As a massive fan of the PixelJunk range of games it’s a little disappointing to discover that the studio’s next game, currently titled PixelJunk 1-6, won’t be heading to PlayStation platforms.
At least not at first, anyway, as this is aimed at Steam, and PC gamers.
“It’s super-fun” said the studio’s Rowan Parker, lead designer. “It’s still a work in progress, so remember that many of the things you see here on the blog might not end up in the game. We’re only a small team of 4 and can’t do everything (even though we want to!)”
The developers do mention the possibility of a console version, though – “if we get enough demand following a successful Steam release, we might consider a console version,” they say.
The game will be a co-op based title, with support for up to four players, and will feature a “gajillion” robots. Robots are good, PixelJunk stuff is normally great. We’ll see how this developers over the coming months, but I’d obviously prefer a PS3 version.
Gamoc
I would prefer it to release on both, personally. Any clue as to why? Something to do with it being cheaper to release on Steam than console, by any chance?
Sympozium
Wouldn’t it be licensing?
cc_star
PJ games have been a highlight of the PSN – I’ve loved them all, but PC seems their natural home.
My only concern from a business point of view for Q-Games is there’s a million games of this style on PC & it won’t stand out like it does on PSN – although it’s likely the audience for these titles is proportionately higher too.
Good luck – sounds great.
Klart
Exactly. Although their games are great, they’re not that special in the PC world, on the PSN however there’s not that much competition.
It looks great so far though. Sword-wielding robots en 4 player coop looks/sounds great.
They should make their games Vita compatible as well (not just remote play).
Dazbobaby
It’s about time Steam got some PJ love, but I too prefer a dual platform release.
Gamoc
Eden is already on Steam ;-)
FBZ1501
I’d like to see the past PJ games on the Vita.
Shooter and Sidescroller mainly. I know remote play works on a couple but it’s too slow and fuzzy.
Klart
Yes. Perfect for the Vita.
The Lone Steven
Steam seems suited for Pixeljunk so it’s no surprise that they are focusing on PC gamers. :) If they do port it over, just port it to PS Vita as their games are suited for it. I am surprised they are not doing an IOS or Android version as PJ1-6 is suited to mobiles. :O
Sympozium
Pixeljunk is basically suited for any platform though?
bunimomike
A little bit disappointed but hopefully they won’t have forgotten about the PSN as I know it’s looked after them fairly decently in the past. I’m hoping it’s been superb for them but I don’t know the financials.
Paulo Vinicius Radtke
Kind of saddening news, as I’ll have one less reason to jump to the PS4 when it’s released in the future. Anyway, good luck to PJ in this process, maybe the sales of Eden where that compelling that they decided to change for a more open platform. Also, I think that while PJ still has some sort of spotlight at PSN, they have been facing much stiffer competition than in the earlier days, when they released Monsters and Eden, so it makes sense to move to a larger market share and lower royalty fees model.
Kennykazey
I wonder how much they’ll lose to piracy though?
Paulo Vinicius Radtke
That’s hard to estimate, because most people who do piracy of games wouldn’t buy them in the first place. I recall that every time there’s a Humble Indie Bundle, where you set the price from $0.01 to whatever you want (with a $1 minimum for Steam keys), you can easily see people sharing Torrents of those games. I would say that they’d lose money to piracy if people who usually buys games decide to pirate their specific game, but that’s not the case. It’s a market share they never had in the first place, so you can’t say they lost it. Only very high profile games, such as COD, might make someone who doesn’t buy games to be tempted to cash out to play with his friends, but those are the exceptions, no the rule. As PJ already have Eden (a 4 years old game) on Steam, I assume safely that the move was planned and they know they can make money at least comparable to the PS3, without the trouble to going through Sony and paying high royalties fees.
Kennykazey
I’d much rather buy it for Playstation. I’ll never play the co-op on PC as I don’t have any PC gaming friends with interest in Pixeljunk. On PS3 I could get it going locally.
yogh_wayne
I wonder if the decision to move from PSN to Steam is related to low sales of their “4am” music creator/visualizer/whatever experiment. I’m also not sure how well PJ Sidescroller actually did in terms of sales. It would be a pity if they abandon the PS3 completely, that screenshot looks like it’s going to be a proper PixelJunk game again.