Sony Claims Better Third-Party Relations than Microsoft and Apple

A representative from Sony claims that his company has done more to cultivate relations with third-party developers than competitors like Microsoft or Apple.

Speaking during the recent CES 2012 event, Jack Buser, who is the leader of the Home division at Sony Computer Entertainment, stated, “We have a 15 year heritage of investing very, very heavily in the PlayStation platform. We have actually invested more in our first-party studios than Nintendo and Microsoft combined.”

The executive believes that the huge back catalog that Sony has access to means that they have an advantage when it comes to quickly delivering content to a range of new devices, using new services like the PlayStation Suite and old workhorses like the PlayStation Network.

Buser then mentioned, “The PlayStation philosophy has always been about our third-party partners and our ability as a games industry to raise all boats together as partners.

“We’re not like some other game platforms that say ‘Hey! Put your game out here on the App Store and maybe you’ll be one of these 10 featured apps if we feel like it right now, and then the rest of you guys can all go out of business’.”

He contrasts the Sony model of working with third-party developers with how Microsoft and now Apple do business, and suggests that smaller game and content creators would be better served by working with his company in order to deliver content on the PSN.

Buser believes these actions created loyalty to the PlayStation brand and that it will serve Sony well in the near future.

The company has recently launched the PlayStation Vita handheld, and despite a solid line-up of video games both from Sony and third parties, the device has so far performed worse than expected on the Japanese market.

The new gaming platform will be launched in Europe and the United States on February 22.