Sony has claimed that third party publisher support for PlayStation 3 has picked up significantly since the console’s price was cut to $299.
Rob Dyer, senior vice president of publisher relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America, told Industry Gamers: “I've been on the road literally non-stop since the beginning of the year with every top 15 publisher, and there's been nary a word of discouragement. Having been in Japan, and here with EA and Activision and Ubisoft, and everyone else, it's good to walk in there right now versus, say a year ago when it wasn't so easy [to win support].
“The $299 price point has resonated and it has a huge impact when you're sold out in so many locations, but the better news is that it's translating into software sales,” he added. “When I walk into an EA, they're telling me that for Madden, the one platform they're seeing year-on-year growth is the PS3, or when I walk into Activision and they tell me the same thing for Guitar Hero. Those are big statements, given what has transpired with those franchises.”
Dyer also spoke about the platform holders’ first-party development strategies, and their different methods of securing exclusive content.
"They have very few first-party studios at Microsoft. Bungie's next Halo is the last one, Rare rarely puts out anything, you've got Peter Molyneux with his Fable stuff... but they don't have first-party development studios inside at Redmond or anywhere for that matter. We do. So rather than putting their money behind that, they've been going to Epic or Valve or BioWare to do what they did with Mass Effect, and that's where they throw their dollars."
He continued: "Candidly, we're not going to compete with Microsoft on that front, but what we have is a global business here. Our global business is bigger than 360's and will continue to get bigger than 360, and people are seeing that. We passed them in Europe and they don't even exist in Japan, and we're going to catch them and pass them here in the US as well."