Ninja Theory: PS3 exclusivity 'draining' and 'unfair'

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Home My exclusives, let me show you them

12:40 PM on 11.19.2009, Jim Sterling

55 comments

Ninja Theory: PS3 exclusivity 'draining' and 'unfair' photo

#console war #Developer stuff #My exclusives, let me show you them #PS3

Ninja Theory is best known this generation for Heavenly Sword, a PS3-exclusive game that looked gorgeous, even if it didn't play quite so brilliantly. As with all PS3 exclusives, it was subject to console war craziness and fanboy rage, and Ninja Theory did not like it. Such a development process was an unfair drain, claims the team.

"When you are exclusive, sometimes the pressure to demonstrate technology can override other aspects of game development," confesses Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades. "Being involved in one side of a format war as if it’s the machines that make great games can also be draining. You get a lot of attention as an exclusive developer which is great, but on the flip side there was a lot of anti-Sony feeling going on which I felt was unfairly being directed at our team."

Ninja Theory's next game, Enslaved, is being developed for both PS3 and Xbox 360, and it's hardly surprising if the team feels this way. Still, I'm sure the fanboys will still find some way to make comparisons and argue and try to derail any legitimate coverage of the game itself. Because that's what fans of videogames do, apparently.

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next 50 comments

54 comments | showing # 1 to 50

mrandydixon

"...as if it�s the machines that make great games..."

Ninja Theory FTW.

RenagadePanda

There is a difference between forced exclusivity and preferred exclusivity. Some dev's simply prefer a given console, some are paid to prefer it. I'm guessing Ninja Theory's case was the latter.

Sonvar

This game will be so much better on _______ than __________ obviously. If you can't see why it's better on _________ you must be biased.

Steel Brotha

That game came out on 2007 and NOW he bitches? Anyone notice how develoers bitch about the PS3 when theirs games are shitty? Free Radical's Haze anyone?

HEL105

I wonder how many other PS3 or 360 developers feel this way, but can't admit it? I'm glad that some developers can see through all this fanboy idiocy.

dip

"That game came out on 2007 and NOW he bitches?"

Seriously, where the fuck is this coming from all of a sudden?

Jim Sterling

"That game came out on 2007 and NOW he bitches?"

He was interviewed and probably asked a question about it, so he answered. Remember they're promoting Enslaved now, and naturally as they do interviews, questions about the last game and comparisons to the new one will happen. It's not like he randomly called up a site and said "HEAVENLY SWORD RAWR RAWR RAWR!"

Carlton Banks

Yep. A gun was put to their head and they were forced to make Heavenly Sword, a game I quite liked. With as much "Sony raped my mom in church" sentiment in 2007, I bet it was draining and unfair. Next time, don't sign deals because you like the number of commas.

Xzyliac

Yes mrandydixon. Thank you for picking out that little fragment.

Also to Steel Brotha I don't think he's bitching about the PS3 as much as exclusivity in general. The header kinda leads you on to think otherwise but whatever.

Also, Heavenly Sword kicked ass. Fuck everyone.

Onlineatron

The 'sony hate' they refer to is now dispelled.

It's unfair to label working on the PS3 as 'draining' and 'unfair' today.

But then, I'd expect no less from you Jim...

StingingVelvet

Personally I hate all exclusives... imagine getting only some movies on a Sony DVD player, it's just ridiculous. The sooner gaming moves past this the better.

Xzyliac

@StingingVelvet
Seeing as how this is software and it's subject to different rules and expectations to film I doubt exclusives will ever die.

mrandydixon

@StingingVelvet

Agreed.

Doos

StingingVelvet:

As long as there are multiple consoles, I believe we'll always see exclusive titles.

Good or bad, I don't think it's likely to change.

loki d20

*Looks at the ability for others to display the technology alongside good gameplay*

*Looks at Ninja Theories short and somewhat lackluster gameplay, but good looking game*

Looks to me like it was an issue with them being able to deliver on the technology in a time frame comparative to others, not the need for it if you ask me.

