Reasons for Witness PS4 exclusivity

Blow: "I've had a bad time working with Microsoft"
Text: Bengt Lemne
Published 2013-03-12

Jonathan Blow whose Braid was a massive indie success on Xbox Live Arcade was a surprise speaker at the recent PS4 unveiling and in an interview with Edge Blow explains his reasoning for making The Witness console exclusive to PS4.

"Yeah, there were a lot of reasons why it was a good choice. Some were technical - we haven't officially been disclosed on Microsoft's next console, but we do see the same leaks as everyone else has, and they seem plausible. To me they talk about a console that is not strictly about games. It's trying to be the centre of the living room device, which is fine and maybe it's the right thing for Microsoft to do, business-wise. I don't know; I actually don't think it is, but they've certainly thought about it more than me! As a place to put the best, highest performing version of our game on, it doesn't seem as good a choice."

"I've had a bad time working with Microsoft in the past. Maybe not super bad, but a moderately bad time in terms of business relationships. Other developers who are friends of mine have had a horrible time, so the idea of signing up again with Microsoft isn't something I'd have ruled out, but there's a certain amount of dread I have about doing that again. I don't have that with Sony. Who knows, maybe it'll turn out to be just as bad at the end! But I don't think so. The people we're talking to on a daily basis there are just really good people, and we're happy to work with them. We'll see how it goes."

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