It’s a little strange for EA, a company with so many Xbox One exclusive pieces of content scheduled, to say that they’re “platform agnostic,” but that’s exactly what Frank Gibeau, President of EA Labels said last week at gamescom.
When asked about the matter of exclusive content, Jim Ryan, President and CEO of SCEE, told Metro how “these kinds of discussions [with third parties] are on-going and very iterative. So it’s not like anything comes out of the blue.” Though it does seem like EA is favoring Microsoft right now, they aren’t the only third-party publisher out there, with Ryan saying, “In terms of third party tie-ups I don’t think we do necessarily have less than them,” which is obviously a shout-out to Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag from Ubisoft.
Another publisher, Activision, has (and will continue to) release map packs first on Xbox for their Call of Duty games, but when it comes to Destiny, PlayStation will be king, as Jim explained:
We’ve carefully selected titles where we feel it’s appropriate to partner with a third party. So Activision, yes, are doing stuff on Call Of Duty with Microsoft. However, we are partnering with Activision on Destiny. And you know Destiny is a new IP from Bungie and there’s gonna be stuff that is exclusive to the PlayStation SKU for a window of time and there’s gonna be a lot of PlayStation-branded marketing collateral and there’s gonna be PlayStation hardware bundles.
Delving deeper into the advantages of partnering with a new IP, Jim added:
So, Destiny isn’t a launch title but it’s pretty much an exact offset to what Activision is doing with Microsoft and I would argue that as new IP coming from Bungie I would rather be in a position of having a long term relationship with Activision on Destiny than on Call Of Duty, which has obviously been around for a very long time.
And equally on Ubisoft, Destiny is new IP on this gen, as is Watch Dogs. We feel it’s preferable, if possible, to tie these sorts of deals in with stuff that’s new and a bit fresh.
As well, Ryan addressed the fact that certain PS4 launch titles don’t look that much better than some PS3 games by saying, “But this happens all the time. So, last time [around] God Of War II shipped on PS2 at just around the time the PS3 was shipping. And God Of War II on PS2 actually looked better than those PS3 launch games. And I would argue that this time round… often those screens at these shows don’t do proper justice.”
If Sony releases a PS4 hardware bundle with a free copy of Destiny next year for $399, would you buy it? Let us know in the comments below.
Essential Reading:
- September 2013 PlayStation 3, PS Vita & PSP New Releases in North America and Europe
- Guerrilla Games’ New IP “Will be a While,” Killzone: Shadow Fall Game Director Talks Customizable Multiplayer
