Looks like the developers are abandoning that respect for gobs of cash from Microsoft.

SCEA is making more sense everytime I see a quote from them. At least more than they did during the launch. Maybe they got a different PR firm?

It's true in a way but in another way that is exactly what first party games are. So SCEA can at will make a 360 game ?

Oh wait they do make pc games. well it still seems like first part games count as paid exclusives. The same as offering incentives to develop on a platform such as extra special dev support, like resistance:FOM

Why would anyone ever do an exclusive to just one platform if there's no financial incentive? That's just rediculous. I seriously doubt any company would voluntarily limit themselves to just one out of three systems.

Why would any company hamstring the success of their game without a guarantee from the single platform that they'll make just as much as they would if it was multi-platform?

I call shenanigans.

"We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development. We don't, for lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform."

Does Killzone not count? I mean, didn't SCEA help fund them? And there are lots of games I am sure they "help fund." But maybe they dont count it if they publish it, or if they later buy that company.

But according to SCEA president Jack Tretton, we can sleep soundly knowing that Sony will never lower themselves to outright paying for exclusivity like some kind of desperate "john."

Maybe because they're broke?

I dunno, as long as I get MGS4, Littlebigplanet and WipEout I'll be happy

At the end of the day though Sony might not want to "lower" themselves but if they lose too many exclusives a lot of people lose their reasons to shell out the crazy price tag for a PS3.

I respect Sony's ethics but I don't buy consoles based on the ethics of the parent company. I buy consoles based on the games.

It is the high road, but between the high road and money, the money is the obvious choice.

It's just their loss, with the high road not meaning shit. If that's their idea of good business, Microsoft deserves to take the cake.

I hope MS starts pouring cash into their support and Engineering team so people aren't so turned off by the failures. Games sells a console but poor hardware will kill 'em.

That's fine, but what good does it do you if the competition is willing to play by different rules than you are and it hurts you as a result?

I don't want to drag politics into the discussion, but the most cogent example I can think of is the Iraq "insurgency" or whatever you want to call it. We adhere to the Geneva Conventions because "it's the right thing to do," but how do you effectively combat an enemy for whom that isn't a concern?

By the same token, if Microsoft is willing to pay for exclusives to take them away from Sony, and you consider that behavior out of bounds, you're left either having to pump up your own first-party offerings, or you're seriously dependent on the goodwill of companies who haven't abandoned you for the cash yet...and the longer it takes PS3's sales numbers to improve, the harder it will be for those companies to resist the allure of co-development dollars helping to make a game more profitable for a publisher.

their recent deal with Quantic Dream contradict that

Do they know that they don't earn any respect with crawling low numbers of a userbase like the PS3's? What's in it for the devs to go exclusive for the PS3 atm from 5 million users opposed to the 12 million of the Xbox? Of course they prefer the 360. Even if Microsoft has to help a little with the green. But they do have enough so what's the matter.

But I'm betting that the devs would consider multiplatform without any cash involved from either party. It's really the exclusivity that needs cash from Microsoft. Which is obvious because they're pretty new to the business videogame consoles.

so does this mean MS can pour money to SquareEnix and Konami for FF and MGS to come on to 360?

Earning respect is great and all, but "Sony" and "respect" go together like, I dunno, something witty that I definitely didn't spend 10 minutes trying to think of before giving up.

@Bowler: Right now, the only reason to do an exclusive, beyond cash, is system specs. And that really only applies to the Wii, in a sort of negative direction. (And even then, there's the PS2...) If a studio is making a hi-def game, and they're not getting paid off by somebody, it's usually going to both consoles. That'll probably change once there's a clear "winner", because that nabs exclusives pretty well also.

Microsoft's 1st party is stronger than Sony's. Think of Playstation 2's greatest games and most tend to be 3rd party.

Microsoft if anything has the best mix of 1st and 3rd party games. Sony is being arrogant if they feel their 1st party is the main reason people purchased Playstation 2.

Hmm...Sony's street cred vs. Microsoft's money. I wonder which is a smarter business decision...

I don't believe it for a second.

Oh man, business ethics! Man, now I totally have a reason to buy a 600$ console!

HA HA. $$ is the name of the game. If you're going to hide your misfortunes, pick something other than "respect." Don't sully it. I'd like to know the real reasons. Did Sony not get their briefcase of cash to the table fast enough? Or was it a smaller suitcase than M$? I just find it too hard to believe that a big corporation like Sony would pass up on something like out of "respect."

@baberg: I respect Sony's ethics but I don't buy consoles based on the ethics of the parent company. I buy consoles based on the games.

I Agree

I don't believe that at all. What about the paid for exclusivity of the GTA releases on PS2 so they wouldn't go to XBox for at least a year? What about Quantic Dream today?

Sony execs will just say anything.

