Team Meat "not interested" in developing for next-gen consoles

[Guild McCommunist]

Team Meat, the indie game developer/anagram behind Super Meat Boy and featured prominently in Indie Game: The Movie, have announced that they are "not interested" in developing for next-gen consoles, such as the next Xbox, the recently announced Playstation 4, and the already released Wii U.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Tommy Refenes illustrated the overhead costs of next-gen consoles as their big deterrent. "The overhead cost of just developing for those consoles is insane. It costs zero dollars to develop on Steam if you already have a computer. When you look at PlayStation and Xbox and Nintendo you have to buy thousand dollar dev kits and pay for certification and pay for testing and pay for localisation - you have to do all these things and at the end of the day it's like, 'I could have developed for other platforms and it would've been easier," stated Refenes.

However, Refenes highlighted releasing games for the PC (via Steam) as well as Apple's App Store and Google's Android store, Google Play. "We know the stress associated with going into console stuff. When you look at the stress that comes with Steam and iOS and the Google Play store, you look at those and you look at which hoops you'd have to jump through to get on any one of the consoles, it's like, 'is this worth the time? Is this worth the headache?"

Refenes went on to say that while the last generation of consoles provided an outlet for developers such as him and Braid creator Jonathan Blow to succeed (with both developers games becoming big hits), home consoles are "not the only outlet anymore and those seem to be the more difficult outlets than just contacting Steam and just putting your game on there and supporting it easily." Ironically, Jonathan Blow recently has signed on a timed-exclusivity deal with Sony on their next console with his upcoming game, The Witness.

According to Refenes, the next generation of consoles could also be one of the last, highlighting the sales of iPads, which sold 23 million units in a 13 week period. "An iPad comes out and does a year's worth of console sales in a weekend," Refenes stated. "I don't feel confident there's going to be a PlayStation 5. I don't feel confident there's going to be another console after the Wii U. There probably will be, but it's totally diminishing returns."

Team Meat recently announced work on their next game, Mew-Genics. The other half of Team Meat, Edward McMillen, has also announced a remake of his recently released indie hit The Binding of Isaac for the PC, Playstation 3, and Vita.

Source

 

[emigre]

That's quite some interesting opinions to digest.

 

[Foxi4]

Not a single tear was shed, go be pretentious indie somewhere else, Team Meat.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Not a single tear was shed, go be pretentious indie somewhere else, Team Meat.

I mean they have a well designed game (Super Meat Boy) and The Binding of Isaac was also pretty good but dear god the pretentiousness and broody neckbeardness from Indie Game: The Movie completely changed my previously positive outlook on them.

Maybe they're just buttmad because they couldn't get a sweet deal like Blow did?

 

[Gahars]

Team Meat is too deep for consoles.

Like, take Super Meat Boy. It's about how we're all chasing our own band-aid girl, and we're all anthropomorphic blobs of bleeding meat on the inside. Console gamers just don't understand.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Team Meat is too deep for consoles.

Like, take Super Meat Boy. It's about how we're all chasing our own band-aid girl, and we're all anthropomorphic blobs of bleeding meat on the inside. Console gamers just don't understand.

Fuck that's really sad, man. I need to go to the Waffle House and think about this.

 

[emigre]

Maybe they're just buttmad because they couldn't get a sweet deal like Blow did?

Blow did a pretty impressive job in moving from Braid to potentially something bigger.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Blow did a pretty impressive job in moving from Braid to potentially something bigger.

But how is a game about cats NOT bigger than a game about a block of meat?

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Team Meat is too deep for consoles.

Like, take Super Meat Boy. It's about how we're all chasing our own band-aid girl, and we're all anthropomorphic blobs of bleeding meat on the inside. Console gamers just don't understand.

I think Super Meat Boy sucks on consoles. I mean for a platformer like that, you need a good d-pad, and PS3/360 controllers are horrible for that. And playing with analog sucks for those types of games. But that's not to say that I wouldn't mind a Super Meat Boy port released on the WiiU eShop. I loved the game, it's insanely fun albeit hard, but very rewarding. Or even a sequel I'd be happy with. But if it doesn't, no biggie, I don't care.


