SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller talked about Microsoft’s need to pay for third-party exclusives, such as the downloadable episodes for GTA IV. Koller cites that such decisions stem from Microsoft’s acknowledgment of a lack of strength in their own 1st party lineup. “Microsoft has had a much more lenient policy to writing cheques than we do,” he said.
“We don’t feel the need to write cheques necessarily with every publisher, like they did with the Lost and Damned and some other titles, because we feel very strongly in our first-party line-up. I think it’s safe to say that we’d put our first-party line-up against anyone’s, and Microsoft and other manufacturers probably lead a little bit when they’re writing cheques about how they feel about their own internal line-up.”
Microsoft’s payment was allegedly $50 million for Rockstar’s DLC, which includes a second downloadable episode set to release this October.
[Source]
