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Dev: ‘Microsoft Treats Independent Developers Very Badly’


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In a fascinating article written by Wired,

a couple of independent games developers spoke out about their

experiences working with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, and how those

experiences differed depending on the specific corporation they were

dealing with.

Jonathan Blow, the developer behind Braid and the upcoming PS4 game The Witness,

noted that “Microsoft treats independent developers very badly,” later

stating that the company “put you through as much pain as you will

endure in order to extract whatever [they] feel like this week.”

 

Another developer, Brian Provinciano, also spoke to Wired. Provinciano is the one-man force behind Retro City Rampage, and has spoken to IGN in the past about Xbox versus PlayStation development. Not surprisingly, he also didn’t have nice words for Microsoft.

He told Wired that dealing with Sony was akin to a “coffee shop chat,”

while Microsoft exuded an “intimidating corporate vibe.” He spoke about

how, when he became vocal about the problems dealing with Microsoft,

they cancelled the planned release of Retro City Rampage

on Xbox Live and, according to Wired, “forced him to resubmit the game

through the arduous approvals process and go through an extra six months

of negotiations that required him to submit the game through an outside

publisher to get it released.”

 

 

 

more here

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/09/dev-microsoft-treats-independent-developers-very-badly

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I'm sure MS will quit the gaming business tomorrow itself since the ... err... "Eskimo Press" ... wrote a rant with some questionable grammar questioning an organization's commitment to profit-making.

 

That comment thread has "Pope Kaz Hirai" commenting in it :rofl:

 

I still don't get why most here (yes, I get it's IndianPSgamer and the rumor-mill on MS hasn't done much to inspire confidence but even so...) think Sony's going to treat you any better if they gain market share, they've already shied away from (actually sorta gone back on) that supposed used-games-not-blocked-confirmation and they have been deliberately mum on whether their console will also have a pay-to-play-online model. Anyway, I'm not defending anything... let's see what happens on release date.

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I'm s

think Sony's going to treat you any better if they gain market share, they've already shied away from (actually sorta gone back on) that supposed used-games-not-blocked-confirmation and they have been deliberately mum on whether their console will also have a pay-to-play-online model. Anyway, I'm not defending anything... let's see what happens on release date.

yea 100% agree with this. The company with the higher market share will always try out the most greediest tactics.

 

I mean compare Nintendo during the SNES era where they would extort devs with their higher price for putting games on their system. compare that to the GC era where they were literally throwing money at devs to keep games exclusive to their system.

 

All companies are nasty when they get the higher market share (some definitely worse than others though). You can bet ur a*s that if PS3 had sold sh*t tons at launch there would have been no price cut,ps plus, even some awesome games might have not even existed since sony wouldnt have given a rats a*s about first party games. They would have just let third partys do their job or spend more on marketting etc

competition is always a good thing.

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Microsoft hasn’t been getting great press from independent developers lately, most notably from Jonathan Blow (Braid) and Brian Provinciano (Retro City Rampage), whodidn’t have glowing things to say about trying to work with the company that created the Xbox 360. Blow stated point-blank that “Microsoft treats independent developers very badly,” while Provinciano noted that the company has an “intimidating corporate vibe.”

But not every independent developer has had trouble with Microsoft. The Behemoth, the wildly successful studio behind Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater, has come out to defend Microsoft. BeefJack stumbled upon this Raptr Q&A with the studio’s Project Manager, Emil Ayoubkhan, and Ayoubkhan paints a bit of a different picture than Blow and Provinciano.

“We have absolutely no problem with Microsoft or the XBLA team,” he said. “We love working with them, and hopefully they enjoy working with us as well. I can’t speak for other devs that may have bad mouthed Microsoft in the past, but that’s definitely not the company that we are.”

Ayoubkhan later continued, stating that, “You’ll always hear the negative side of things in the press, or from others, more than the positive aspects. It’s definitely a lot more entertaining to read I suppose.”

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Its just too much FUD.

Phil fish owed money to everyone on the streets, he himself admitted that he is clumsy but didn't miss giving verbal diarrhea over a patch issue to MS, which was his fault.

 

Hello games were shooting their mouth off so that can cozy up with Sony. Team meat had their own you-f**ked-us-over rona.

 

Only Jon blow had sone legit points but whrn you decide that you want to do for xbox, you play by their rules. And you have a concern speak in their closed forums not on public platforms.

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