14 DAY TRIAL // One of the leaders of The Fullbright Company says that the parity clause that’s part of all indie developer agreements on the Xbox One can give the rival PlayStation 4 from Sony an advantage when it comes to attracting smaller, more innovative projects.
Steve Gaynor believes that most indie studios cannot launch at the same time on multiple devices.
He is quoted by NowGamer as saying that, “Especially if it’s a game like ours that is a full 3D game and you’re going to run into obscure rendering bugs and all this kind of stuff. It would be a huge undertaking.”
The Xbox One parity clause basically states that a developer cannot bring a title to the device as long as it has already been launched on a PlayStation-branded platform before.
This can force some teams to choose between the two companies and it seems that Sony currently has the most attractive environment.
Gaynor adds, “If you’re talking to Sony and Microsoft, and Microsoft is like, ‘well you can’t be on Xbox if you’re on PlayStation first’, but it’s easier to be on PS4 because they have better terms, then you’ll be like, ‘okay lets just be on PlayStation’.”
The modern gaming world is very varied, according to the developer, and it makes sense for each team to explore its options and see what launch procedure works best.
The Fullbright Company is the studio that has created Gone Home, a game that abandons shooting and violence in order to focus on exploration and surprising narrative elements.
Gamers can learn the story of a family and how they interact with each other over the years.
Gone Home has been nominated for a variety of awards since it was launched and has also received a very interesting commentary track from the developers.