Platform Holders No Longer a Necessity says Dev
Nuclear Throne developer Vlambeer comes out and says it like it is
With AAA games becoming less interesting, more cynical and more costly to make and recoup, Microsoft and Sony have both been scrabbling around to pick up as many Indies and as much Indie cred as possible for their consoles. At least one Indie has spotted this.
With independently developed games such as Ridiculous Fishing, Nuclear Throne and Super Crate Box under his belt, Rami Ismail of Vlambeer is well placed to make a call now on the position of the chasing platform holders. And he's harsh.
“What changed is, back in the day platform holders were a necessity. You needed them. What changed is, now they are a convenience, because the games are the stars. There are millions of games coming out but having many games on your platform is a valuable thing. Sony has so many coming out of the pipeline right now already. You can say that this worked out for them, having more games worked out for them.
“So publishers and platforms have to be a convenience. They have to help developers make games for them, instead of simply letting developers make games for them. I think Microsoft is slowly starting to get that as well, and I think ID@Xbox is a great step forward. If they could just get rid of that launch parity, if that one thing could get dropped, then I would we 100% behind the program.
“I think What they’re doing is good, and I think if Chris had the power to change the parity thing, I think he would. Again, I’m not speaking on his behalf because I don’t know what Microsoft is like internally, but I think eh would get rid of it.”
Read the full and excellent interview - including opinion on the Day One Parity Clause that Microsoft hopes to enforce, read it over on VG247.
With independently developed games such as Ridiculous Fishing, Nuclear Throne and Super Crate Box under his belt, Rami Ismail of Vlambeer is well placed to make a call now on the position of the chasing platform holders. And he's harsh.
“What changed is, back in the day platform holders were a necessity. You needed them. What changed is, now they are a convenience, because the games are the stars. There are millions of games coming out but having many games on your platform is a valuable thing. Sony has so many coming out of the pipeline right now already. You can say that this worked out for them, having more games worked out for them.
“So publishers and platforms have to be a convenience. They have to help developers make games for them, instead of simply letting developers make games for them. I think Microsoft is slowly starting to get that as well, and I think ID@Xbox is a great step forward. If they could just get rid of that launch parity, if that one thing could get dropped, then I would we 100% behind the program.
“I think What they’re doing is good, and I think if Chris had the power to change the parity thing, I think he would. Again, I’m not speaking on his behalf because I don’t know what Microsoft is like internally, but I think eh would get rid of it.”
Read the full and excellent interview - including opinion on the Day One Parity Clause that Microsoft hopes to enforce, read it over on VG247.