How Assassin’s Creed and GTA4 went 360

Here’s the picture that Microsoft execs had to look at during the months leading to the Wii and PS3 launches: a lot of Xbox 360 games are selling like hotcakes. Well, that sounds good, what’s the problem? The hardware (the console) didn’t quite dominate as much as it should have, despite the early launch. Of course, we’re not the ones painting that picture here. We’re just relaying it to you guys.

Here’s what Frank Gibeau, executive vice president of Electronic Arts says:

Nobody wants to be stuck with the wrong machine. There’s a lot of buzz and hype around the PS3 and the Wii coming out. 360 is not hurting from innovation or hardware availability or title availability. It’s just hurting from the fact that people are taking a wait and see approach until all three are on the market and then they can choose.

He’s not the only executive to say that. Here’s what Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc had to say: “The software has done really well, but it has not driven hardware as much as people expected.”

So if you’re a Microsoft exec, what do you do? In order to counter the console launches’ fallout that your opponents are gonna be having, you do your best to increase that third-party game title list. You spend and spend, and you try to get people to make games for your glowing white and green box.

Here’s when interesting things happened. Sony slipped.

Get the rest of the article after the Jump!

Here’s the picture that Microsoft execs had to look at during the months leading to the Wii and PS3 launches: a lot of Xbox 360 games are selling like hotcakes. Well, that sounds good, what’s the problem? The hardware (the console) didn’t quite dominate as much as it should have, despite the early launch. Of course, we’re not the ones painting that picture here. We’re just relaying it to you guys.

Here’s what Frank Gibeau, executive vice president of Electronic Arts says:

Nobody wants to be stuck with the wrong machine. There’s a lot of buzz and hype around the PS3 and the Wii coming out. 360 is not hurting from innovation or hardware availability or title availability. It’s just hurting from the fact that people are taking a wait and see approach until all three are on the market and then they can choose.

He’s not the only executive to say that. Here’s what Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc had to say: “The software has done really well, but it has not driven hardware as much as people expected.”

So if you’re a Microsoft exec, what do you do? In order to counter the console launches’ fallout that your opponents are gonna be having, you do your best to increase that third-party game title list. You spend and spend, and you try to get people to make games for your glowing white and green box.

Here’s when interesting things happened. Sony slipped.

Kutaragi was a bit too slow. The PlayStation chief hadn’t finalized the business terms for independent publishers on the PS3. without that, he was reluctant to give the go signal on any expenditures on Western third-party exclusives.

In previous generations, this “turtling” hadn’t been much of a problem because the first two PlayStations launched in Japan 8-12 months ahead of North America, leaving plenty of time to nail things down with Western publishers. With the PS3 launching in North America just a few days after Japan–and a year after a fiercely competitive Microsoft–Kutaragi’s tardiness became a major issue.

Remember the murderous holiday hit-list that boosted PS2 sales? It was GTA 3, FFX, MGS2, and DMC. Those games sky-rocketed PS2 sales. So if you’re a console maker you’d love to keep in good relation with the developers of those games right? While Kutaragi was wishy-washy about things, Microsoft top brass called the folks at Ubisoft and Rockstar and asked this:

“What would it take for you to publish these games on 360?”

Boom. Exclusives gone.

Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal reports that they weren’t able to get direct answers regarding the negotiations, especially since these things are quite sensitive. However, they do have an anonymous source that had this to say:

I do have to give Microsoft a lot of credit for going after titles and doing whatever they can to generate third-party support. They’ve been magnificent in this generation.

Of course SCEA execs were more eager to talk about this. Newsweek reports that Jack Tretton says that there was interest on Take-Two’s part to bring GTA to the Xbox, and that Sony wouldn’t encourage them to do that. He says that the interest for that cross-platform move came solely from Take-Two.

Bye-bye two exclusives. Boo. But is this a big loss for Sony? Not quite. Let’s say, you are a PR man. How would you turn this loss of two exclusives into a great show of confidence? Let’s listen to Jack Tretton:

We really feel like we’re well positioned to contribute platform-defining games from a first-party standpoint, and we’re not dependent on third-party community to the degree that a Microsoft would be. That being said, you would be crazy to say that you would never entertain or not welcome exclusives. It’s just a question of how deep into your pockets do you have to reach to secure that? Desperation breeds deep pockets. Confidence breeds the opposite. When it makes sense, you do the deal. When it doesn’t, you pass.

Oh the console-war drama.

So, Microsoft’s grab those titles tactic: sign of desperation, or good move? Well, we don’t want to answer that question; too flame-bait-y. So we’ll leave that up to you guys. On an off-note, this blogger really finds it funny, that he’s working on this lead on a day that he reads this:

Oh the Drama…

Via Newsweek