Sony's Tretton: 'Disappointed' In Multiplatform FFXIII Through MS' 'Currying Favor'

Author: by Christian Nutt, Staff

Speaking at a roundtable Q&A attended by Gamasutra, Sony's Jack Tretton has been discussing Final Fantasy XIII's move from a PlayStation 3 exclusive to a multiplatform title, suggesting Microsoft has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with third parties". When asked whether he was disappointed about the surprise announcement that the game would also debut on Xbox 360 in the West, Tretton noted: "I guess disappointed is clearly an appropriate term." Tretton then launched into invective discussing Sony's decision to concentrate heavily on internal development, noting that it constituted "over half of our employee base all over the world", and adding that "...we've built up our base and that's where we've chosen to spend our dollars." However, he warned: "I think Microsoft has spent the majority of their money on trying to curry favor with third parties" - implying that Final Fantasy XIII moving to multiplatform was more of a Microsoft-subsidized decision than one guided purely by sales reasons. Tretton concluded: "I think software companies look and say 'there's no check big enough for us to do exclusive development' ...I think it's going to be harder and harder to have third-party exclusives as we move forward." [UPDATE: Gamasutra now has a full write-up of Tretton's roundtable Q&A, including lots more detail on the state of the PlayStation Portable, the PS3 as a Blu-ray player as opposed to a game console, and much more.]