Sony's Jack Tretton: 'We don't buy exclusivity'

GTA, Tomb Raider and Wipeout off the top of my head, and add their partnership with Quantic Dream to that list too.

Does Sony really believe that people have no memories?

For any one who can remember, Sony paid Midway 10 million dollars to have Mortal Kombat 3 be a six month exclusive to the original Playstation and only allowed on the prior gen systems before the end of those six months. Now, they talk like doing that is beneath them. How easily we forget.

BPM,

stop with the BS. stop comparing Wii sales to PS3/360 sales. Wii isnt a direct competitor and is not in the same league as PS3/360: dont kid yourself.

as far as PS3 and 360 go, PS3 has been consistently outselling 360 in Europe, Asia, Japan, and Australia. And this is with the PS3 costing $200 more and having Blu-ray production issues which Sony has just recently resolved. Only place 360 is consistently outselling PS3 is North America.

Obviously 360's total worldwide sales are greater as it launched globally a good year before PS3 did.

that being said, im not saying PS3 is better than 360 or vice versa. both are amazing systems. unfortunately 360 has hardware issues which is the reason im waiting for the 65nm version to come out before buying one. Wii is just a piece of crap not worthy of my money.

I dont't give a damn about exclusives or how companies get them, I just want to play good games. Microsoft is making that happen, plain and simple. Sony is not. They can be all high and mighty as much as they want, it doesn't change the fact that they have no games. It's time for a new strategy jackie boy. This kinda crap may appease your hardcore fanboy base, but not the general gamer who just wants to play games and couldn't care less how they get played.

That sounds like the usual arrogant bullcrap that got them to where they are right now. Good going Jack.

This isn't the Playstation 2. You have actual competition out there now, In fact, you are getting your ass kicked from all sides..Living in the past isn't going to get you anywhere except 80,000 consoles per month with a weak games library.

Think on it Jack.

exclusivity are not sony is still gonna buy developers to develope for them and thats the case with sony like some people hate the 360 controller and some people like ps3 controller bettter only thing the ps3 controller dont have is rumble and thats ok as long as it has the correct buttons .i hate that 360 controller it reminds me so much of sega and the original xbox 1.playstatoin controller buttons arre better make. about exclusive deals .sony already has a lead of exclusive anyway microsoft justlike to waste there money which was bad think gates.look now gates is the second richest man.i bet he put alot of money into xbox.thats why apple and others are bound to over take microsoft.because who is gonna want to buy a vista for 600$ and the ps3 is going into a price drop.microsoft will lose money still because people are gonna hack the xbox and play free games just they hack xp and soon vista. because microsoft is retarded and losing money every time.i will never buy a microsoft lcd tv .it will probably wind up like the 360.im still waiting for heavenly sword which looks better than all of those xbox games out there .and gta 4 will still play better on ps3 than the 360 because all microsoft is doing is pumping in graphics like what rockstar showed us with gta3 what came to xbox with graphics only + thexbox 1.5is still 1.5 epic also said a comment that they dont like nintendo and everyone wanted graphic which that back fired on epic .because the wii is out sell all 360 consoles and 360 games

Sony's Jack Tretton: 'We can't afford to buy exclusivity'

@ #55, lawrence - Wha?

First, he is right. Obviously Sony too buys the odd exlusive (Ninty never does) - but notice the difference between them and MS?
The defining word here is "bought". Which means one of the three -
1) you throw a massive amount of money at buying an established franchise or company - GTA4 episodes, Splinter Cell 5, Bungie, Rare
2) Buy a famous developer - Mistwalker, Crackdown (made by GTA creator though not sure for this), Peter Molyneux
3) or simply copy an exisitng franchise - Forza (GT with lousy damage modeling)
Leave aside these categories, and what else do you have on 360?

And what do SOny / Nintendo do to attract exclusives?
1) Offering the right platforms which enables games not possible on others (FF7, MGS, Lair)
2) Developing great new games based on in house research (GT, Zelda, Metroid, Super Mario, Warhawk, God of War)
3) Simply having a far greater install base (KH, and most of the JRPGs)
4) Nurturing unknown developers into world beaters (Naughty Dog, Insomniac, hopefully Guerilla and the developers of heavenly Sword)

So sony doesn't believe in exclusivity. That's probably why the majority of consumers don't believe in exclusively buying the ps3. Hey Jack where is my money for that deal you made? Oh yeah you probably lied about that too.