But I'll be honest, these guys sound like they're mad about something. You have to buy a dev kit and certificate? So? They make it sound as if they're the only developers who have to do that. They sound as if it should be given to them. Actually, this just sounds like a more "uuhhhh, it's so hard, i dun wanna do it" statement.

Whatever, I don't care what these guys do, they can go back to making games for Newgrounds for all I care. I'm not gonna miss them. They haven't really earned the respect they want in my opinion. Blow, at least he isn't giving up. He's still making a game for consoles, and he isn't exactly bashing the big companies either.

But please shut up about the iPad/iPhone/iPod gaming stuff. There will be consoles for a looong time. Those mobile devices aren't going to replace anything at all.

 

[Flame]

oh please when the time comes, their will develop for does too.

anyway, this just means more steam goodies on the Humble Bundle.... I Hope.

 

[Scuba156]

An interesting bit I feel in that article is the witness being a timed exclusive for the PS4, which I would assume it would be available on the next Xbox at a later date. Does this mean MS are dropping the fact that they can refuse to release titles on their system if they are released on other consoles first?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

An interesting bit I feel in that article is the witness being a timed exclusive for the PS4, which I would assume it would be available on the next Xbox at a later date. Does this mean MS are dropping the fact that they can refuse to release titles on their system if they are released on other consoles first?

Blow isn't too thrilled about the Nextbox.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

An interesting bit I feel in that article is the witness being a timed exclusive for the PS4, which I would assume it would be available on the next Xbox at a later date. Does this mean MS are dropping the fact that they can refuse to release titles on their system if they are released on other consoles first?

Or it could be that it'll come out on a later date with more content, or not come to a Microsoft console at all.

 

[Gahars]

An interesting bit I feel in that article is the witness being a timed exclusive for the PS4, which I would assume it would be available on the next Xbox at a later date. Does this mean MS are dropping the fact that they can refuse to release titles on their system if they are released on other consoles first?

Well, Jonathon Blow has been pretty adamant that he doesn't want to work with Microsoft again, and that he isn't impressed with what he's heard of their next console so far. He's probably just skipping them altogether - or at least, for the time being.

 

[Eerpow]

He did say he would develop on the Wii U it if one of the the following things happened:
- Free devkit (lol)
- Meat Boy in the next Smash Bros (rofl)

 

[Scuba156]

Blow isn't too thrilled about the Nextbox.

Well, Jonathon Blow has been pretty adamant that he doesn't want to work with Microsoft again, and that he isn't impressed with what he's heard of their next console so far. He's probably just skipping them altogether - or at least, for the time being.

Ah, well there's the bit of information that I was missing. It doesn't seem so strange now. I'll question it again if it does release on the next Xbox at a later date, but my magic 8ball says "reply hazy, try again"

 

[Foxi4]

He did say he would do on the Wii U it if one of the the following things happened:
- Free devkit (lol)
- Meat Boy in the next Smash Bros (rofl)

SUDA51 wanted Travis Touchdown to be in Super Smash Bros. and the deal was never sealed - not sure what made Team Meat think Super Meat Boy would be more worthy of a spot in the roster than the protagonist of one of the best Wii games ever made.

As far as free devkits are concerned, I think developers should get them at affordable prices. At the end of the day, they're busting their ass and it's the platform owner who reaps the license fee, so for all intents and purposes it's worth giving those away cheap in exchange for a "sea of games".

 

[Guild McCommunist]

SUDA51 wanted Travis Touchdown to be in Super Smash Bros. and the deal was never sealed - not sure what made Team Meat think Super Meat Boy more worthy than the protagonist of one of the best Wii games ever made.

As far as free devkits are concerned, I think developers should get them in affordable prices. At the end of the day, they're busting their ass and it's the platform owner who reaps the license fee, so for all intents and purposes it's worth giving those away cheap in exchange for a "sea of games".

Also it's not like Team Meat's members and Nintendo are chummy. How about that Binding of Isaac? Super Meat Boy didn't even get a Wii, 3DS, or Wii U version.

 

[the_randomizer]

Only thing worse than being a coward is a liar.

 

[raulpica]

SUDA51 wanted Travis Touchdown to be in Super Smash Bros. and the deal was never sealed - not sure what made Team Meat think Super Meat Boy would be more worthy of a spot in the roster than the protagonist of one of the best Wii games ever made.

Travis would've been sweet in the next SSB Too bad.