Thu, Feb 18, 2010 | 15:51 GMT
SCEA: Third-party publishers no longer spending resources on Wii
SCEA’s Rob Dyer, has said that due to third-party games not doing so hot on Wii lately, more publishers are coming back to PS3 now that the system’s no longer the “hot” thing on the market.
Speaking with IndustryGamers, Dyer said that publishers are no longer putting as many resources into Wii as was once the case.
“What publishers have said is they’re not going to spend the resources on Wii,” he explained. “In my job, we compete against Microsoft and Nintendo, and we’re competing for resources. So when I walk into a publisher, I ask, ‘Where are you guys pushing your resources?’ In the past, it was ‘Look how hot the Wii is,’ or ‘Look how hot the DS is,’ and ‘We should put resources there.’
“They did that and realized, ‘You know what, third-party product just doesn’t sell on that platform.’ So now they’re taking those resources, coming back to us and saying, ‘Sony we’re going to be able to provide you with that exclusive content,’ or ‘We’re going to put more engineers on it and figure out to maximize the Blu-ray and get more out of PS3.’
“That’s what we’re seeing now, and I don’t even have to fight for their hearts and minds; I just show them the TRST data with regards to how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the Wii, or how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the DS. Not many. It’s not a hard story to sell, and they get that.
“Unless they’ve got a particular franchise that’s worked well on the Wii, you don’t see a lot of innovative new IP coming out on that platform.”
In the same interview, Dyer chatted about exclusivity, saying that it was not as prominent now as it was in the PS2 days, and how Sony has more first-party titles than Microsoft.
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13 comments
#1
Detale
18/02/10, 3:54 pm
This chap is a goldmine, where did they find him?
#2
Razor
18/02/10, 3:56 pm
Who’s surprised.
Ninty platforms are good for Nintendo, and Nintendo only.
#3
Blerk
18/02/10, 3:56 pm
Hasn’t he sobered up yet?
#4
JonFE
18/02/10, 3:59 pm
That guy is on a roll!!!
#5
theevilaires
18/02/10, 4:00 pm
#6
The Hindle
18/02/10, 4:02 pm
Here we go again
#7
Gekidami
18/02/10, 4:13 pm
“Here we go again”? Why? He’s only saying what nearly everyone else on this site says/thinks.
#8
Blerk
18/02/10, 4:18 pm
He’s pretty much on the money. Although I do wonder about the “Sony, we’re sorry, please let us feed you grapes” bit.
#9
The Hindle
18/02/10, 4:18 pm
I know but its an exec and no matter what they say it always causes controversy. I agree with what he says actually but its got a bit flame war crazy on this site recently hence the here we go again line
#10
justiceblob
18/02/10, 4:20 pm
I agree, although he is clearly trying to stir things, he is actually bamg on normally… Even if we have been saying it for about 6 months.
#11
JonFE
18/02/10, 4:34 pm
If he was talking to some developers or publishers in a private discussion trying to make some arrangement, it would be fine to back up his case with arguments like these.
As it is, he seems to have a different agenda, like pleasing Sony’s shareholders or just stirring things up…
#12
deftangel
18/02/10, 5:37 pm
So the publishers are taking the third/forth tier teams originally assigned to making cheap ports/shovelware for the Wii and putting them on a platform that is almost an order of magnitude more expensive to develop for.
In a market (i.e. 360/PS3 console software) which is being increasingly dominated by fewer number of high budget AAA+ releases.
And he expects this to work out better for them?
Will they jump to the similar conclusion that it must be Sony’s fault next year when they fail to make any money this way?
#13
Khanivor
18/02/10, 10:06 pm
So right after telling everyone how awesome the power of Sony’s first party games’ selection is he goes on to claim that devs will leave the Wii because they can’t compete against the sales of first party games on that machine…