Sony lost Limbo exclusivity deal because it wanted IP rights

[Deleted_171835]

Sony executive producer admits that they were in talks to release Limbo exclusively on PSN. That didn't happen because Sony wanted IP rights.

Staff tweak of words

Indie game darling "Limbo" was at one point slated to be exclusive to Sony's playstation network at some level but according to Pete Smith, the Sony Computer Entertainment executive producer, a tussle over rights to the game caused them to lose out. For those not familiar with the legal background it happens in all the creative industries and a few others where producers of works will have to sign over certain rights to the publisher/funder of the title; NES and SNES era Nintendo had quite far reaching requests to be allowed to even publish a game on the system which some have argued contributed to the success of the PS1 (and why Nintendo have such a nice back catalogue to leverage to this day). It has become something of a contentious issue in recent years as developers have been more inclined to spend more money on development and an exclusive is not necessarily the best business move with the added bonus of there being a wide selection of methods by which to publish games to say nothing of the maturing games industry; the increase in artist rights in films, publishing, comics, TV and music has long been studied and is often seen as part of the maturation of a creative industry.

The quote came from Develop Conference which was held in Brighton (UK) last week and was one of many from there that dealt with the changing IP landscape as it applies to games. The game did eventually come to PSN and other platforms, but it first enjoyed a spell as a timed exclusive for Sony's rival Microsoft on their PSN equivalent service Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) for about a year with the developers Playdead handling publishing duties themselves for the later releases.

Edge online was the source for much of this and has more on the matter.

 

[raulpica]

Er, plagiarized article, gotta write up stuff and all that jazz - y'know.

Closed.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

FAST took the liberty of rewriting the article for you. Please remember to do original write-ups in the future however.

 

[NightsOwl]

Who'd want IP rights to a "Meh" game? Or am I the only one who honestly thought that game was a snore fest?

Besides. If it were a SONY IP they'd probably end up selling it off (Spyro, Crash) or end up stop developing its games after a while. (Legend of Dragoon, Loads of other games)

 

[Midna]

How do I close my account, I don't want to be part of a community who's staff can't even be arsed to look up the definition for plagiarism.

I'm serious, how do I close my account?

 

[KingVamp]

Trying to fish for more All Stars characters I see. /jk

How do I close my account, I don't want to be part of a community who's staff can't even be arsed to look up the definition for plagiarism.

I'm serious, how do I close my account?

A bit over dramatic don't you think?

Haven't seen how it was before to comment any farther.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

A bit over dramatic don't you think?

Haven't seen how it was before to comment any farther.

The first paragraph was removed, like always, and...I'm not sure about any others. So...it was plagiarism again. Midna apparently doesn't know the definition of plagiarism.

 

[Deleted_171835]

A bit over dramatic don't you think?

Haven't seen how it was before to comment any farther.

The first paragraph was removed, like always, and...I'm not sure about any others. So...it was plagiarism again. Midna apparently doesn't know the definition of plagiarism.

It was a quote and one paragraph from the article.

The mods really need to clarify the "rules".

 

[KingVamp]

The first paragraph was removed, like always, and...I'm not sure about any others. So...it was plagiarism again. Midna apparently doesn't know the definition of plagiarism.

While it seem that he quoted much of the article (which I do feel it was fair to cut it down a bit if that the case), did he claim it as his own words and not give a source?

Tbh, I haven't been following this game much.

edit: That doesn't seem be the case.

 

[Urza]

When they say "plagiarism", they mean "copyright infringement".

 

[Maikel Steneker]

To get a bit ontopic: it's interesting how differently Sony and Microsoft approach indie developers. Microsoft really seems to focus on timed exclusives, while Sony wants IP rights (essentially securing multiple exclusive games).

Obviously, in this case it didn't turn out well for Sony. I feel like Limbo is one of the defining XBLA titles of the past few years.

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

To get a bit ontopic: it's interesting how differently Sony and Microsoft approach indie developers. Microsoft really seems to focus on timed exclusives, while Sony wants IP rights (essentially securing multiple exclusive games).

Obviously, in this case it didn't turn out well for Sony. I feel like Limbo is one of the defining XBLA titles of the past few years.

What did it define? Can't use a buzzword like "defining" unless it "defines" something. It looked nice, yeah, but that was it. The gameplay was subpar, the story nonexistant, and the controls sloppy. It was a pretty meh game, honestly.

