It's no secret that Microsoft has garnered a bad reputation for its consistently rocky relationships with indie developers. Team Meat of Super Meat Boy fame, Braid and The Witness creator Jonathan Blow, and The Adventures of Shuggy studio Smudged Cat Games are just three of the developers that have spoken up about their negative experiences with the Xbox 360 manufacturer. You can add one more name to that list: Brian Provinciano, the man responsible for Retro City Rampage.
According to Provinciano, Microsoft canceled the launch of his old school-inspired parody after he openly discussed the issues of Xbox Live Arcade. He was then required to submit the game once more and go through an obnoxiously taxing approval process. It took six months of negotiations with Microsoft and the requirement of an outside publisher to finally get the ball rolling on Retro City Rampage once more. Of course, that wasn't all. Microsoft also marketed the game for $10 at launch instead of $15, costing Provinciano money in the process.
Thankfully, it hasn't been all bad news for the developer. Provinciano stated that his relationship with Sony has been quite pleasant. "Sony’s been incredibly supportive and promoted the game very well,” stated the dev. “It’s received a generous amount of promotion at no cost to me, from [advertisements] on the PS Store to events such as E3 and even having it playable on kiosks at every Walmart, Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Future Shop across North America."
Provinciano likened working with Sony to "coffee shop chat" as opposed to the "intimidating corporate vibe" that was dealing with Microsoft. If that's the case, it's very likely that we'll see the PlayStation company taking advantage and actively pursuing indie content on its systems. Well, even more so than it already has.
[Wired]
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