@52 You said the ps3 is outselling the 360 in all those
areas
consistently. That's not true. It only outsold the 360 in all of those
areas recently as in last month. If you look at a broader time period
you will find that the 360 outsold the ps3 in a few of those areas.
Also think about this. The 360 has probably just about reached its
critical mass at its present price point. Everyone who wants one has
just about got one and it still is beating the ps3 by almost 10
million systems. Once M$ drops the price it should increase sales as
it will be in a new price range which will allow it to appeal to a
new audience. It really is becoming the next ps2. The ps2 had the
disc read error early on, the 360 has the rings of death. The ps2 had
a huge head start over its competition which gave it more 3rd party
support and thus eventually made the difference in the console war.
Things are playing out just the same now. Jack definitely needs to
start thinking about exclusivity. The attitude he mentioned is great
if you have the largest installed user base and weak competition.
Things have changed now. This would be like sports teams going into
the season and telling players we aren't going to actively pursue
you. You just need to decide are you going to partner up with us in
what we are doing. This might work in a fantasy world but when you
have real competition you need to be aggressive and try to get the
best talent. How do you think EA got to be so big? By sweet talking
people to come work with them? Or maybe M$ got their operating systems
on so many computers by inviting ceo's to coffee and donuts? Sony is
banking on the fact that eventually everyone with a ps2 will get a
ps3 one day. And this could be a good strategy. However, if they
aren't careful they're going to take so long to lower the price and get
their act together that the competitors user base will be too much to
overcome. People don't care about brand loyalty so much that they will
ignore price. And people will forget who you are just as quickly. And
I'm sure Sony isn't buying exclusivity for blu-ray movies either.
Yep, another lie once again from Sony. They must be related to
someone at the white house

I dont really care about what Sony spins in the press, as long as I get my Heavenly Sword, MGS and GT5, GTA4, and FFXIII i'm happy.

"M$ is a tyrant and thats why I like them, They won't stop till they are on top, M$ might not win this gen....but soon...Im SURE of it...M$ WILL dominate this market as it has in software..."

This comment alone confirms your either insane or completely retarded (especially after you criticised what Trentton said). Why would you want a company with a reputation for unreliable products and monopolization (and a despised in the PC world) to dominate the console market.

MGS4 is possible on the 360.

"MGS4 is possible on the 360."

I would like to see Gears of War and Ice Planet on ps3 but I doubt it will happen, not soon anyway.
I think Kojima will release MGS4 on the 360 eventually, he has said it would port just fine from the ps3.

well maybe they should start buying they have the money then maybe there console will sell

rfom,

why is it when MS pays money for games it's "buying" but when Sony does it's "investing"?

Naughty Dog, Factor 5 and Insomniac were all famous when picked up by Sony. a lot of those other developers you mentioned were from other famous developers before too.

Bungie was only 'famous' for a small series on the MAC.

GT, Ratchet&Clank, Socom, God of War and ALL those nintendo games are *sequels* upon sequels. Crackdown, Gears, Viva, Dead Rising, Lost Planet etc etc. are not.


stop making stuff up.




.

"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."

-Jack Tretton

source: http://ncroal.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=283473

"It's just a question of how deep into your pockets you have to reach"?

He seemed pretty sure that Sony pays for exclusivity deals when he did that interview oddly enough.

Sony doesn't pay for exclusivity? Then what was the deal with Rockstar for GTA made with? Hugs and kisses in exchange for staying Sony-exclusive for a time? Seriously, how gullible does this guy think people are?

-Interview by SPOnG with David Reeves president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

SPOnG: There’s also a generally different approach with the PS3 – the move away from paying for exclusives in favour of first-party titles. Do you feel that approach is working with the PS3?

David Reeves: Well, Phil did the original deal for Tomb Raider back in 1995/96. I did the GTA deal in the Sunset Marquis Hotel. We did Pro Evo, but not Metal Gear Solid, because that was done in Japan – and others. We felt at the time that because we didn’t necessarily have good first-party software.

We relied on Namco an awful lot, with the Tekkens, Toshindens and so on. We don’t rely on Namco so much any more, although those games were really good for us. We made the decision three to three-and-a-half years ago to do our own IPs.

We could have gone the route of renewing, maybe with GTA and other things, and we have chosen to do it, for example, with Konami.

http://news.spong.com/detail/editorial.jsp?eid=10109618&cid=&tid=&pid=&plid=&page=3

So apparently, despite Tretton painting it as an "evil" practise Reeves seems under the impression that Sony does these deals too, not only that they frequently did them in the past, but they're STILL doing them now with, for instance, Konami.