Jonathan Blow on The Witness’ PS4 Timed Exclusivity: “There was no Money Involved”

It seems that a lot of people had questions about Jonathan Blow’s comments on The Witness being a timed exclusive for PlayStation 4, including if they were paid by Sony to have it on their console or if it would come to PC and iOS. Because of this, Jonathan took to the game’s website, with him clearly stating, “There was no money involved.”
-PSLS

[doctorstrange]

Just love

[TrendyGamers]

and care.

[NewMonday]

"I don’t have good communication with anyone at Microsoft right now, but all our technical people like the PS4 specs a lot more than the leaked Durango specs, and we like the positioning of the PS4 (it’s about games) more than what we perceive Microsoft’s positioning is going to be"

use to be the other way at the start of PS3 and 360.

[HyperBear]

That quote really does speak volumes within the gaming community on how the majority of gamers and developers are feeling towards Microsoft and the Xbox Division.

Obviously, Microsoft have changed drastically in their mind-set from when they originally launched Xbox. From going after PC developers and targeting a console dedicated to gamers, to going completely casual and keeping existing exclusive franchises and pounding sequel after sequel, and from what Sony just showed with PS4 developer support and the games announced and being produced...seems Microsoft are ignoring indie-devs and even some third party devs.

[MikeMyers]

Blow didn't have the greatest experience working with Microsoft. This is a key area they have to start dealing with. Nintendo used to be difficult to deal with and are trying to turn things around.

I'm glad The Witness will come to various platforms but it has been widely known Sony is more open to ideas and working with smaller developers than Microsoft.

His comments also highlight another issue, that is the direction Microsoft is taking in recent years. I hope the new system gets back to being a serious gaming platform but well have to wait and see.

[Mounce]

@newmonday - Don't you love the smell of Sony growing up, losing their arrogance from PS3's launch and Evolving from their flaws and cliches? While remaining a company that's all about Gamers even though they may continue being at a loss of profit in the software department?

It's why I feel I'm allowed to have my preference towards Sony and their consoles instead of Nintendo and Microsoft. Nintendo no longer is about Gamers, and they do Not innovate with Software, they simply make hardware innovations or hardware gimmicks and hope that it promotes software innovation. Yet we all know from Wii, that the only company to really exploit the hardware features of the Wii mote and the other gadgets, are Nintendo themselves.

[TheTwelve]

Remember Microsoft pissed Blow off, I forget the details but he was quite angry with them at one point. --- 12

[ExPresident]

Yeah, he wanted, I believe, a theme to be free and Microsoft refused to allow it.

[fermcr]

If it's time exclusive, then he probably won't release it for Xbox (due to Microsoft's policies).

[Skate-AK]

No it can. It just needs exclusive content for them to release it,

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Seems like Sony is taking a page out of MS's book. Except you know, there's no money involved.

I wonder if Sony will be doing this allot next gen. But then again, people hate it when publishers do this kind of thing though.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

I think he is happy they game him a dev kit. Seems sony is really reaching out to every and anyone! This guy is indie and have a ps4 dev kit. Most of the time that is for big studios.

[3-4-5]

This is the game that most excites me.

I love all the little contained parts of the world with their own themes and looks.

I don't always need a huge over world, it's like they took the Majora's Mask approach but expanded upon it within a different game type.

[fjtorres]

...and a beachfront house in Malibu. ;)

[CaptainYesterday]

I remember seeing gameplay along time ago it seems like an interesting game!

[SuperKing]

Where's Clubarella?

[yazter]

Clobberella* ran out of ointment. >.<

[Tetsujin]

Within the next few months, we'll see countless articles about "how The Watch was bought for timed exclusivity" even though they already answered no; with at least 4-5 opinion articles about how they're lying and "paid" to say they weren't paid.

[BanBrother]

No, they said it themselves. Just like how The Witcher 2 didn't make it to the PS3. Their team is small, so they could only release it on one next-gen platform.

Sony were more keen on the game, and he stated he liked their specs better than the rumoured 720 specs. Very simple.

But I still 'agreed' with your comment, as journalists will eat this up in a few months with their own stories.

[TheTwelve]

--- comment out of context, my bad ----

[unchartedxplorer]

Ok, so blackmail?

[MasterCornholio]

I really like the art style in this game. I really like the fact that its so colorful and it resembles a painting in many ways. I love puzzle games like Myst so hopefully this game will be pretty good to warrant a purchase.

[FarEastOrient]

I love playing Myst and Riven, glad to see these forms come back in the indie crowd.

[Bathyj]

i immediatly thought of herdy gerdy on psone when i saw it

[jujubee88]

Can you imagine how nice it would be to plug in some headphones and just be in that calming and welcoming world?

Day one! :D

[jonboi24]

You know what's was probably a big incentive to get The Witness on PS4, self-publishing. This can be a huge advantage for the PSN.

[WeedyOne]

Maybe its a timed exclusive because ps4 will be the only console powerful enough to play it until the xbox720 comes out?

Edit: oh wait yeah there is the pc, whoops!

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Would have been the funniest thing ever to see Jonathan lick his finger and flip through a roll of dollars during the interview.

[TrendyGamers]

Haha yeah, that would be been hilarious.

[juaburg]

It is Johnathan Blow for goodness sake, he wont lie about something like this. If you watched the Indie game documentary, you would know that he freaks out when people say negative stuff about him or his game.

[SolidDuck]

Not really the gameplay, but the way he described the game it reminded me of myst. I'm excited for this game.

[Bathyj]

putting specs aside, it sounded like it was simple. he could only go with one and he went with you one that encourages games like this.

its was probably a huge moment for him to be apart of an event like this. he sounded really humble when he said i dont know how im going to follow up after all those explosions.

[Bumpmapping]

lol yea he sounded nervous but this game def caught my eye beautiful art design and music reminded me of ICO.

[supremacy]

Cant wait to pre order one of these Ps4. never campd out for a console release, and i am not about to start. So i will pre order one as soon as they are available.

[BitbyDeath]

Probably just cause the PS4 is coming out first.
Xbox will probably get it at launch.

[KILLERAPP]

"[...]all our technical people like the PS4 specs a lot more than the leaked Durango specs, and we like the positioning of the PS4 (it’s about games) more than what we perceive Microsoft’s positioning is going to be" -Jonathan Blow

[Gamer-Z]

When the Xbox 360 first came out it was all about giving gamers and non gamers the core experiences, now its all about the non gamers aka casuals

[lema008]

Reading this it's easy to see Jonathan Blow is piss at MS and at the same time kissing up to Sony with his comments.

If you prefer Sony over the other consoles fine, it's your right, but to stoop low and bash MS when it's just as capable to run his game,just shows he's a control freak and is holding a grudge.

Sony of course is capitalizing on this and making his game a timed exculsive.