Honestly, moving to a multi-platform role won't solve any of their issues and only magnify them. Now they'll be spending more time to maximize two different technologies and will have the same rabid fanboys pressuring them for either a) not delivering on the awesome technology of the PS3, b) not utilizing the awesome power of the 360 GPU for HQ textures and AA, c) down-grading one or the other build in order to make them both look the same, d) yadda yadda yadda.

whormongr

@StingingVelve
I agree- though it isn't going away anytime soon- thank you nintendo for creating the console-lease contract oh so long ago....
personally I think that if it was gone we would see a lot more of a bloom in the industry but then consoles would be more expensive, games cheaper, though you would also see more first party development and a resurgence of custer's last stand type games

The Silent Protagonist

When exclusives are done, sometimes they come with weird stipulations. Sony seems to have their fair share - such as make everything "cinematic" if its needed or not. I have to wonder if Heavenly Sword was the victim of "make it more like God of War" or not. It certainly feels like GoW in many respects and I don't think it was entirely intentional on Ninja Theory's behalf.

Or finding lame ways to make use of SIXAXIS. Camera guided arrows. Yeah, totally.

brainderailment

I liked Heavenly Sword.

-PL-

Heavenly S-word would have been a shitty game on any console. Enslaved better be awesome now since they said this.

hornetjockey

The comparison to having a movie only play on one brand of DVD player is invalid. All DVDs use the same encoding, the decoding of which is licensed to multiple manufactures. Until console makers follow this model, something that is highly unlikely to happen, each platform will continue to require dev time specifically for that platform, which makes it attractive for some devs to focus on only one and opens the door for console manufactures to provide incentives to ensure their platform is chosen. Circle of life, Simba.

Holiday

"When you are exclusive, sometimes the pressure to demonstrate technology can override other aspects of game development"

Sounds like Bioware's original Mass Effect.

StingingVelvet

For those agreeing with me but stating it is not going to happen anytime soon, I think streaming gaming, if it ever comes, could be the answer. If you an play games on any old device through a stream then companies will likely port all their titles to those streaming services to gain the massive user base.

That said I would hate that, as one reason I love PC gaming is the tweaks and such which would dissapear.

silvain

I liked Heavenly Sword. Glad I didn't buy it for $60, but I liked it.

Steering cannonballs was much cooler than steering arrows, anyway.

quivx

Jim, Heavenly Sword looked amazing AND played just fine thankyouverymuch :p

Memox

Hate all the BIAS and FANBOYISM spread all around this post (lol). The guy is right, though - best thing for developing a game is focus your attention IN the game and not in creating a nice tech demo for the machine you're working with. Even if you have a gorgeous-looking exclusive game it will not do you any good if the game is not great.

Everyday Legend

Exclusives aren't ever going to truly benefit such a small developer, and when they do profit the dev that house is usually either owned by the manufacturer of the system (see: God Of War, Halo) or owned by a massive publisher with many other projects on many other platforms (see: Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect).

I believe he was referring to the stress behind making sure that an exclusive game remained firmly rooted in showing off the prowess of the hardware that development is exclusive to (see: Heavenly Sword, Lair) rather than working on a multi-plat title wherein the game would be judged on its merits as a piece of software alone, and not just a flagship title to be used as a yardstick to measure what a system is capable of. That frustration goes double if it's fairly early in the console's lifespan, as was the case with HS.

StingingVelvet

@ Everyday Legend

Mass Effect is not an exclusive.

Everyday Legend

Read again - a developer with many other projects on many other platforms.

Metal Gear isn't exclusive, as Raiden Gaiden is hitting 360 now (and look at all the other ports/projects Konami is publishing, not all of them MGS/Kojima projects), and Mass Effect is also available on PC, and published by EA, a publishing juggernaut in its own right with no apparent loyalty to any platform in particular.

Say what you will about that last statement, but EA's highest selling titles aren't exclusive in the least.

I never said that ME was exclusive.

Everyday Legend

Or, at the very least, it maintains console exclusivity. Glad to have cleared that up. :oD

makesfive

wah wah. Still haven't bought Heavenly Sword because it's still going for $50-$60 and it's practically an antique. Can't imagine they would've sold a lot more copies if the game hadn't been exclusive.

psycho terror2

exclusives are BAD FOR GAMERS. the only upside is knowing that the next guy might not be able to play it, and all that does is fuel the console fanboy fire.

ok so some devs have pulled more out of a single platform than may have been possible on all of them, but usually all that amounts to is fancier graphics, and realistically my PC would blow them away anyway.

