Enslaved, unlike Ninja Theory's last game, is going to appear on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. There's a very good reason for it too, since the developer has confessed that despite Heavenly Sword's massive hype, it never made the company a single penny.
"It's difficult. Heavenly Sword came out pretty early on the PS3, and we sold, I think, a million and a half copies, and that's still not enough as an independent studio to break even," explains co-founder Tameem Antoniades. "The publisher potentially breaks even at that point, but the developers don't."
"It's just that when so many people have Xbox -- I mean over half the market or more has Xbox 360s -- why limit yourself to one platform?"
Yet more evidence, if more is needed, that the third party exclusive is all but dead. As it stands, Enslaved is looking like it has a much better chance than Heavenly Sword did, and it's sounding like it might be a damn good game. I hope it makes the team some money this time around. Heavenly Sword's gameplay was a bit lackluster, but the narrative was really good, and I think that with time, Ninja Theory could be a damn fine studio.
Ninja Theory: We made no money on PS3 with Heavenly Sword [CVG]
Contest:
4:30 PM on 03.29.2010 | 
In your FACES!
Oh wait they do. Change that last sentence into "legally run on PC."
What were we talking about again?
See: Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, God of War 3, MGS4, Wipeout HD
I'm looking at you, Sega.
If that's a studio's primary concern, why not focus only on high-end PCs?
I liked Heavenly Sword very much. I think it's a standalone. I hope neither Sony nor NT try to make a sequel.
Still, the arrow shooting thing was cool for a few minutes. It was a decent game, but if it sold that many copies and didn't break even, well, that's because it was more expensive than it needed to be. They spent too much money on making people's faces look real, I guess.
All that to say, yay! I'll buy this for sure, and definitely on XBOX.
A good third party exclusive can sell systems just as well as first party ones. I bought my 360 for dead rising and my PS3 for uncharted 2/demon's souls/valkyria chronicles. Its a mater of being good indtead of just decent
It will of course sell millions of copies, but I wonder how many million they'd have to sell for making up all the costs and get profitable enough to justify 5-6 years of production.
Personally, I'll buy Heavenly Sword when it's about...10$, mostly because I don't play many action games. Like, it'll be fun when it's cheap, but for...even 30$ I would resent it.
It's sad that lack of exclusivity is hobbling the ps3 right now. When games have to be produced for the lowest common denominator just because it's most widely accepted it's a sad thing.
Sucks they didn't make money on it. I liked Heavenly Sword.
Because xbox cant handle the 1000 soldiers + end game boss vs you part.
Yes, very high production value, but I'm not going to spend $60 on a six-hour game. Hell, it's $30 now, and I still can't part with that much cash. I'm waiting for $15.
*points in the direction of dead rising, left 4 dead, gears of war 2*