Originally Posted by
ShinUkyo
This is true, PS3 does not have the same patch size restrictions. The current Dungeon Defenders patch for PS3, as I recall them saying, is substantially larger (over 100mb.) The problem here is: the game is required to have the same content available on both consoles. Microsoft actually makes companies agree to this, in writing, when a downloadable game is released on both 360 and PS3. The PSN port is not allowed to have content the XBLA one doesn't. Microsoft wants to be sure they maintain their domination over the console DLC market, which means they don't want PSN versions of games to launch earlier or be offered with content the XBLA version doesn't have. Publishers will most often oblige these strong-arm tactics, too. Why not just tell Microsoft to piss off, and release games as PSN-exclusives instead? 360 has a much larger installed userbase, and so losing out on 3/4 of your potential customers is not an option. The only financially sound choice is to play along with the tight restrictions that Microsoft imposes.
It makes me sad, too, because the 360 is my all-time favorite console. And I say this as someone who has owned basically every console ever created: from the days of Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Vectrex, Sega Master System, NES, and onward through the decades. Xbox Live and XBLA took features once exclusive to PC gaming, made them substantially better, and changed console gaming forever. The problem, sadly, is their innovative spirit has not stuck with them over the past few years. They are charging ludicrous fees to developers and publishers, using antiquated update procedures, and giving almost zero promotion to 99% of XBLA games that launch. In that, the downloadable gaming market on consoles is not very lucrative anymore. Only very select, wealthy companies can guarantee a profit on XBLA nowadays. Same goes for PSN. Sony's choice to copy the digital gaming practices of Microsoft, initially a very good thing for them, is now a double-edged sword.
In that, most indie developers are moving to Steam. There, you can do your game on your own terms. You can patch as often as you want, as big as you want, for free. You can maintain control over the price of your game. You can use community input for the betterment of your title, not having the restrictions imposed by either Microsoft or by a funding publisher. I won't even go into the mess that having a big-name publisher usually entails (on XBLA, an small indie developer can't put out their own title. They need to have a publisher attached, and that often results in having yet another company getting unwarranted control over your product.) The console makers need to take a hint from Steam, otherwise they're going to lose their best indie developers. And it goes without saying, whether you ask critics or consumers, that a majority of the most-loved and most-innovative downloadable games have come from indie developers. That's a creative pool that MS and Sony can't afford to lose.
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