Why has Jonathan Blow decided to release The Witness as a timed PS4 exclusive? It’s a question many people have asked since the announcement was made. The Braid creator has spoken out on his decision, suggesting previous working relationships and technical specs made him select Sony’s upcoming console.
“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.”
Blow also believes Microsoft and Sony are going in different directions. He indicates that Microsoft’s ‘entertainment box’ isn’t the right format to showcase his new title at its pinnacle.
”To me they talk about a console that is not strictly about games,” he continued.
”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.”
Will Blow’s comments irk Microsoft? It seems the designer is more than happy to focus on the PS4, but will that come back around to haunt him?