Sony is looking more and more like late 90's Nintendo by the day.

This guy is total PR BS....we all know it.

Especially as Sony did all the same things when the PS1 was released....

Get Real Tretton.....Don't you owe 1000s of gamers money?? (His now infamous "I'll give anyone $1200 that can find a PS3 on shelves for longer than 5 minutes" line)

Keep on Spinning Jack.....as the Wii and 360 Base doubles then triples then quadruples the PS3s.

Sony deserves alot of respect for trying to do things the old fashioned way.

@inajeep: It didnt for the PS2.

How about

"We dont buy exclusivity"

"...because we pissed away too much money on nonsensical commercials and console development and can't quite seem to grasp the fact that developers who are being offered financial benefits to program for an easier system (360) aren't going to spend much time trying to give our brand new system a shot"

Like seriously. Sony, pony up the damn cash if you want to break through the newness barrier on your system. The PS2 was the only bang for your buck in the market for a while so it gave devs a chance to start working with it. When the 360 is out there, easier to program for, and the Wii, with its stupid fast growing install base... no money and no ease of work is not going to draw developers.

You people who bought a PS3, you should all be writing into SCEA telling em to start throwing down green... its hardly fair that you spent more on your console than a Nintendo or Xbox fan, and yet the people who made your console are refusing to throw down cash to keep/buy exclusives. Its not cool that they expect the consumer to spend a steep buck to buy it and then not spend money themselves to equip it with games.

Rly.

I wonder how many devs Sony 'bribed' away from Nintendo when they released the PS1...

"PR bullshit" - 100% correct.

Sony was just trying to justify the loss of their former PlayStation titles that have now gown multiplatform this generation.

There's some truth to what the PR guy had to say, but its really nothing more than taking cheap shots at Microsoft and Sony who have not only had a better year than Sony, but also seem to have better game lineups as well.

Microsft buys respect. Sometimes that respect comes in a PS3's worth of beers, sometimes it comes in a boat with a big banner saying how much they love you, and sometimes it just comes with a big wad of cash.

I respect the man who pays me, because he pays me.

"We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development. We don't, for lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform."

Well maybe you should start. We don't give a shite how the games get on a system, just that they are... sily Jack.

Maybe they're trying not to do it anymore, but no one can say "never" after Soul Calibur 3... No one.

I can't believe that this thread has gotten this long without somebody mentioning the Money Hat.

$ony's full of sh*t. Back in the Saturn/PSX days, they paid Eidos BIG BUCKS to keep the then Tomb Raider sequels exclusive to the PSX. Not to mention, in recent memory when Namco was ready to go multiplat with Tekken 5, $ony also slapped down cash on the table to keep it exlcusive to PS2 (SC3 comes to mind as well). Could $ony be anymore inept?

Sure, as a 1st party dev, it's only sane that you'll whatever it takes to push your company forward. However, this "Holier than thou" attitude (and flat out denial of stiff situations) that these devs have has got to stop.

Exactly how do they intend to earn respect by lying almost compulsively for years on end? How do you garner respect for copying others ideas, passing them off as your own, and then mocking thier originator?

Respect for shipping unfinished games? For overcharging for downloadable content?

Call MS a whore or not, but they've been ensuring that their users have some of the best damn games out there. I don't call MS a whore for allowing me to play GTA or Assasin's creed. I call them a company looking after their interests, whihc happen to coincide with mine.

If Micro$oft was smart they would just buy Konami and Square and make FFXIII and MGS4 360 exclusives. I'm sure they could afford it. That would kill Sony. The only people I talk to who are excited about any of the other games coming out for PS3 already own one.

full of crap, they gave so much moeny to get GTA eclusive back in the day. So basically they screwed up this time and PR is trying to pickup the pisses. Piss off Sony.

@curtisawa: I think those two refuse to be "owned" by Microsoft...probably because they had so much success with the last two Sony systems. While they had it with Nintendo before as well. Um, maybe Microsoft just didn't try yet.

I like the part about Sony having a good balance of 1st and 3rd party games. I think it's really quite true that they've achieved a good balance . . . there are NO good 1st party PS3 games AND there are NO good 3rd party PS3 games.

It's a perfect 50-50 split!

@Justcrim: Sony acquired Guerilla Games. That is, Killzone is a first-party game.

What Tretton means is that Microsoft funds third-party companies to act like first-party companies or for exclusive content. This has happened with Gears of War, Blue Dragon and GTA IV amongst others.

Well, at least this is Sony's strategy now. It doesn't mean that they wouldn't have done the same if they had the deep pockets of Microsoft. In fact, it seems likely that they would have.

