The gaming biz and what happens
Put here all kind of articles related to the gaming biz
This is interesting, from CVG, about Microsoft holding back development.
Quote:
Sony Computer Entertainment America's SVP of publisher relations Rob Dyer has said Microsoft's strict restrictions regarding exclusivity on Xbox 360 is simply 'protecting an inferior technology'.
He speaks of a Microsoft term that seeming seeks to deter publishers from making games first for other platforms or with extra content on another platform. The MS term stipulated, according to the IndustryGamers report:
'Should content not be shipped simultaneously with competing platforms in all regions where the content is available, or should the content and features available on the Xbox 360 not be in parity with versions on competing platforms, then Microsoft reserves the right to not allow that content to be published for Xbox 360 or released on Xbox Live marketplace.'
To that, Dyer responds candidly: "I think what [Xbox Europe boss] Chris Lewis and the other representatives at Microsoft are doing is protecting an inferior technology. I think they want to dumb it down and keep it as pedestrian as possible so that if you want to do anything for Blu-ray or you have extra content above 9 gigs or you want to do anything of that nature, you'd better sure as heck remember that Microsoft can't handle that," he said.
"And that's a huge problem with them. It first started on the smaller pubs, and we can talk about what's happened on XBL and the policy they have there that requires publishers to have a whole litany of things in order to get onto their network or they have to go through and be published by Xbox, by Microsoft, which essentially lets them dictate how long they'll be exclusive and whether or not they own the IP, etc, etc," added Dyer.
He continued: "It's now progressed to not just be these smaller indie pubs that are obviously very easy to kick around. It's moved up the food chain. It's gone to B and A level publishers."
Dyer then quoted the above MS term, before adding: "So potentially any time we've gone out and negotiated exclusive content of things that we've announced at things like DPS or E3, publishers are getting the living crap kicked out of them by Microsoft because they are doing something for the consumer that is better on our platform than it might be perceived on theirs.
"So from a creativity standpoint and what we are doing to try to make it better for the consumer, our view is Microsoft's doing everything they can to eliminate that because they have an inferior technology."
