Sony to match dev budgets for PS3 exclusivity

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 27th March 2009
Comments (15) Stumble
Sony to match dev budgets for PS3 exclusivity

Sony's Pub Fund scheme will match the dev budget for any self-published PS3 game in exchange for exclusivity.

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference today in America, Sony announced it will be launching a new scheme to encourage the growth of the PlayStation network, called the Pub Fund.

The Pub Fund will see Sony committing to match the development budget of any self-published game on the PlayStation Network in exchange for platform exclusivity. It's not been clarified whether these self-published titles under the Pub Fund will be exempt from the current bandwidth fees that charges developers 16 cents per gigabyte downloaded.

"It's all very well for us as platform holders to say 'put all your money into PlayStation Network, it's a fantastic idea', but are we prepared to put or money where our mouth is? The answer is yes," Chris Eden, Sony's development relations manager, said at GDC today according to GI.biz.

"We're looking for a number of great games, and in return for exclusivity we'll match your development budget with guaranteed royalties," he said.

Sony were also keen to point out that the ownership of the IP and total control of the games still belongs with the developer; Sony is merely trying to encourage growth on PSN.

Kind of flies in the face of Sony's previous "we don't pay for exclusives" stance, but if it means more independent titles on PSN then that's nothing but good news in our books. Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Quote cjoyce1980 27th March 2009, 11:43
so now sony is starting to pay for excluives titles.... the completions is going to get better from here, hopefully so new IP :)
Quote Horizon 27th March 2009, 12:22
This might also be a bad thing, bound to see some pork.
Quote perplekks45 27th March 2009, 13:39
Well, at least they do something that might be right. A first in quite some time...
Quote War-Rasta 27th March 2009, 16:02
Being a 360 owner and not interested at all in getting a PS3, the thought of more PS3 exclusive titles is not really good news, but i have to admit this does sound like good news for PS3 owners.
Quote themax 27th March 2009, 17:00
Hopefully this plays out well. Get extra funding, keep your IP, and control your own developement schedule, couldn't get any better for smaller dev teams I'de say.
Quote devdevil85 27th March 2009, 17:46
Quote:
Originally Posted by themax
Hopefully this plays out well. Get extra funding, keep your IP, and control your own developement schedule, couldn't get any better for smaller dev teams I'de say.
+1
Quote Cadillac Ferd 28th March 2009, 05:39
Quote:
Originally Posted by War-Rasta
Being a 360 owner and not interested at all in getting a PS3, the thought of more PS3 exclusive titles is not really good news, but i have to admit this does sound like good news for PS3 owners.

Well I'm sure if this program ends up being successful then Microsoft will probably launch some sort of similar program.
Quote naokaji 28th March 2009, 13:24
One Plattform exclusive Games = Automatic Fail.
Quote perplekks45 28th March 2009, 15:04
MGS is fail?
Quote themax 28th March 2009, 17:50
Halo 3 is fail?
Quote naokaji 28th March 2009, 18:47
Quote:
Originally Posted by perplekks45
MGS is fail?
Quote:
Originally Posted by themax
Halo 3 is fail?

Not being able to play whatever game you want without buying a PC, a 360, a PS3 and a Wii = fail.
Quote themax 28th March 2009, 19:45
Quote:
Originally Posted by naokaji
Not being able to play whatever game you want without buying a PC, a 360, a PS3 and a Wii = fail.

I see where ya coming from but without the competitition there would be no great games. I'de rather some be exclusive, but very well made (Halo 3, MGS4, Fable 2, Uncharted) than not exist at all. Besides exclusive games are better than multiplatform usually (not saying they should all be exclusive) because they are heavily optimized for the hardware.
Quote perplekks45 28th March 2009, 19:54
And we all love to hate ported games, don't we? ;)
Quote Saivert 31st March 2009, 00:59
Best would be to develop the game for PC, then port it over. I don't like consoles much.

Also specialist console like Wii should have it's own games that uses the Wiimote and balance board. It's not a generic console like XBOX 360 and PS3 are.
Quote r4tch3t 2nd April 2009, 03:32
I agree, I got Assassins Creed the other day, good game but the control system is fubared by the console origins.
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