Also, each day that goes by this whole PS3 handling is turning out more and more like the N64. A fine system with some quality games, but the company is just not as dominant as it once was and is headed in the wrong direction. I also think saying you don't need a lot of third party support is stupid. It will not help. And didn't these people say they weren't worried about third party support months back because they were the biggest maker of first party games? Did Nintendo overtake them in the last six months, or are they just trying to spin the bad news?

@ShishouMatt: Really? Can you name me a single Xbox exclusive, Microsoft developed game apart from Forza motorsport? Crimson Skies, Halo and Fable were on PCs and I really can't think of many other Microsoft developed games that sold particularly well. The franchises I mentioned were good but that's only a very few games games. Then look at the PS2: God of War, Ratchet and Clank (technically second party but so is Halo), Jak and Daxter, Shadow of the Colossus, ICO and, if we are counting games that sell rather than games that were highly critically acclaimed, Singstar and WipEout. That's a pretty good selection. I agree that most people (myself included) bought PS2 for third party games but saying Microsoft's first party games are more prolific or better than Sony's is something of a stretch. Feel free to point out if I've missed any excellent Microsoft developed games that were Xbox exclusive

I don't care who's paying who and what, if the 360 has more games I want to play then I'll buy that system. If Sony don't have games to tempt me to their system then why should I buy it? Playing the "we're above paying to get games on our system" card doesn't do anything to make me want to pay out for a PS3. By hook or by crook, get the most good games on your system and I'll buy it!

"We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development."

Sums up their last place standing very nicely.

Is Sony trying to rewrite their own history here? This was one of the fundamental reasons why the Dreamcast sank and the Xbox never took off. Seriously, Microsoft has been playing with the Sony PS1/PS2 handbook while Sony has been playing with the N64 handbook. As far as ethics go, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are equally guilty of doing "wrongs". Only fanboys put these companies on some sort of pedestal.

Wasnt there a story doing the rounds only a few months ago about how Sony were going to pay to keep games like Assassins Creed and GTA IV exclusive to the PS3 but Ken Kuturagi wasnt quick enough at tying up the deal?

This latest quote from the PR masterminds at Sony just comes across as the worst kind of sour grapes.

god he is so full of shit :')

@littleman: Sony HAS purchased Guerilla, but it didnt start out that way.

If I remember correctly, Killzone was announced before Sony signed the deal. Maybe there was a deal before it was official.

That is why in my first comment I inquired about maybe Sony doesnt consider it "Funding" someone if they end up buying them out.

@beem: But the holier-than-thou attitude comes from the fact that a multitude of hardcore gamers have extreme opinions with low intelligence on the internet. Everyone will grab onto anything as "evidence" and valid points for arguments in any way possible. Surely the amount of fanboys on Kotaku, including the editors, does not escape you? See the sensationalistic headlines of Kotaku news posts for a start.

The console war is everywhere.

@photoboy

I agree. I don't care who gets the moral high ground, I care who has the games I want to play.

Given the fact that Sony *does* fund development (ask Guerrilla or Insomniac), they might as well just shut up.

Microsoft always gets what they pay for. Look at Rare! I meant Bungie. Wait, who's the developer that they bought who doesn't suck right now?

@curtisawa: Microsoft has never acquired a Japanese game company, or if they have done so; a large one, amongst all their acquisitions.

For a multitude of political, cultural and financial reasons, it will not happen in the near future. See why the Xbox has lagging sales in Japan, why Square-Enix's strategy is still centered in Japan despite higher sales of its products in N.A. and etc.

nothing connected with exclusive titles has anything to with respect. it's money, whether that be straight from microsoft, nintendo or sony, or from sales stemming from a large market share.
respect? haha. if we could all make a living off of respect...

It's not like Sony hasn't done this in the past. I remember they paid tons of cash to get MK3 Ultimate as time exclusive for the PS1.

Unbelievable - I read this story about them not lowering themselves to buying exclusives and the very next thing I read (at 1up.com) is that they've signed a(yes, you guessed it) deal with Quantic Dream to make their next game a PS3 exclusive.

Incredible.

This reminds me of a scene from Dead Man's Chest.

3rd Parties: No doubt you've discovered that loyalty is no longer the currency of the realm as your father believes.

Jack Tretton: Then what is?

3rd Parties: I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm.

@Tepoz:

Out of Shiggy, Crazy Ken and Pete Moore, Id say the most insane out of control BS was produced by Crazy Ken. But I guess hes gone now, and we get Jack Tretton for our informative updates.

Truthfully, I dont mind Jack, hes just doing his best with what he has. Ken drove me up the wall, but at least he gave me a laugh.

And this backtalk doublespeak here about not buying exclusives when they were advertising about the PS2 having bought exclusive rights to GTA to keep selling the system... thats lame.

"We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development. We don't, for lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform. We earn it."

That has to be the single most stupid ****ing thing I've ever heard anyone in this industry say. I'd be selling my stock if I owned it. That is such a poor business plan.