Sucker Punch explains why it remains PS3 exclusive

[wraggster]

Developer Sucker Punch started life nearly a decade ago with its first release on the Nintendo 64. Since that time, however, the studio has created titles exclusively for Sony platforms, including the Sly Cooper franchise and recent electro-shocky superhero game, inFamous. Co-founder Brian Fleming recently spoke out on his company's love-in with Sony, explaining that Sucker Punch's platform exclusivity has less to do with money and more to do with simply enjoying what they do.

According to Fleming, while going cross-platform puts a game in front of more potential eyeballs, "it also introduces a whole bunch of problems and compromises and difficulty that doesn't make making games a lot more fun. In fact, I think it subtracts from that."

While the exec notes without reservation that the studio is in this business to make money, he adds that you "have to be careful about being greedy." He adds that the pursuit of dollars has to be weighed against other things, like enjoying what you do for a living, publisher relations and game quality. We'd be hard pressed to argue, especially since our obsession with inFamous has only grown since the game first shocked our hearts.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/11/su...3-exclusivity/

[sorceror]

Making things cross-platform is, indeed, a challenge. For most kinds of programs, it's not a huge deal - you stick to specific, portable APIs, you test everything on multiple platforms as you go, etc.

For performance-critical stuff, though - like games - you have to get a lot closer to the metal, and you have to design the software with the hardware's strengths and weaknesses in mind. It's damn hard to make something that runs fast on multiple architectures that are very different.

Being a smaller company, specializing probably makes sense for Sucker Punch. That's nice for PS3 owners. (Not so nice when a company like Valve decides to specialize in 360/PC-style hardware, but them's the breaks. I have a PC anyway...)

[djshok]

Good for them. I have no doubt that they're able to make better games by focusing on one platform.