http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19448

July 16, 2008

Sony's Tretton: 'Disappointed' In Multiplatform FFXIII Through MS'
'Currying Favor'

Sony's Tretton: 'Disappointed' In Multiplatform FFXIII Through MS'
'Currying Favor' Speaking at a roundtable Q&A attended by Gamasutra,
Sony's Jack Tretton has been discussing Final Fantasy XIII's move from
a PlayStation 3 exclusive to a multiplatform title, suggesting
Microsoft has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with
third parties".

When asked whether he was disappointed about the surprise announcement
that the game would also debut on Xbox 360 in the West, Tretton noted:
"I guess disappointed is clearly an appropriate term."

Tretton then launched into invective discussing Sony's decision to
concentrate heavily on internal development, noting that it
constituted "over half of our employee base all over the world", and
adding that "...we've built up our base and that's where we've chosen
to spend our dollars."

However, he warned: "I think Microsoft has spent the majority of their
money on trying to curry favor with third parties" - implying that
Final Fantasy XIII moving to multiplatform was more of a Microsoft-
subsidized decision than one guided purely by sales reasons.

Tretton concluded: "I think software companies look and say 'there's
no check big enough for us to do exclusive development' ...I think
it's going to be harder and harder to have third-party exclusives as
we move forward."

Gamasutra will have more from Tretton's roundtable Q&A in the near
future, including lots more detail on the state of Sony.

> suggesting Microsoft has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with
> third parties".

Lol.

What an hypocrite! Sony have been doing that for years.

Exactly.

Does this guy not know the history of how they got the Final Fantasy franchise in the first place?

Hello, welcome to 20 years ago and stealing from Nintendo.
  "terryfied"  wrote in message news:32ce8aa6-9f3a-47c4-b076-2b02a2671cd4@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
  > suggesting Microsoft has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with
  > third parties".

  Lol.

  What an hypocrite! Sony have been doing that for years.

Shane Nokes <shane@hotwiredpc.nospam.cXoXm> wrote:
>Does this guy not know the history of how they got the Final Fantasy =
>franchise in the first place?

By making a console that uses CD-ROM media instead of cartridges?

				Ross Ridge

-- 
 l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo]  rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/  http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ 
 db  //

> >Does this guy not know the history of how they got the Final Fantasy =
> >franchise in the first place?
>
> By making a console that uses CD-ROM media instead of cartridges?

A CD-ROM that was being developed  for the SNES, no less.

On Jul 17, 12:13 am, "Shane Nokes" <sh...@hotwiredpc.nospam.cXoXm>
wrote:
> Exactly.
>
> Does this guy not know the history of how they got the Final Fantasy franchise in the first place?
>
> Hello, welcome to 20 years ago and stealing from Nintendo.

The reason Squaresoft decided to take up with Sony in favor of
Nintendo was because Nintendo was adamant about using cartridges for
the Nintendo 64. The cheaper cost of producing games for the CD-ROM
enabled Playstation was impossible for Squaresoft to ignore.

>   "terryfied"  wrote in messagenews:32ce8aa6-9f3a-47c4-b076-2b02a2671cd4@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
>   > suggesting Microsoft has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with
>   > third parties".
>
>   Lol.
>
>   What an hypocrite! Sony have been doing that for years.

On Jul 17, 10:53 am, The alMIGHTY N  wrote:
> On Jul 17, 12:13 am, "Shane Nokes" <sh...@hotwiredpc.nospam.cXoXm>
> wrote:
>
> > Exactly.
>
> > Does this guy not know the history of how they got the Final Fantasy franchise in the first place?
>
> > Hello, welcome to 20 years ago and stealing from Nintendo.
>
> The reason Squaresoft decided to take up with Sony in favor of
> Nintendo was because Nintendo was adamant about using cartridges for
> the Nintendo 64. The cheaper cost of producing games for the CD-ROM
> enabled Playstation was impossible for Squaresoft to ignore.
>
>
>
> >   "terryfied"  wrote in messagenews:32ce8aa6-9f3a-47c4-b076-2b02a2671cd4@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> >   > suggesting Microsoft has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with
> >   > third parties".
>
> >   Lol.
>
> >   What an hypocrite! Sony have been doing that for years.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Sony owns 9% of Square, too.

Maybe Sony shoud have released a Blu-Ray-less PS3 model for $400 from
day one.

On Jul 17, 4:55 pm, Jonah Falcon  wrote:
> On Jul 17, 10:53 am, The alMIGHTY N  wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Jul 17, 12:13 am, "Shane Nokes" <sh...@hotwiredpc.nospam.cXoXm>
> > wrote:
>
> > > Exactly.
>
> > > Does this guy not know the history of how they got the Final Fantasy franchise in the first place?
>
> > > Hello, welcome to 20 years ago and stealing from Nintendo.
>
> > The reason Squaresoft decided to take up with Sony in favor of
> > Nintendo was because Nintendo was adamant about using cartridges for
> > the Nintendo 64. The cheaper cost of producing games for the CD-ROM
> > enabled Playstation was impossible for Squaresoft to ignore.
>
> > >   "terryfied"  wrote in messagenews:32ce8aa6-9f3a-47c4-b076-2b02a2671cd4@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> > >   > suggesting Microsoft has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with
> > >   > third parties".
>
> > >   Lol.
>
> > >   What an hypocrite! Sony have been doing that for years.- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Sony owns 9% of Square, too.

Sony purchased about a 20% stake in the company in 2001, well after
Squaresoft had abandoned Nintendo's cartridge-based platforms (and,
incidentally, after Nintendo had abandoned their own cartridge-based
platforms).

On Jul 17, 6:07 pm, Jonah Falcon  wrote:
> Maybe Sony shoud have released a Blu-Ray-less PS3 model for $400 from
> day one.

A ton of us have been saying that from the start. The Playstation 3
would have decimated the Xbox 360 by now if Sony had done that:

The lower price tag would have meant the system was similarly
affordable so sales would have gone up. Then, developers would have
had much less fear of poor market penetration for the hardware,
leading to more games at launch and in the first year.

Sony and all their PS3 fanboys keep talking about how it was a
worthwhile sacrifice to win the high-def movie format war, but where
are the benefits they're supposed to be reaping now?

Everyone kept saying "Just you wait until HD DVD is dead, then you'll
all see why Sony made that sacrifice."

It will be years before Blu-Ray will become significant enough for
Sony to really start reaping "billions" of dollars in revenue from the
format. HD DVD has been gone for half a year and still nobody cares
about Blu-Ray because the prices are way too high for the mainstream
consumer to make the switch.

Even worse, the studios and hardware manufacturers DON'T want to bring
the prices down despite the slow acceptance rate because they fear
that will just lead to a shorter lifespan for the technology.

So you've got Warner Bros. trying to make Blu-Ray affordable for the
consumer by this holiday season (backing up their constant claims that
they just want what's best for the consumer so everyone can benefit)
and every other studio, Sony included, trying to keep things at the
higher price point.

It's a total joke right now, which is unfortunate because I'm still
waiting for $15 price points on Blu-Ray WITHOUT having to go to Amazon
or DeepDiscount to get them.