MCChampaignMillionaire

Enslaved looks awesome

Ganjookie

Sounds like another antiproSony article. WTG Jim

Tameem is right though, fan boys, even those peeking up in this thread are a thorn in the heel of the industry. They are loud, obnoxious and very opinionated. I don't know which one to label as extreme left or right wingers, but they take their causes srsly, serious.

These fan boys will soon grow into pro conservative anti liberal, or pro liberal anti conservative adults, and scream and yell just like they did about their consoles.

It really is hard to take the game industry seriously when you have rabid fanboys jumping about frothing at the mouth on how their piece of metal and plastic is better.

ninjikiran

Exclusives are what make a console go round but I never heard someone call another a fag because they prefered sonic to mario. This generation of gaming, possibly due to interweb anonymity are full of idiotic fanboy rage and a blatent disregard to the meaning of an OPINION.

As for heavenly sword, it wasn't a game that broke barriers. Personally I played through it and wasn't too big a fan, my gf on the other hand has been playing it over and over again for the past 2 years.

jawshoeuh

Heavenly Sword was good. I traded it in once I beat it, but it was worth a play through.

StingingVelvet

@ Everyday Legend

I just look at exclusive to mean only on one platform is all... if everything people call an Xbox exclusive actually was I would have to own one, but as it is there are like 3 or 4 total, lol.

Anyway, didn't mean to sound nitpicky, which I guess I did.

KINGof210

Eh, I liked Heavenly Sword (got if for $25).

@Ganjookie: I liked how you both used and didn't use political analogies to the fanboy issue. Pretty clever.

loki d20

Anyone who says exclusives are bad for gaming is a delusional. Exclusives are just one element of competitive one-up-manship that thereby fuels a rate of continual progress among all parties involved in the competitive market.

Now, it may suck as an individual who may not have access to the console on which the game can be played, but such feelings are exactly the desired result of such unique capabilities.

Solid Squirrel

I'm sorry, what? I thought the article was about that smoldering look she's giving in the pic.

psycho terror2

@ loki d20

"such feelings are exactly the desired result of such unique capabilities."

this made me LOL. an exclusive game isn't a "unique capability" it's a marketing ploy to add perceived value to increasingly homogeneous product. the end result is that less gamers are able to play some great games.

the7k

While I'm glad I only rented Heavenly Sword, I did thoroughly enjoy it. I wish they could have made a sequel that fixed some of its problems. I found Nariko about a thousand times more likable than "Balled-Up-Fist-For-A-Face" Kratos.

rsquad

Once again we have to fix one of Jim Sterlings headlines. Based on the actual info in the article, NT was saying that being an exclusive developer period is this wasy. Thanks, once again, for being a dick Jim.

TheDirtyHobo

I like how the headline specifies PS3 exclusivity when their comment was pretty careful to talk about exclusivity in general.

I also like the part where they say "Being involved in one side of a format war as if it�s the machines that make great games", stating that the devs make good games, then blaming their forced exclusivity for making a mediocre game.

Midgetsnowman

I find all the sony fan QQ hilarious given how zealously they defended heavenly sword when it came out

dj-anon

Holiday:
Yup, Mass effect effectively demonstrated what kind of graphics the 360 cannot handle.

DLord25

I took out my PS3 and Xbox behind the barn and did what needed to be done, with a gun I modded on my PC

Bigmoose85

Ninja Theory are just mad because they are WEEBOLS now

Sexualchocolate

The 'sony hate' they refer to is now dispelled.
It's unfair to label working on the PS3 as 'draining' and 'unfair' today.
But then, I'd expect no less from you Jim...

---

This.

Also, Naughty Dog and Guerilla would like words with you.

Jim Sterling

I'll stop doing it when you stop reacting to it.

Holiday

@makesfive

Yeah what the hell, even MGS4 is half original price and Heavenly Sword is still full retail.

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