Welcome to todays ‘Spot The Irony’ competition in which you – yes you – could win nothing at all. The backstory: Team Meat (the guys behind Super Meat Boy) had a bit of a whinge at Microsoft for failing to promote their game. Sales were low, Microsoft refused to help out.
Step forward Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, Studio Manager at Nine Dots Studio Inc, a chap who recently left Activision and has said ‘I think that the Super Meat Boy team is just being loud crybabies’. He then continues,
Microsoft’s XBLA is very strict, and their technical requirements represent about 800 man hours from the programming team to adapt to. PSN doesn’t have those kind of requirements, but at the same time, PSN is an almost complete failure in regards to sales, so they have to find a way to cater to developers somehow, and they do so by having very low standards.
Nine Dots Studios Inc are currently working on a side scrolling platformer called ‘Brand’ which you will be very unsurprised to discover will only be released on the Xbox 360 Indie channel.
A quick look at the best selling Indie games on Xbox 360 in the UK reveals the top three places being taken by Minecraft rip offs and at number four is ‘Angry Fish’ – you can guess what title that looks like. A few places down we find a ‘game’ that makes prank phone calls.
What was that about ‘low standards’ on the PSN, Mr. Boucher-Vidal?
Source: IndustryGamers
Reality Check
I got LOADS of brilliant games off PSN :P I LOVE PSN;)
fattyuk
as for that pixel junk series don’t even get me started on how much of a failure all those games where!
that angry fish game does sound something original though on the xbl.
anonymus212
Fat Princess was another one, a miserable failure !
nofi
Don’t see a problem. He’s saying XBLA titles sell more than PSN, which I’m sure they do.
Tuffcub
No hes not he saying the PSN “almost complete failure in regards to sales,” that is very different to what you said.
nofi
In context, that’s exactly what he’s saying.
Tuffcub
Oh I see so we’re meant to read “PSN a complete failure” as “PSN doesnt sell as many as XBLA”.
I hear Colnel Gadaffi is in need of you talents, where, ‘in context’ he is winning the war in Libya.
nofi
Yep, that’s what he means IMO.
Don’t see why my interpretation is so controversial.
tom_lord
Complete failure. Those two words in this context means more than XBLA simply outselling PSN. It’s an overly harsh critic by someone who is sat very firmly on one side of the fence.
fattyuk
Ford sell more cars them ferrari but you don’t hear there spokespeople mentioning it ;0)
3shirts
I agree with TuffCub. Your translation seems way off track to me Nofi. He flat out explicates that PSN is almost a complete failure in terms of sales. Even if you do infer a comparison to XBLA sales, you still can’t call PSN sales that.
Kevling
You guys realise he’s talking about technical standards, not artistic or gameplay related ones, right?
OK, he could have chosen his words better, but all he is saying is that Sony don’t enforce as many stringent technical standards on PSN development as Microsoft does on XBLA, as a way to encourage PSN development by making it less proscriptive…
Personally, I think that’s a positive.
fattyuk
I get what he’s saying and that but surely the proof is in the pudding of the quality of games?
it’s abit of a contradictory statement really, Microsoft enforce better technical standards but can’t trump up as many decent games as PSN
enroene
Should be a positive I think.
colmshan1990
Little known developer tries to drum up publicity with controversial comments.
Pretty much sum up the above, right?
hazelam
low standards on psn?
i think the indie games thing on the xbox is great, and i wish sony would launch a similar program, but there are far too many rumble massage “games” for this guy to be getting all uppity about who has higher standards.
nofi
There are, but there’s also some brilliant Indie games that would never (ever) appear on PSN.
3shirts
It’s a bit like the Android market vs the iPhone one. There are some brilliant apps and games on Android that Apple would never allow but the flipside of that is a lot of shite ‘hot girl wallpaper’ apps.
I guess that will always be the way with anything that is de restricted. The trick is to have good filtering/searching tools.
cc_star
He can say many, many things to the PSN’s detriment, but he’s picked weak ground to stand on. Quality-wise the PSN is fine, volume-wise not so much.
Thanks to Microsoft’s policy of requiring XBLA content to appear same day & date as other platforms it means anyone thinking of taking advantage of Sony’s pub fund, doing a PSN title & later porting to 360, can’t because they either have to dual develop which cuts many smaller players out of the market or go for Xbox only first.
As far as cheaper indie games are concerned the PlayStation Suite will change everything, hopefully!
anonymus212
Microsoft are hypocrites… “requiring XBLA content to appear same day & date as other platforms”… that SHOULD mean that XBLA games, strictly speaking, should not be released on XBOX before other platforms, as they say “same day”.. *cough* Call of Duty map packs *cough*.
tom_lord
Baby Maker Extreme 2. How can anyone forget that….?!
tom_lord
PR Lesson Number One: Make a sweeping statement about the rival console that you’re indie game (with practically no marketing budget) isn’t on and let the flame wars begin on every gaming site on the internet. Et voilà! Now people have heard of your sidescrolling thingy (You know, because there aren’t many of those on XBLA/PSN already….)
minerwilly
Funnily enough I’ve just paused Pixeljunk Monsters before picking up the HTC to check out the TSA news. None of my PSN games are tripe because I only buy good games , the same applies to my boxed titles.
enroene
Good for you man.