 

[Joe88]

If it were a SONY IP they'd probably end up selling it off (Spyro, Crash) or end up stop developing its games after a while. (Legend of Dragoon, Loads of other games)

neither of those game ip or the companies that made it were owned by sony at the time

the crash ip was owned by universal studios but was created by members of naughty dog, naughty dog were just contracted to make the first 3 games, after those games, they made 2 others then unversial took it and left, and sold it to the highest bidder

and spyro was created by insomiac games, the company made the first 3 games then as they said "felt they couldnt do anything more with the series" sold it off to focus on other games, the company still is not owned by sony today

 

[Hadrian]

How do I close my account, I don't want to be part of a community who's staff can't even be arsed to look up the definition for plagiarism.

I'm serious, how do I close my account?

Just don't log in again or you can PM a senior member of staff, no need to attention seek and piss and moan about something so little.

On topic, this was an excellent game and I'm glad Sony pissed about so other gamers can enjoy such a well made title.

 

[raulpica]

A bit over dramatic don't you think?

Haven't seen how it was before to comment any farther.

The first paragraph was removed, like always, and...I'm not sure about any others. So...it was plagiarism again. Midna apparently doesn't know the definition of plagiarism.

It was a quote and one paragraph from the article.

The mods really need to clarify the "rules".

While a single quote should be fine, one entire paragraph is most certainly not. That should be a good guideline

How do I close my account, I don't want to be part of a community who's staff can't even be arsed to look up the definition for plagiarism.

I'm serious, how do I close my account?

Please read the replies to your post in this thread. Kthxbai.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

If you wanted a rundown of how news articles should be written, here's a brief synopsis of options:

1. Rewrite the entire article in your own words.
2. Quote a small portion of the article. Preferably 1-2 lines, 1 paragraph tops. Then state your opinion or add your own words.

Try to think of every news submission as a post of sorts on the subject. Just don't copy/paste large portions. The amount of original content should be more than or equal to the amount of content taken from other sites.

If you need something double checked then PM a staff member to take a look at it.

 

[shakirmoledina]

Limbo was a beautiful game which i believe should have been on ios and android by now. sadly i cant find it yet.

Question: what does it mean to quote? u quote what is written exactly. You paraphrase an article if you want to shorten it or explain it better. If you re-write the same words again without much benefit, why do so? Plagirism is when u say its ur work correct? If you want to mention the main parts then i dont see why it is a problem.
The problem can only be when u quote everything which is redundancy. I feel quoting is to point to the main points of an article and paraphrase it when necessary.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Limbo was a beautiful game which i believe should have been on ios and android by now. sadly i cant find it yet.

Question: what does it mean to quote? u quote what is written exactly. You paraphrase an article if you want to shorten it or explain it better. If you re-write the same words again without much benefit, why do so? Plagirism is when u say its ur work correct? If you want to mention the main parts then i dont see why it is a problem.
The problem can only be when u quote everything which is redundancy. I feel quoting is to point to the main points of an article and paraphrase it when necessary.

Quoting means a direct quotation.

We want people to rewrite articles to add original content. As I stated in the thread about this, we're not reddit. Along with copyright infringement (thanks Urza), we should try to put some quality and effort into our site submissions. If you take enough time to write a well thought out post every now and then then I don't see what the problem is with making a thread. It takes a couple minutes at most. I do this somewhat frequently (it's my job here after all) and I can tell you from experience that it's not hard.

Quote a line or two and write up your own summation and thoughts on the subject at hand. It's a glorified response to the topic at hand. Many users do it fine without even being prompted to.

 

[Hadrian]

Here is the thing, the staff here want to raise standards in the forum. They want to get some good ad revenue as well to keep the place running and to fund other projects.

You don't see other gaming sites quoting things word for word because they have standards too.

Is it annoying having to retype things out in your own words? Yes but its not unreasonable and there is logic in there too. I see posting news as helping the place out, I like discussion and I like to post stuff that I feel may be of interest and may encourage discussion. Others do it because they think it'll increase their epenis or they think Costello will pat them on the bum and say "hey champ, here's a staff position". If you post for that reason or if you're not willing to abide by this simple logical rule then you shouldn't be on this forum.

So yeah...video games!

 

[KingVamp]

Except I believe rewriting still is consider copyright infringement and there no site that we copy from said it was or enforcing copyright infringement on others.
"Add original content" still doesn't change the fact that you copied from another site and still doesn't change the information. If someone with a cite was pushing copyright infringement, that would still fall under it.
I pretty sure do see sites quoting word for word, even if they saying something on top of it. Which most 1/2 of the time the added words confused the point or understanding of the article.


There so much stuff on this site that can be consider "copyright infringement".

As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.

Link

Edit: Ah... whatever.