Bridges burnt after Microsoft 'snubbed indie dev'

Xbox 360 holder 'refused to publish Machinarium due to non-exclusivity'.

Develop Award-nominated Czech studio Amanita Design is no longer interested in future business deals with Microsoft, the studio’s founder has said.

Amanita, developer of unique adventure games Samorost and Machinarium, is believed to have been refused the opportunity to publish its games across Xbox Live Arcade.

[green]

Amanita wanted Microsoft to publish the game for them on XBLA, hence it will be a Microsoft Games Studios title.

If that is the case, how do they expect Microsoft to publish a title that will be available on other platforms? If you want it to be multiplat, the platform holder is not who you should meet to publish the game. You either do it yourself or meet a publisher like EA, Activision etc.

Sorry but in this case, Microsoft is completely right.

[radphil]

"Sorry but in this case, Microsoft is completely right."

You mean snuffing out potential games because they only want to be under their name? That hurts the industry more than helps it.

MS isn't exactly completely right in this situation. I can understand it being XBLA and having it under their name, but this makes it 2x harder for indie devs to publish their games.

People comment on them saying that MS helps more indie devs than others, and yet Steam and other PC areas say otherwise.

[Baka-akaB]

I'm the first to happily throw stones at Microsoft , an entity i mostly dislike through their whole history , but they are a business .

Their role isnt to "help the industry" .

You can bet Sony and nintendo too would request exclusive rights to publish a title .

Want complete freedom ? Then stay on pc .The rest would just be microsoft's loss

[captain-obvious]

they should take their games and look up someone else like valve, EA or Sony

and just like what team meat did with super meat boy and PSN
they should not put their games on XBL
seems fair to me that way

[hazelamy]

microsoft's role should be to bring more content to their customers, in this instance they failed, they decided that not letting anybody else have the game was more important than getting it for the xbox, and so neither of those things happened.

the phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind.

[green]

@radphill and Cerberus2125 below:

Have you ever booted up a game on your wii or 360 and seen Sony computer entertainment as the publisher? Same goes for Microsoft and Nintendo.In fact, have you seen a Nintendo or Sony published game on a rival system?

You cant expect Sony Microsoft or Nintendo to publish a game that will appear on a rival system.

SO you want Microsoft to publish the game which you know will include advertising and promoting the game so that when the game gets massive exposure, they devs would have made enough money to port it to other systems and make a killing.

Sorry but that is not the way the console business works and its not the way business works in general.

[Cerberus2125]

Green,the more you talk the more you make yourself look like an MS Troll,no you nor me know what was offer to Microsoft on this deal,but one thing they said and I quote,“They weren’t interested because the game was already released for Mac and Windows, and Microsoft demanded it as part of an exclusivity deal.I have Machinarium on my PC,for a long time now,you're blinding yourself from the truth,because nobody is ignorant enough to not understand what it says on that quote.

[hazelamy]

the problem wasn't putting it on other consoles, because that was never on the cards until after ms turned them down, the issue wouldn't touch the game unless they didn't release the pc and mac version.

this is the second developer criticising ms's handling of xbla and the indie games just today.

oh, and i booted up the ghostbusters sanctum of slime demo on xbox yesterday, and it had the sony pictures logo. :)

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

the should have gotten a 3rd party publisher if they wanted to bring it to other platforms.

Remember the sony pub fund or whatever its called. Do you think sony is going to invest in a game and then let them put it other places. Nope, thats why the pub fund is only for people who make exclusive games.

Also, this isnt a really high profile game that is going to bring them alot of business. Why would any company spend their own money where it really wouldnt even benefit them.

Its not like MS said the game couldnt be on the ARCADE, they just are not going to spend any of their own money on it if its on other platforms. This is no different then sony or nintendo, but I guess everything MS does is evil

[green]

Cerberus2125:

You call me a troll but fail to answer my question. Can you please show me a game this gen available on a rival system that SOny, Microsoft or Nintendo later on published?

Thats like Team Ninja approaching Sony to publish NInja Gaiden 2 on the PS3 Or Square Enix asking Sony to publish Last Remnant after the 360 version was released.

SOny will tell them to go f*ck themselves.

@ Solidus187-SCMilk: Thank you and bubbles. SOny, Microsoft and Nintendos priority is to ensure their consoles gain a competitive advantage over the others.

[Cerberus2125]

Green,I guess you don't understand that Microsoft plays the my way or the highway with Indie developers,is a trap for Indie developers.

[radphil]

@Green

A swing and a complete let go on your part.

What I'm going after is that they denied them service because they didn't go to MS FIRST, considering one is already released for PC and Mac.

