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The Ultimate Hi Def Next Gen Console thread (internet connection required)
snalin:
Self-publishing means that you don't have a publisher taking all the costs of distribution. A publisher boxes the copies of the game, talk to microsoft and sony and nintendo for you to get your stuff on their console, does PR, and most of the other stuff not directly related to making the game. They also fund the production of your game. The downside is that they take a (big fucking) cut of your profit, and might demand some creative input and veto power - after all, since they are paying, they feel like they need to keep a check on the team so the game turns out profitable.
For a good example of why you might want to cut out the publisher - the guys at InExile brought Chris Avellone, the CEO of Obsidian, on board as a writer for Wasteland 2, as a kickstarter stretch goal. The InExile guys and the Obsidian guys knows each other well, and work well together, but according to an interview with someone from InExile (cannot remember who), they would never have been allowed to bring him on if they had a publisher - the publisher would have protested on the grounds that Avellone, as the CEO of another company, would gain access to "trade secrets".
Publishers has for long been a necessary evil - after all, they pay for games that wouldn't be made otherwise. They do, sadly, have a tendency to trust focus groups more than experienced developers when it comes to what to put in a game, and they might force devs to make decisions that makes money now, but hurts the quality of games and their brands. EA was probably the reason Dragon Age 2 was rushed, as an example.
Self-publishing can now be done some ways. Either you do a small indie team that lives of savings, loans and/or grants, and gets the game out through alternative means*. Or you do a game on your spare time, and get it out the same way. Or you do a kickstarter. Microsoft is pretty much saying that they're not interested in any of those games - which means that they're not interested in games like Minecraft, Terraria, Magica, FTL, Wasteland 2, Fez, Super Meat Boy... the list goes on.
*This was, btw, pretty much impossible before buying and selling over the internet became a thing. Spiderweb Software and a few others managed to do that by putting shareware demos in game magazines, and selling the keys to unlock all the content over e- or snail-mail. The margins for success was very slim.
EDIT: Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.
Nope, no irony. One of the few, defining characteristics of indie games is that they don't have publishers. Indie ~ independent, remember.
snalin:
Wow that got long
ackblom12:
Also Sony and Nintendo are removing costs (well, already have in Nintendo's case) for patching digital only releases. Microsoft isn't.
K1dmor:
--- Quote from: maxusy3k on 22 May 2013, 10:39 ---Neither system is supporting backwards compatibility...
--- End quote ---
You can play PS3 games on PS4 using Gaikai ("Cloud service").
This is a great thing, because the people that have a 360 couldn't play the ps3 exclusives, and now they will.
You can't put your ps3 blu-rays on it? Maybe. If you didn't own a 360, this won't bother you. If you do, i could bet that some mods will do something simple as making a backup from your disk to your pc and then moving it content to the console hdd.
Back to topic:
I don't know if taking this as hillarious or genius:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/05/only-fox-news-can-save-us-from-the-tyranny-of-xbox-one/
Parkour Lewis:
Hmm. After thinking about it awhile today, my own argument about reverse compatibility has made me lean toward a PS4 now. I'd rather the company I go with focus more on gaming than being a catch-all multimedia device.
Also I hate the kinect and motion control games in general, they're all horrible.
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