As potential PS4 and Xbox 720 developers move increasingly into the tablet and smartphone space, one thing that's become clear is that Sony and Microsoft can't take them for granted. At least with the PS4, Sony has made a concerted effort to demonstrate that it cares about the needs and wishes of developers, and that has plenty of them singing the Japanese giant's praises.
Double Fine founder Tim Schafer, creator of games like Psychonauts and Grim Fandango, thinks that the PS4 (and, presumably, the Xbox 720) can make a lot of headway with game creators simply by having their manufacturers treat them with reasonably, and with respect.
"This is one of the first times where we've been approached by a platform holder like Sony and asked, 'first, what do you guys want from this new box? We have this new feature, what could you do with it?' " Schafer said to the Official PlayStation Magazine UK. "We've already got some guys playing with some of the new features to see what we can do with it."
It certainly helps, too, that Sony is emphasizing its open-arms policy toward smaller developers. Rather than making the PS4 a custom-built, confusing piece of machinery like the PS3, Sony is consistently touting the PS4's developer-friendliness. It's also removing barriers for indie developers in order to make it easier to get their games up on the platform.
"It's not that hard to win over developers because all we want is to be treated with just a little bit of reason," Schafer added. "Often you just get told the most unreasonable, crazy things and you're like 'really? That's how you're going to treat us?' "
"Just doing things like letting us patch our games when we want to, put our games on sale and release our games in territories that they should be released in - just doing a few things like that can make a developer very enamoured of you."
