Fri, Mar 27, 2009 | 07:17 GMT
GDC: Sony to match dev budgets in return for PSN exclusivity
Sony’s serious about getting exclusive content on PSN, apparently. It said yesterday it’s to kick off a scheme to guarantee you won’t lose any money by creating games for the service.
“It’s all very well for us as platform holders to say ‘put all your money into PlayStation Network, it’s a fantastic idea’, but are we prepared to put or money where our mouth is? The answer is yes,” Chris Eden, Sony’s development relations manager, told an audience at GDC yesterday.
“We’re looking for a number of great games, and in return for exclusivity we’ll match your development budget with guaranteed royalties,” he said.
Full thing on GI.
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Posted in: Development, GDC 2009, Hot, PS3, PSN, Sony
Tags: chris eden, royalties
8 comments
#1
Blerk
27/03/09, 8:28 am
About time they got serious.
#2
Rhythm
27/03/09, 9:52 am
Crikey that’s a bit of a decent sounding offer.
#3
Robo_1
27/03/09, 12:18 pm
Smart move. Of course they’ll be hand picking the games which look as if they’re going to sell well anyway, so the risk to Sony is pretty minimal, but it’s a good initiative, which should hopefully see lots more content for the PSN.
#4
Michael O'Connor
27/03/09, 3:29 pm
Brave move. Lets see if the developers listen.
There’s already some wonderful DLC games on PSN ; Everyday Shooter, Flower, WipeOut HD.
If there’s one foot that Sony have over Microsoft in this respect, it’s their capacity to bring out more extensive titles, due to Microsoft’s archaic content sizing structure.
The one thing that lets Sony down on this side is their archaic delivery structure, with their separate regions and once a week update system.
Still, I’ll be interested to see what comes of this.
#5
Blerk
27/03/09, 3:34 pm
Microsoft’s archaic content sizing structure appears to have gone completely out of the window if Watchmen is anything to go by. They appear to be perfectly willing to break their own rules if the mood takes them. Even if the game is ultimately a bit rubbish.
#6
Michael O'Connor
27/03/09, 3:53 pm
Why do you think the game is so expensive to buy? Because of its file size. It doesn’t matter about the length of the game, if its goes over a certain size, the price automatically goes up.
As far as I know, GTA: The Lost and Damned is pretty close to the maximum allowed filesize for content download. You’d be hard pressed to find something larger. And it’s in the top price range, 1,600 MSPoints, just as Watchman was, so I don’t see how their pricing structure went “out the window” with that one.
If a developer wants something sold for cheaper, they end up being the one having to pay for the deficit. “Sell your games on our service for cheaper, and you’re going to have to pay us for doing so.”
That’s pretty archaic, if you ask me. Making developers *pay* to sell their content for cheaper?
#7
Blerk
27/03/09, 4:00 pm
I wasn’t talking about pricing structure, I was talking about file size limitations. Downloads are still not allowed to be over a certain size ‘unless Microsoft says so’. I thought that’s what you were getting at as well.
#8
Michael O'Connor
27/03/09, 4:05 pm
No, I was getting at how outdated an idea it is to price the game’s solely based on their file size. Especially when those file sizes are so small and limited, and the price differences are so huge.