Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty! isn’t planned to come out on Xbox 360 or Xbox One, despite being compatible, due to Microsoft’s policy to force developers to get a publisher.
Oddworld Inhabitants head Lorne Lanning told Eurogamer that the upcoming PlayStation 3, PS Vita, PlayStation 4, Wii U, PC, Mac and Linux title would skip the Xbox platforms due to the restrictions:
There are those who are looking at next quarter’s profits, and maybe one of these big guys looks like that’s all they’re doing right now.
If they’re looking at the world that way, you’ve got the obvious, enormous titles. They’re going to be the big revenue generators. If the company’s purely about profit, profit and profit, they’re looking at those, and then they’re looking at the little guys saying, ‘oh, they only make this much.’ They’re not interested.
Lanning said he has even tried to talk to Microsoft:
For Xbox One they’ve granted us a license for New ‘n’ Tasty! but they still say you need a publisher. We don’t have a publisher so we’re not officially on the platform, even though we’re compatible, even though we’ll be ready to do it. Period.
Why do we need a publisher when we self-finance our games, we build our own IP, we manage our own IP and we’ve turned nearly two million units online as indie publishers sold – not free downloads? Why? What’s wrong with us?
It’s a different level of perspective. Is it ridiculous? I guess it depends on what seat you’re sitting in. But I think right now Wall Street is seeing something else that’s ridiculous and we’re seeing it reflected in public companies’ stock values.
He then referenced the fact that Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee was even a launch exclusive on the original Xbox, with the game published by Microsoft:
Who’s in touch with their audience? And who seems out of touch with their audience? All we know is we’ve tried to get our games on their platform and we can’t do it – and I even helped them release the box.
And, while he would consider partnering with a publisher, it would have to “make sense”:
I’ve had people tell me, ‘dude, just go up there, you’re losing millions of dollars.’ You know what? Oddworld wasn’t built on selling out.
As for what he thought about Sony:
I believe, because there are so many seasoned, long-term game builders involved with the new PlayStation, they recognize the real innovations are going to come out of this space where people have the freedom and the insanity to try crazy new stuff… I mean, look at Octodad!
As Lanning suggested, Sony has been pushing indie developers aggressively, does allow self publishing, and announced a bunch of indie games at E3.
Could this give Sony an edge going into next generation, or are indie games too small to make a difference? What’s your favorite self published indie game? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