" If microsoft hat indie devs then why are they promoting them 1000 times more than SOny or Nintendo? "

Because they get money. It's not rocket science. They go "We have it only here", and then cash the check. They can't exactly do that when it's already out for other platforms now can they?

[radphil]

Also green, it's hilarious that you try to throw that onto people, even though the fact is that it's now being put on both PS3 AND Wii, and tablets as well. If they were able to get it on their platforms, then why couldn't MS slide and do that as well.

Think for once.

[Quartx]

"Thats like Team Ninja approaching Sony to publish NInja Gaiden 2 on the PS3"

It IS on the PS3. >_>

[palaeomerus]

@ Quartx

" It IS on the PS3. >_>"

Yeah and TECMO published it. Sony didn't. Thus he's right and you are not.

Amanita did not want to publish their own game because it's expensive. They did not want to find another publisher like PopCap or Capcom because that would also cost them money. They wanted MS to publish it even though it is a non-exclusive game and MS said "No" because they don't do that in the XBLA space.

Amanita said they'd take their marbles and go home. And they did.

End of story.

[radphil]

"Yeah and TECMO published it. Sony didn't. Thus he's right and you are not. "

Actually the ORIGINAL example is flat out null and void. TECMO published it on the 360 also.

[hazelamy]

they had every right to do that, but were they right?

well it means machinarium will not see the light of day on xbox, ms's loss i say.

or rather xbox gamer's loss.

they could have had the only console version, now the ps3 will by the looks of it.

[Cerberus2125]

Green,you need to work on your comprehension, first off,it is not thats going to be on other platforms,it is already on PC and Mac,Microsoft wanted the game exclusive to XBL and because the game is out on other platforms,all the article says is that Microsoft refuse their offer because the wanted the game exclusive to XBL,in other words you're making up S#%t.
In that case it shows that Microsoft its just trying to bullied small developers into releasing games only on their platform,and not Sony or Nintendo.

[Cerberus2125]

Green,do you even know that Machinarium is out on PC and Mac?.

[green]

Cerberus2125

You call me the fanboy but you cant answer my simple question. If microsoft hat indie devs then why are they promoting them 1000 times more than SOny or Nintendo?

You say Microsoft this and that but you are not bring up one single point to prove me wrong. I will ask you again. Show me an instance like the one stated in the article that Sony or Nintendo were in and they ended up publishing?

If you can't then you have zero grounds to argue with me.

[Kon]

I don't see nothing wrong with this. Microsoft is know to support indie devs and other stuff that other companies don't do.

[blackburn5]

Oh well, their loss.

[Cerberus2125]

Their loss?,Microsoft or the developers?,in a situation like this we(the gamers loose the most),if I did not own all the platforms do you know how many good games I'll be missing out on,I believe that the only exclusive games should come from first party developers,and all 3rd party games should be on all platforms,all this 3rd party exclusivity is only cheating gamers.

Edit: OK do people just hold a coin on their hands and flip it heads or tail to choose to agree or disagree with you on this site,no opinions,why the disagrees?.you guys don"t think that it'll be better for gamers if all 3rd party developers only make multi-platform games,or is it that you don't trust your prefer platform holder to be competitive if they only depend on first party developers for their exclusives.

[B1663r]

If they want to self publish the game they are free to go to the Indy game store, or find another publisher to bring the game to XBLA.

This is just some primadonas stiring shit up to try and promote their game with irrational Microsoft hatred, which you fell for hook line and sinker.

[wray77]

Boo Hoo.

[Raendom]

Play Machinarium and come back and say that. Game is genuinely awesome.

[Blad3star]

You mad.

[Fishy Fingers]

Why would a platform holder publish a title thats avaliable on other platforms? Of course they'll want exclusivity, just as Sony/Nintendo would.

[green]

At least someone gets it. bubbles

[harrisonxxi]

except xbla is completely different from a traditional publisher. It is about the only way to get an indie title on XBL for download.

[palaeomerus]

Capcom published the multiplatform title "Age of Booty", that 'Certain Affinity' made, on XBLA. (Third party publishing)

PopCap published the multiplatform title Plants Vs. Zombies" that they made on XBLA. (Self publishing)

Microsoft published Shadow Complex (an exclusive made by Chair Entertainment, a division of Epic games) on XBLA. (MS publishing an exclusive)

[lochdoun]

Once again most of you people are misinformed (mainly the PS3 trolls... what a surprise).

The story goes like this:
Amanita Design needed a publisher in order to release their game. They are too greedy to sign a deal with EA or THQ or (insert any other publisher here). Therefore they wanted Microsoft to publish their game for little cost to them. Microsoft said go out and get a publisher like any other company does in this business for a multi-plat game. Amanita Design said hell no, I'd rather keep the money it would cost to get a publisher for myself.

The only greedy ones in this situation are Amanita Design.