Relientk775d ago

I love the Dishonored series so much and really want Dishonored 3. Microsoft better not screw this up.

JEECE5d ago

I mean, I think the fans will probably kill Arkane Lyon by cooking up reasons to hate whatever they do next without playing it. I've never seen a game so artificially disliked as Deathloop.

thesoftware7305d ago

Lol, why don't we just say, we are worried about all studios owned by MS now. They will keep closing studios until they have none left ...🙄

Skuletor5d ago

Just merge them all into a single studio, have it churn out a single Call of Duty every year and call it a day, lol.

Barlos5d ago

Don't be scared, you'll be fine.

Skuletor5d ago

It's exputer, fine is one word I would not associate with them.

Profchaos5d ago

I think it's becoming clear based on matt bootys comments there's no future for any IP that can't sell above 10 million within the launch window. But is also a small game that gives them prestige

/S it's beyond a joke right now

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