Sony: "M$ spent a lot of money for FFXIII and it won't help them"

[Jack Torrance]

I know many will disagree, but I think Peter Dille hits the point nicely on the head.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...lp-them/?biz=1

SCEA's Peter Dille says Microsoft has been "opening the checkbook" but deals for former PS3 exclusives like Final Fantasy XIII won't "rise the tide."

by James Brightman on Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sony: Microsoft 'Spent A Lot of Money' for FFXIII and It Won't Help Them

One of the bigger surprises from last week's E3 was that Microsoft managed to land a deal with Japanese RPG powerhouse Square Enix to bring its highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII to the Xbox 360 in North America and Europe. Many had thought the game would stay PS3 exclusive (and it is still in Japan), but despite losing exclusivity in the West, Sony doesn't believe Microsoft ultimately gains much from the announcement.

"What you have with Final Fantasy XIII is a lot like what they've paid for with GTA. It's not an exclusive on their platform. It's now a cross-platform game. And I think if you look at how GTA behaved in the marketplace and how it drove — or didn't drive — either console, that's what I'm talking about," Peter Dille, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, told MTV Multiplayer.

"Consumers responded to GTA on the PS3 just as they did on the 360. And it becomes a bit of a jump ball. But it didn't rise the tide for them," he continued. "And I think if you fast forward to when Final Fantasy XIII comes out I think you're going to have millions of people who grew up playing Final Fantasy on the PlayStation playing it on a PlayStation 3. They spent a lot of money, I'm sure, to get Final Fantasy onto the 360 but at the end of the day it's on our platform as well. Which is why we focus on, 'Let's look at what happens when you have Metal Gear Solid on your platform' ... when the NPD numbers come out ... I think you'll see the value of what a real exclusive title does and how it raised the bar for PS3 versus 360."

Dille also commented on the global battle with Microsoft, and he fully believes that Sony now has the upperhand – and developers are starting to realize it. "Developers know they have to amortize that investment over a global marketplace and the best place to do that is on a PlayStation format," he said. "Because if you look at the global footprint, PlayStation 3 dominates in Japan where the 360 is really irrelevant. In Europe, the PlayStation 3 is already past the 360. And in the United States you have a dogfight. You've got PlayStation 3 and 360 going at it and we've swung the momentum our way outselling the 360 during the first half of the year. So back to the third-party community, they're looking at what's going on, they're realigning their development resources to exploit PS3 and I think they understand that if they want to have a global return on their investment, PlayStation 3 is the only place they're going to get it."